Aware of his team’s shortcomings in their bid to secure a win against AS Saint-Étienne in the first leg of the relegation play-off (0-0), Claude Puel knows that the three days leading up to the second leg will be critical.

Coach, you described Saint-Etienne as ‘lacking conviction’ in the previous play-off. Don’t you feel that it was your team that lacked conviction tonight?

Perhaps, in certain situations. I thought we started the match well, with some impact. It wasn’t too bad in terms of our play. Then, Hicham’s injury meant we lost our rhythm in our passing, with not enough intensity or precision. Overall, we were solid defensively, but we’ll need to do much better with the ball, we need a lot more technical skill and precision into our play.

Obviously, it’s a draw, and you didn’t concede a goal. Are you satisfied with that despite the lack of attractive football and excitement in this match? Do you have an advantage in the second leg, even if you’re playing in an empty stadium?

I don’t know if it’s an advantage. I think it simply gives both teams a chance to believe. We’ll be playing at home without our supporters. We didn’t have them here in Saint-Étienne, in a stadium fully behind the opposition. We need to draw strength and spirit from within our squad. We have to be solid, not just defensively, but also mentally, all together, to secure our survival. We’ll have to do more, as I said, be more clinical with the ball to hurt this Saint-Étienne side.

You tried playing Jonathan Clauss in a more advanced position. It wasn’t effective given the number of chances. It even felt as though it disrupted your team, given how the play was built up.

I don’t think it’s the positioning that hindered our play. I’ve found him in good form recently. But as we didn’t keep possession and wasted a lot of chances, we didn’t use him to his best advantage. Even if we’d stuck to the original set-up, with the chances we wasted, he wouldn’t have been able to make an impact either. I think it’s a combination of factors. We need to do better with the ball, regardless of the system and the players on the pitch. Everything is still to play for, for both teams. Coming away from the first leg with a draw is what we’ll focus on first and foremost. Of course, we’ll need to do more. First of all, we’ll focus on recovery as we’ve got another game coming up very soon. This will be our third match in a week; we’re in the thick of it at the moment. We’ll need to be careful in that regard as well.

We know you think in terms of the bigger picture. Tiago Gouveia hasn’t had much playing time recently; what was the aim of starting him? Was it to catch Saint-Etienne off guard, or was his selection based on the players available at the time?

No, it wasn’t a last-minute decision. Tiago has been doing well recently. He was a good option for us. We’ve got a few issues with some players who’ve had minor niggles, like Louchet. I thought it could be effective if we maintained control, particularly with Sofiane Diop supporting Mohamed-Ali Cho to try and isolate him less and find solutions. But when you lack control, you can put whatever you like in place, it won’t work. So above all, whatever the system and the players selected, we know where we need to improve and how we’ll need to organise ourselves against this team for the return leg.

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