“In Lens, AS Saint-Etienne conceded their second defeat in a row on Saturday (0-2). Defensively, that’s seven goals and just one point taken in the last three games. The start of ASSE’s negative spiral is really the Nantes game. The fact of having led 2-0 and being joined really made the players of Claude Puel doubt. This result did a lot of harm. It was really the draw against the Canaries that was the negative detonator.
Now it is still too early to be alarmist. These are two defeats, of course. You have to question yourself and work. We are not going to say that all is well at ASSE but we must keep a certain measure. So much after three days, we couldn’t start talking about Europe. As much today we are not going to start talking about maintenance. There is no need to sink into catastophism. Saint-Etienne will recover. Young people have talent. The Greens can count on a good goalkeeper.
“Wesley Fofana is gone, we must move forward”
Of course, ASSE today lacks a scorer. This was again seen in Lens where, after Leca’s stop on Denis Bouanga at the start of the match, Sainté fell back into inconstancy. The problem of Saint-Etienne is first in the offensive efficiency more than defensive and in the lack of regularity of its attackers. They are like Romain Hamouma, talented but too irregular.
It is true that the difficulties of ASSE came when Wesley Fofana left the team. Claude Puel wanted to build his defensive base around him. The Marseillais left for Leicester and everything is called into question. Now, as talented a central defender as he is, remains a substitute. Saint-Etienne took a player. The Greens also had internal solutions. Wesley Fofana is no longer there and there is no point in complaining. You have to move forward…
“Video assistance, a drama for football”
Rather than talking about the absent, I prefer to talk about the present. In the defeat at Lens, there is an important parameter to put forward. The players who saw red are not young people guilty of clumsiness but executives. Experienced players excluded following the use of VAR. Generally speaking, this video assist is becoming a drama for football, as far as I can understand Kolo’s red card makes sense. There is a penalty and an injured player. Even without video, when a player goes out on a stretcher, you can turn yellow into red. On the other hand, Khazri’s red … There is certainly an excess of commitment, but it is no longer an attack either. This video assistance is getting ridiculous. She is the one who leads the pace. “