Nothing is going well in Saint-Étienne, the red lantern of Ligue 1. ASSE and its coach are collecting sad records this season. Very calm so far, the supporters are starting to get impatient.
“Anger and resignation”
Claude Puel does not find the formula and the club has always been chasing a victory since… May 9th! For Jean-Guy Riou, president of the Union des Supporters Stéphanois (USS), there is an emergency. “I don’t know if you feel anger or resignation. The feelings are mixed. The match against Angers is looming and this one, you have to win it to get this first victory“.
The balance sheet obviously does not reassure anyone. “Four points after 10 days, it is not ASSE and it is frankly worrying. We thought that the derby could bring us better days, but the concern is that there are only two derbies in the season and all the other games are also worth three points. If the helm is not straightened very quickly, it will be difficult to prevent the ASSE boat from crashing into an iceberg.“.
The first lever: that of the trainer
So which lever to activate to straighten the bar? “There is obviously the coach’s lever. So should we keep him, fire him or he resign? It is not for me to answer even if I have my own opinion, which I keep to myself. You have to ask yourself the right questions. Claude Puel has a reprieve against Angers, but nothing tells us that there will not be a victory, then another negative series. I have a little doubt, I think the players have let go of the coach. With what we see, it’s complicated for it to be otherwise“.
Symbol that nothing is going right now. By bowing this Sunday in Alsace, ASSE signed a new sad record. The one with the most goals conceded after 10 days (22 goals). We have to go back to 1958 to find traces of such a defensive disaster.