AS Saint-Etienne : Didier Bigard’s meeting: “Rookies, yes, reinforcements, let’s hope” | ASSE News

Zapping Goal! soccer club ASSE – OL: The post-match debrief

Pascal Dupraz had hammered it during his press briefing, two days before. Even twentieth in its championship, ASSE is a Ligue 1 team, and Bergerac, the same author of a feat against Metz, is only a National 2 formation. But because it happened to upset the hierarchy in other times, he had to be a little wary, proof this warning “There is no need to be afraid but it will take extreme vigilance”. Failed, like his dream of sitting on the bench again at the Stade de France, at least for this year “I’ve been there before (with Évian-Thonon-Gaillard) and I would go back again”. In the same sentence, he also noted “I am not stuffed with results” and he is even less so since his arrival in Saint-Étienne, bitter observation of his perilous trip to Périgueux “This is my fourth frustration at the head from ASSE, because I’ve lost four games already”.

No one can better sum up what he is going through and which has made him lose a little of his confidence and his humor, despite a line in response to a question about a possible turnover in the goals. “I like to dance the waltz, but in football you don’t spin”. To stay in tune, we could have replied that all coaches waltz one day, but the subject was not this one. The message was that Paul Bernadoni would keep the Saint-Etienne nets. He who had been eliminated by an N3, Linas-Montlhéry, in 32nd with Angers and Thioub, was therefore offered a second chance which had nothing to do with a gift from his coach “I’m not here to please”. It checked out. Being the doorman of a red lantern is not an easy task, including in front of converted amateurs or pros. Was the ex-Angevin aware of the difficulty of the task when he received the assurance of a starting place with the Greens?

And to think that Dupraz’s desire in Bergerac was to field a powerful eleven!

Pascal Dupraz who keeps the accounts “Paul won one match out of three” he had launched will certainly not overwhelm his goalkeeper, despite this new defeat. The evil is elsewhere, he knows it and can only note, like us, that the problem remained whole this month of January as every winter. The striker was delayed when it was the priority and the anger of Timothée Kolodziejczak summed it all up, at the end of the match on Sunday “We have possession, but we are not dangerous. In the duels, we lacked response… When you don’t make the right gestures in front of the surface, you don’t score and it sucks.

His detractors will object that the defense has also sinned, but no doubt they will see a glimmer of hope in the arrival of Elia Mangala and his speech “We will save ourselves. It is a club and a city that breathes football. It won’t be easy, every game will be a battle but we have it all.” It’s called confidence, what Dupraz was looking for when fielding the best team possible in front of Bergerac “From the moment the players are fit, my quest is to find a performing eleven… Whatever competition, regardless of the opponent, the more you win, the more you store”.

The disappointment is therefore as high as the hope, as after a derby overused in the eyes of “certain supporters”. Claude Puel’s successor says he understands “Their feeling of shame”, and takes the failure for him “You don’t have to talk much, say as always that defeats are the responsibility of the coach. I haven’t found the formula for the team to win.” A way to divert the sling which, after the previous manager and the shareholders, risks targeting the players. But words will not be enough. It will take goals, points, operational reinforcements. We remember Modeste and Retsos too much. Mangala is aware of this reluctance and he, who preferred not to play in the cup, wants to be reassuring “The goal is not to come back for a match and blow up. I want to go until the end of the season.” Let’s hope, and that it will be the same for all.

Didier BIGARD