Ligue 1: “If we play matches at less than 100%, it's complicated”, “we have to show something else in the state of mind”: reactions after OM – MHSC

Michel Der Zakarian pense qu'il faudra peut-être se battre jusqu'à la dernière journée. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

L'entraîneur de Montpellier et son milieu de terrain Joris Chotard n'ont pas mâché leurs mots après le revers à Marseille (4-1), dimanche 25 février.

Montpellier 

Michel Der Zakarian, MHSC coach: "Our start was good but we had difficulty containing them afterwards, we had a lot of technical waste. We didn't know how to run the ball, which they did very well. Then they overwhelmed us.

It's a logical score, they were better than us, it was going too quickly. Everyone needs to be in tune to defend well and attack well together. Apart from our first action where we made three or four passes and it scored a goal, then they put more intensity into the pressing. They ran faster than us and yet they played on Thursday. 

I was surprised by my team, we are playing for our survival, we have to show something else in the state of mind. We made defensive errors, we were pierced too quickly. We have to re-mobilize ourselves because there are matches left and take points. We must fight and make efforts together. After all, everyone has a role on the ground and everyone must fulfill it. 

It's not because we won last week and lost this week that it changes. We will have to fight until the end perhaps, we will have to save ourselves on the last day. But we can't do a performance like today, play twenty minutes and then nothing."

Joris Chotard, MHSC midfielder: "There wasn'not much. We played on counter-attacks for ten minutes, then we curled up. It's complicated to endure the match throughout. We don't deserve better. We are capable of doing it. We saw him in front of Metz, but also in front of Lyon.

We weren't good technically in this match. When this is not the case, you have to be good in duels. And even in the duels, we weren't there. We were inferior in many duels and areas.

Even if we had scored twice, we took four and we would have lost 4-2. When we want to save ourselves and maintain ourselves, even when we play in Marseille, we have to do better. You can't play for ten minutes and hope for transitions.

We are tied with the roadblocker. The teams close to us take points. We must not let the teams in front of us get too far otherwise we will set ourselves on fire even more.

In the last two matches, we had settled the game, we had forgotten the transition game. We had proposed things, but in this match, we proposed nothing. Apart from putting long balls and playing on transitions. We stood in our thirty meters and waited. It's a match to forget.

We have no room for maneuver. If we play matches at less than 100%, it's complicated. We have to question ourselves every week and approach the matches as we did against Metz and Lyon. Today, we did it for five minutes.

We must play every match to bring home points. Today, we didn’t do it. In front of Strasbourg, Paris or wherever, we have to play hard to take points."

Marseille

Jean-Louis Gasset, Marseille coach : "I sign all the matches so that if we are behind, we score three or four goals behind. In five days, we regained confidence. The first match, there was the state of mind, but it was complicated to watch. Today, we added technique and mastery of play."