MHB – Dunkirk: “It’s good to have tightened up the defense”, “it could cause problems for Kiel”… post-match reactions

Impeccable sur son aile, Yanis Lenne a apprécié la prestation défensive des siens. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Patrice Canayer and Yanis Lenne were very satisfied with the defensive performance of MHB during its victory against Dunkirk (37-25), Saturday April 13 during the 24th day of Starligue.

Yanis Lenne, MHB right winger:"The watchword this evening was defense, so only getting 25 goals is great. The defensive reaction was good, with extra stops at the back. Before the big matches coming up, the base is the defensive sector, so it's good to have tightened the bolts in defense. What's great is that in the 55th minute, there are three of us closing down, we shout and we push. It shows that the team is mentally present and knows where it wants to go. For the public or us on the pitch, when we make big defenses, it’s just fun. We ran in all directions and that’s our DNA. It’s good, we must continue like this."

Also read: Starligue: thanks to a newfound defense, MHB largely dominated Dunkirk after spending a week without playing

Patrice Canayer, MHB coach:"It’s a match where the players were very focused and engaged with an interesting quality of play. They made a lot of effort in defensive intensity, we wanted to find that again after the match at Saint-Raphaël. Offensively, it was also conclusive. Concerning the rotations, apart from Diego Simonet, it was very average.

We had a week with two big sessions during the week, especially in defense. We realized that we needed to be much more consistent in defense. Because it’s not all the time that we’ll score 42 goals.

The complicity is there between the players and our game has been consistent for a few weeks, if we remove the Paris match. If we stay like this, without any injuries, it’s interesting. It's still a little fragile on certain rotations, but we'll get Marko Panic back."

Starligue: the ranking and all the results of the 24th day

Franck Maurice, coach of Dunkirk: "There are regrets in what we put in during key moments of the match. We didn't start it properly, we didn't manage the end of the first half well… hellip; We missed too many things to have a more competitive match.

Montpellier had a week of work and I expected them to emphasize their defensive density and counter-attacks. We bothered them in the first half but then we exploded. This is a team that is strong in its principles and that could cause problems in Kiel."