MHSC: maintenance and nothing else…

Illiman Ndiaye devance Mousa Tamari, à l’image d’un match où le MHSC s’est fait manger dans les duels. MAXPPP – VALLAURI Nicolas

Oublié le succès contre Metz, le MHSC a été inconsistant à Marseille (4-1). Pour sauver sa tête en Ligue 1, il devra battre ses concurrents directs, dont Strasbourg, dimanche.

"It's not because we won last week that it was going to change anything. We will have to fight until the end, perhaps we will have to escape on the last day." 

For those who believed that the victory against Metz (3-0), nine days ago, marked a renewal in Montpellier's season, the heavy setback in Marseille (4-1), Sunday evening , put everyone back on the ground.

But not to Michel Der Zakarian, coach well aware of the situation.
The MHSC will have to fight to keep its place in Ligue 1 and this will necessarily involve victories against direct competitors during the eleven remaining days against Le Havre, Lorient, Clermont, Nantes, Toulouse and Strasbourg, this Sunday.

"We have to play every match to bring home points. Today, we didn’t do it. In front of Strasbourg, Paris or anyone, we have to play hard to take points, hopes Joris Chotard, also worried about the end of the season. "We're tied with the roadblocker. The teams close to us take points. We must not let the teams in front of us go too far otherwise we will set ourselves on fire even more."

"We played for ten minutes"

Beyond the result, the manner and the lame performance at the Vélodrome raise questions without the actors themselves having the answer, while the start of the match was interesting and the Montpellier residents were not far from 0-2.

"There wasn’not much. We played on counter-attacks for ten minutes, then we curled up, analyzes the midfield. "I was surprised by my team, we are playing for our survival, we have to show something else in the state of mind. We must fight and make efforts together. Afterwards, everyone has a role on the ground and everyone must fulfill it", points out Michel Der Zakarian.

🎙 Michel Der Zakarian après OM 4-1 MHSC

⚡️#OMMHSC pic.twitter.com/J70oCKjqso

— MHSC (@MontpellierHSC) February 25, 2024

His team did not keep a clean sheet, unlike the match against Metz, the absence of a third professional central back was felt and the midfielders did not play well. rsquo;were unable to stem the Marseille waves. "We were not 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", assumes Joris Chotard.

Strasbourg remains in six matches without success

Basics in football especially when you are fighting to maintain it. We will have to get up and show another face because the situation is becoming urgent since Montpellier is tied on points with the barrage Lorient, but has a better goal difference (-6 for the Montpellier residents, – 13 for the Lorientais) .

In this difficult context, the MHSC can reassure itself a little since Strasbourg is also in bad shape and remains in six matches without success in Ligue 1. The Alsatians will also arrive on Sunday with one more match in the paws, since they are playing this evening in Lyon in the quarter-final of the Coupe de France.

A real advantage ? The Marseillais had also played a match in the Europa League, three days previously. "They put more intensity into the pressing. They ran faster than us and yet they played on Thursday", did not fail to note Michel Der Zakarian…

For Joris Chotard, "we must question ourselves every week and approach the matches as we did against Metz and Lyon " . Maintenance will be at this price.

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