There wasn’t much to it. There were a few matches where we missed everything, Saint-Quentin was the case. We never existed, we were deficient in combativeness, technically, we didn’t achieve much. It was a match to forget, the worst we’ve produced since the beginning of the year.
How do you explain this?
There are two reasons. The first one is the famous “nothing worked that day”. Apart from Mattéo Garrigue who held his position, everyone else fell short. It’s a shame considering we were playing for a place on the podium. The second reason is the transfer window, which is in full swing in volleyball. There may be players reconsidering their future, resulting in decompression or relaxation. However, I trust the players who are fully professional and want to see this season’s project through.
This 4th place, isn’t it also your glass ceiling?
It might be. I still think there is room for improvement until the end. There are 8 matches left, 24 points to be taken. But every time we have a chance to enter the top 3, we stumble. And this time, we stumbled on the 3rd place. So, it might indeed be our glass ceiling.
During the debriefing, were the players aware of their low level that day?
Yes, they were disappointed with their individual performance. If there were two or three similar performances in a row, we might be very worried. For now, it seems more like an accident. We want to bounce back quickly against Rennes, this Friday. Because the idea is to finish the season as high as possible.
You have the advantage of playing the next two matches at home, is it ideal to react?
These are two very important matches against Rennes and then Reims. We need to take maximum points if we want to stay at the top of the table. Rennes has had good performances in the last ten games. They are a much more dangerous team than they were two months ago.
You have 8 matches left to play in this third phase, what do you hope for?
So far, we’ve had a good season, we need to finish it well. This will involve getting good results at home. However, I don’t want to use that as an excuse because I often tell the players that losers find excuses and winners look for solutions. But in this third phase, we play against all the big teams away. We’ve been to Royan, Saint-Quentin, and we’re going to Fréjus, Nancy, Martigues… We know that away games are usually more complicated than at home. In terms of sporting fairness, this championship format is not ideal. But we have to deal with it.
