Under the gaze of Denis Bouanga, attacking midfielder Adil Aouchiche has just wasted a huge opportunity to equalize, in the 66th minute of the match against Montpellier this Sunday.

PHILIPPE DESMAZES -

AFP

  • Revelation of the summer, in particular thanks to its success at the Vélodrome (0-2), ASSE has since suffered in Ligue 1.

  • Beaten for the fifth time in a row, this Sunday by Montpellier (0-1), the Greens are also experiencing their worst series for 12 years.

  • After this umpteenth slap, Claude Puel was very unifying, urging his players to “redouble their solidarity” for the looming derby next Sunday at Parc OL.

At the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium,

“They weren't dangerous, my goalie didn't have to stop.

"Michel Der Zakarian summed up with his outspokenness the offensive indigence of ASSE, this Sunday during a new defeat (0-1) against his Montpellier team, also" sick "before the meeting.

The fall is terrible for the Greens, leaders after four days of Ligue 1 and now 13th.

It can be summed up in two stats: the current series of five consecutive defeats is a first since the fall of 2008. To find traces of two matches in a row without the slightest shot on target, we must go further back, as Opta reveals. Sunday.

0 - St Etienne remains on 2 consecutive matches without framing the slightest strike in Ligue 1 (v Metz & Montpellier), the worst series of the Greens in the elite since Opta analyzed the competition in 2006/07.

Apathetic.

#ASSEMHSC pic.twitter.com/yFgdx40Atj

- OptaJean (@OptaJean) November 1, 2020

17th in the premature end of Ligue 1 last season, is ASSE heading towards an even more difficult year?

"No, the team is not in crisis," assures defensive midfielder Yvan Neyou.

Even if we lose today, not everything is to be thrown in the trash.

We are aware that we are in a crisis of results.

Of course, no one likes to lose, especially not five times in a row.

But you can't cry and let yourself be defeated like that.

This period will turn, we are not worried.

"

"We may sometimes lack intensity but surely no involvement"

A conquering speech but launched timidly, with a face to say the least marked, like a group remaining for five weeks on a goal scored against 11 conceded.

Praising the 55% possession of the ball against the MHSC, Yvan Neyou continues his optimistic observation: “Apart from the goal, I do not see where they put us in more difficulty than that.

We may sometimes lack intensity but surely no involvement.

It must hurt the heads of the players a bit, that's normal ”.

The seven most offensive elements available in the professional workforce had their chance this Sunday, without the slightest success, like this completely unscrewed recovery of Adil Aouchiche on a center behind Romain Hamouma (0-1, 66th).

"I understand the difficulty very well," confides Claude Puel, very lucid and unifying for more than 15 minutes in front of the press after this new slap.

These are our starts and our lack of confidence, which can be seen in the passes, the controls, the fluidity.

The adversary takes advantage of our situation.

This group needs confidence and we must find ways to move forward.

"

Claude Puel did not hide his disappointment this Sunday during the new disillusionment of his team against the MHSC.

PHILIPPE DESMAZES - AFP

"Many players were not expected to play regularly"

Despite this endless tunnel of mediocrity, the Stéphanois coach is categorical: "there is of course a gap between the bad series that can be done and the intrinsic quality of the group".

He turned out to be extremely young and notably handicapped by the late departure of Wesley Fofana, managerial injuries (Yvann Maçon for the whole season, Mathieu Debuchy, Arnaud Nordin, Panagiotis Retsos ...) and the sidelining of Stéphane Ruffier and Ryad Boudebouz

.

“In a very short time, these young people very quickly went from a little euphoria, like the victory in Marseille, to much more difficult times, summarizes Claude Puel.

Experiencing this in an accelerated fashion is formative.

A lot of them weren't planned to play regularly and they find themselves propelled into the world of adult football, it's difficult.

I can't be super exacting with them, they give their all.

"

The examples of Puel's rebounds at Losc and at OGC Nice

This is why the experienced coach does not hit his players at all when expressing his personal feelings about such a negative spiral: “As Arsène Wenger said, we experience each defeat as suffering.

But when you are a competitor, you get up very quickly and you have to be a leader to help your players ”.

He remembers in particular such dark periods at the head of Losc and OGC Nice, before going to hang each time a European qualification "with the same group".

This European destiny seems very far today and we will first have to face the revealing of the derby, next Sunday (9 p.m.) at Parc OL.

A little over a year ago, Claude Puel took over from Ghislain Printant at ASSE and he just launched his adventure by winning against the neighbor Lyon (1-0) with a group so affected (and Loïs Diony en pointe).

“The derby is something special,” recalls the former OL coach.

It is the right moment to redouble our solidarity and to seek this necessary confidence because there is no inevitability.

»Who would have imagined, last year, that the Boudebouz-Beric connection did not overcome the gang in Memphis Depay and Houssem Aouar?

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