“I don’t think we deserved to lose.” – Get French Football News

Lyon may be in panic mode after a 2-1 loss at home to Strasbourg on Saturday evening. OL supporters are starting to become restless for results and time is ticking. However, coach Laurent Blanc saw enough from the match to believe his team deserved more from the game.

In a post-match press conference, he stated, “There are a lot of feelings. Anger, because I think it could have gone much better; frustration because, in the second half, we could have overturned the match, I was sure of it. That’s the speech I made during the break. But we will have to analyze this match and the two goals we conceded. When you are in our situation, you know that you can only count on yourself, no external element will help you, that’s for sure. When you make mistakes, and blunders like we did in the first half, you punish yourself… Sincerely, I don’t think we deserved to lose.”

The French legend spoke to his players at halftime with a message of accountability and dealing with the situation as it is. Blanc stated, “what will allow us to get out of this situation are the players and the technical staff, those who are on the pitch and those who work all week.”

One of the more interesting comments from the OL coach was his response to whether his players had what it took to get past this rough patch: “I hope for it. It will be important in the days to come to make this group understand that 85 to 90% of the players will finish the season. If they can bring us things in terms of state of mind, and quality of play because that is also needed in football, they are welcome, because we need them, I think. You have to be ready, and strong for the weeks to come because it won’t last just a few days.”

The schedule becomes very tough for Lyon towards the end of the Ligue 1 season, and it was important for Les Gones to take advantage of these games in January. However, Lyon did look dominant in many aspects of the game. The common theme in their losses has been a lack of toughness and poor defensive efforts. As a former defender, you would expect the French coach to make adjustments based on his comments, that may come in the form of personnel changes.

GFFN | Tony DesRois