Here is Christophe Galtier's press conference after Le Gym's defeat against Strasbourg (0-3) on Sunday.

Is there anger or frustration this evening?
Frustration, no. A real reappraisal, given the performance at home this evening. We need to question ourselves and to try to analyse it in the best way possible, in order for that not to happen again. The home matches follow one after the other and look very similar, with a lack of real content, lots of defensive errors. This evening, after 27 or 28 minutes, Strasbourg could have put the match to bed. Everything that we were doing pretty well a while back, we can't manage to reproduce. As I make this assessment, which I think is fair, you have to ask yourself real serious questions. I can't criticise my players for not running or putting in the necessary effort. When you see that they put in a lot of physical effort and that produces that kind of match, with an inability to recover the ball, an inability to defend on the front foot, an inability to recover for a teammate's error, in defence; and in attack, we struggle to break down the opposition, I need to be the first to call myself in question, in terms of what I am asking of my players, the things that they were able to do well a while back, that they can no longer manage to do. It's not for the want of trying, there might be a bit of tension, certainly a lack of confidence given that our starts to matches have been catastrophic and that what we had found in the past, we can no longer find."

There is no movement in our passing, we aren't splitting the opposition, there's little or no activity, even though we had two chances to score when it was 1-0, to at least hope to get the equaliser, and when you can't find that, I am obliged to be self-critical. And believe me that it's tough. I am the only person responsible for what we no longer see. When you get to that stage, it's not anger or frustration. It's a deep reappraisal. Of how we need to play, the way that we approach matches. Is what I ask of my players too much? Are they capable of doing it? Do we need to change things in order to regain our confidence and to be less obvious. The opposition today, when they analyse us, of course they will look at some strengths, but more than anything else, they'll analyse our weaknesses. And every time, we are beaten because of our weaknesses.

You made the decision to start with Amine Gouiri on the bench for the second consecutive match…

It was a decision to continue with Kasper and Andy, who, although they didn't have that bit of luck in Paris, pleased me with what I wanted to see from my two forwards. Of course, when you have a result like that, I have to admit that I certainly didn't make the right decisions. It was a choice linked to what I had seen at the Parc, and my choices at the Parc were linked to what I didn't see against Metz.

It didn't work, but above and beyond the choices, I repeat that there is only one person responsible for these under-performances, that's me. I want my players to remain united and to continue to believe in their potential. The only person responsible, I'll say it again, is me. We have just been through a very difficult week, that is something that happens in a season. It's the time to maintain the squad's spirit, the strengths that the team needs in order to deal with this week which is, believe me, on a personal level, very difficult. I want my players to remain together. Focused on what they do, because they work well throughout the week. We haven't been able to find what had been our strengths for a while. I will do everything I can so that we don't play in this way again. The game plan, the organisation, I need to reflect on that because against Clermont, it was average, Montpellier wasn't good, Metz wasn't good either, and this evening it was catastrophic.

Does the reappraisal need to be on a tactical level too?

It does need to be. It's on the team choices but of course, it's also on a tactical level. We create very few chances, we are quickly in trouble defensively. It's not good enough to continue in this way. There will of course be decisions to make on the members of the team, without wanting to punish anyone in particular. The first person that needs to be punished is me, and nobody else. I have already had those thoughts, I took my time before coming to see you (at the press conference) because we are conceding too many goals and aren't creating enough chances. It's because it isn't working. When things aren't going right, I am used to taking responsibility for them, that's my role. But if there needed to be a major tactical change, I would take it as soon as my players and the senior members of the squad get behind it.

 

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