At the end of the side’s final game of pre-season, which they lost heavily (1-8) against Wolfsbourg, Patrick Vieira gave us his analysis.

Coach, how would you analyse this final game of pre-season against Wolfsbourg?
It remains a pre-season match. It is, of course, clear that when you lose a match 8-1, even in a friendly, the morale of the squad takes a hit. It was a very difficult match for us against the side that finished last year’s Bundesliga in sixth place. A side that was far too strong for us today given the current state of the squad. We showed our limitations against a more mature side, a more balanced side and a side that was quicker than us. We will still take lessons from the match. We struggled physically, athletically, it’s really in these areas that we need to improve. 

After a very solid performance for an hour, you then really struggled... 
Yes, there were some very interesting things in the first half and that’s why the final score is incredibly harsh. But we need to focus on the performance on the whole of the team and the problems that we had. They were more of a team than just individuals. It leaves us a lot of things to improve between now and the start of the league next weekend. 

The first match of the season against Amiens will arrive very quickly…
Against Amiens, we will be ready mentally and physically. We will analyse our own performance, both the positives and the less positive things. Next Saturday, we will be ready and competitive. But if we want to compete over the season, we need to strengthen.

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