Satisfied by his side’s performance but frustrated by the result, Patrick Vieira spoke to the press after the draw against Lille on Sunday (1-1). 

After this draw against Lille, do you see it as a good point?

Yes, because we came up against a very good Lille side, whose individual and collective quality is known by all. There is still an element of frustration because we have put in a great performance and a serious match and we showed a lot of personality. I am happy with the team performance. The objective was not to hide, to keep our heads up and to try to impose our style on the game and from that point of view, I am very proud of my players.

"Kasper was available" 

Were you reassured by your players’ spirit today?

I have never doubted the spirit of my players. We were all hurt by the result in the Europa League (on Thursday against Leverkusen) and when a professional sportsperson is hurt, they want to show a reaction. We need to continue to work and to believe in our collective strength, because I think we are still discovering it. I think that players aren’t fully aware of the potential that we could have.

What did you make of Kasper Dolberg’s performance?

From the moment that the team and our play is better, of course Kasper will be too. He was much better, he was available and we adjusted the positioning of Rony (Lopes) and Alexis (Claude-Maurice) in order to allow him to have some more support and from that point on, it’s less complicated for him.

How are Amine Gouiri and Jeff Reine-Adélaïde, who were on the bench at kick-off?

Amine needed a breather. Jeff has only been involved in one team training session, he isn’t ready to start yet, but he is working and will have the chance to play more with all of the matches that are going to come.

"No problem physically"

The squad is now fully fit and you have more solutions.

It’s good to have all of your players available. Some are slightly behind physically and will need a couple of matches to find their level. We need to recognise the quality that there is in this squad and I want the players to realise the collective strength that we can have in order to play with even more confidence and to cause the opposition even more problems. The day when we realise that, we will be able to achieve great things.

How is the squad doing after this first set of European/League matches?

The players are doing well, there is no problem physically. I hope that the knock that Amine took won’t be too serious. We showed that we are able to bring intensity, we brought a lot of intensity to cause issues for Lille. Now, we need to recover well because we have a match on Thursday (at 9pm against Hapoël Beer-Sheva), which we will need to bring intensity to.

Dolberg’s goal came after a pass from Schneiderlin which broke the lines.

It’s the development, when the ball goes from right to left, if we add rhythm to our passes, that creates gaps. Morgan has that quality to be able to break the lines. We found Kasper and with the support of Alexis and Rony, we were able to combine well and create this chance where Kasper finished very well. In order to create these gaps, we need to add even more rhythm to our game.

What did you make of the performances of your three central defenders (Robson Bambu, Dante and Stanley Nsoki)?

They were excellent. They also showed personality because we were under pressure to bring the ball out from the back.

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