So far everything was perhaps going too well for FC Villefranche-Beaujolais who will have gone through almost the entire summer without major problems. Then everything happened in the last ten days, notably with the loss for many months of the precious midfielder Abou Ba, the victim of a knee sprain. In Dijon, last week, the wheel of misfortune continued its rotation, falling on central defender Moussadek, feverish on the morning of the match. And then, the attackers Maxime Blanc (calf blow), Claudy M’Buyi (muscle alert) were also affected. Stop or still? The latter two will not be in this Friday’s meeting against Nîmes at Armand-Chouffet (7:30 p.m.) while the former Caen player Moussadek should return to the group for a tough duel where the Crocos du Gard will seek to win the first meeting of their National season. Another tough face-to-face…
After your first defeat from Dijon (2-0), what did you focus your week of preparation on before the arrival of Nîmes this Friday evening in Calade?
“We created a lot of volume in the spaces because we have players who don’t have a lot of playing time (Mai, Gromat, Henry, Camara) and which can be useful to us this weekend. The group is starting to feel better physically. In Dijon, we finished well again on this point. We pushed a lot.”
Your captain Rémi Sergio (Editor’s note: the FCVB midfielder had the misfortune of losing his dad this week) will he be present?
“We really spent the whole week being closer to him, in these very difficult moments. He is our captain. I really send him our condolences. We are a very family club. And Rémi is someone “important in the club. Everyone was very touched and sad. We’ll see what we decide this Friday, together.”
Nîmes remains a club which, like Dijon, has just been relegated from Ligue 2 with the addition of a very complicated summer behind the scenes… How do you envisage this match?
“In a complicated way, like all our matches. It’s a team which, until now, has only played big matches. We will have quality in front of us, on all levels. They have, in addition, , a trainer (Editor’s note: Frédéric Bompard, faithful assistant to Rudi Garcia for many seasons) who puts himself forward in the relationship he has with his president (Rani Assaf) to protect his group without forgetting to work. There is quality in the squad including Mexico who was my captain in Cholet. They are all top players. We will approach this match in a positive way despite everything we are going through at the moment. Between the sores and the illness, for ten days, we have been very affected. But it is in these difficult times that we must be more united, in the face of things that we cannot always control. We have confidence in them, in all these boys who will take part in this match. They will bring us something else, with their qualities. It will be up to them to seize their chance.
“I can’t wait to see the team evolve with other players”
Gromat, is one of the attackers with little playing time who could gain more in the weeks to come.
Did everything you had to deal with before the Dijon match (injuries, illness) weigh on the final performance?
“It’s a bit paradoxical. I liked the Dijon match and didn’t appreciate it at all at the same time. On the content and the start, we were good. For the rest, we were a bit let’s be a joke. There was everything I don’t like. I hate when the opposing coach (Benoît Tavenot) tells me that we are the team that gave him the most problems. At the end, it was 2-0 while at half-time, despite all these imponderables, we had to go 1-0 for us at the break, by being more aggressive, offensively. Once again we conceded a goal due to a loss of ball. That remains our fault, when we are out of balance, with a loss of the ball in midfield. This is also the problem with this three-way system, sometimes. I am very pragmatic. And in this match, we could have brought back something other than this unfavorable result.”
Tactically and physically, what do you fear from this Nîmes opponent?
“This team is looking for their first win. They didn’t get far last week (2-2 against Châteauroux). They come to Villefranche, without complexes. I’m not going to sink into the negative with all our absences. I can’t wait to see the team evolve with other players. It’s up to me to also go to the essentials. We will have to adapt.”
With a change of system?
“We have to consider everything. The idea is to put the players in the best conditions. We will leave with a larger group, taking into account all our unavailability. My speech does not change. They are all boys that I I want to integrate.”
Comments collected by Ralph NEPLAZ
Local press correspondent.
The FCVB group: Pean, Elhinger – Dekoke, Moussadek, Da Silva, Abanda, Benaissa, Kouadio, Henry – Louzif, Sergio, Bendaoud, Ondoa – Gromat, Ba, Mai, Sidibe, Bichet.
#FootballFCVBNîmesRomain #Revelli
