“From the moment we run away quickly, the horizon will brighten up”

Photo credit: SC Lyon.

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Penultimate in National after 20 days but still far from being condemned to the descent, SC Lyon is living a season at odds with its ambitions. Last at the truce, the Rhone club sacked Emmanuel Da Costa and left the controls to Nicolas Le Bellec. Interview with the new coach of SC Lyon, at the heart of a maintenance mission.

Nicolas, when you arrived, how did you feel about your group, which had only won once in four months?

I felt a group that was necessarily lacking in confidence with the results. But who, after a week’s vacation, showed a real desire to get out of this situation. So there you have it, there were positive points, especially on how I felt about the state of mind.

The good state of mind is confirmed in the results: one victory, three draws, how do you judge your record at the head of SC Lyon so far?

When we take the question like that, we say to ourselves that yes, it’s interesting. Now, we have a lot of regrets because we dropped points at the last minute on different games. Logically, we could have had four more points, now if we do not have them, it is because we are also missing things. We are aware that we must continue to work.

You were talking about the end of the game. This season, whether under your era or that of Emmanuel Da Costa, it’s a recurring problem. How to explain it, and how to fix it?

The mistake would be to take a shortcut and immediately say that you are afraid, that you are mentally fragile … You have to know and understand the reasons. I simply think that in these moments, we have to make even more efforts, respect what we put in place in relation to the collective and rely on very strong principles, on solidity. So it takes things, and I rather have the feeling that in this area, we are slacking off a little. We are trying to emphasize that. It’s not a mental problem, it’s just being aware of things and wanting to fix what is causing us problems.

You insist on slackening, how do you find the right words to re-motivate a group after so many frustrating matches, and to fight against this slackening?

I do not feel the players demotivated. When we resume the week, there is a real and strong desire to want to continue with the match that follows. Afterwards, it is not a voluntary relaxation either, but there is fatigue at the end of the match, so it requires going to draw on your resources. And there, yes, I think we have to be even stronger mentally. So yes, on this mental aspect, we still have a step forward.

“It requires some boys to take their responsibilities a little more”

You were talking about the mind at the end of matches: like Bourg-en-Bresse, who hired Benjamin Corgnet, wouldn’t the arrival of an experienced player be beneficial?

No, because it’s a collective problem. Afterwards, what we need in these more difficult moments – because the opponent pushes to get back to the score – are players of character and experience who are at a given moment able to reframe everyone, because we feel that we are dispersing a little. It is especially on this that we need it. So it requires some boys to take their responsibilities a little more.

With 2 victories since the start of the season, SC Lyon is not doomed, and far from it. Can the homogeneity of the National be your best ally?

The first thing is already that, when I took this group, I had hope, because I knew that there was a quality group. So it would have been more difficult if it weren’t for the ingredients. Afterwards, we all know that the championship, as you say, is very homogeneous and in the second part of the championship, there are teams that have big slumps. Us, I would say that we have a certain consistency, but I would like that at the level of the ratio ‘points / match’, it is a little higher. We could have done it, it should have made sense. Now, the observation is that we did not know how to materialize our points when needed.

This problem would he not discover another: the one that the club was too ambitious by announcing to aim for Ligue 2 even before the start of the season?

What I know is that today I am focused on the upcoming match. Today, the discourse throughout the whole club is very clear: it is to save oneself. So there is no projection and we are not here to see further. We are only focused on the coming match, we have a big game to play this weekend (against Orleans). And the first objective is to get out of this relegation zone. We must therefore make even more efforts to achieve our ends.

You said you did not plan and therefore may have a hard time answering my next question. I was going to ask you what your objective would be next season if you were to maintain it, and if, conversely, you had imagined the consequences of relegation …

As I told you in the preamble, today, I can’t see any further than the match that happens this weekend. I can see no further than the end of the season with the objective of maintaining itself. I’m really focused on that, and I asked my players the same thing: not to project yourself, exclusively to give everything for the club and to give yourself the means so that we can get out of this area.

With a lot of players at the end of the contract, don’t you think it’s difficult for players to focus on the present moment?

For me, today, the one and only solution is to run away quickly. And from the moment we are going to save ourselves quickly, the horizon will clear up for the club and decisions will be made. So let’s not try to go faster. I think there are stages, and the first stage is this weekend, the coming match, with a big team from Orléans. And after, behind, get out of this relegation zone. Then over time, we will see what will happen at the end of the championship.

“Live what they have to go through … Honestly, I would have a hard time putting myself in their shoes”

What is your view on the situation of amateur football, you who came from it? (Editor’s note: at a complete standstill since the end of October, only clubs engaged in the Coupe de France have been authorized to resume in order to prepare for their match) ?

This is terrible! It’s terrible, because I interact with colleagues who are in N2, N3 and who are where I have been. When you are training and there is no goal behind it, it is very hard to keep motivation. When there is no competition, it is not easy at all. I was without a club at the start of the season and I told myself that with everything going on, it was perhaps the most complicated year for a coach and, being without a club, it might be. be interesting. Because living what they have to go through. Honestly, I would have a hard time putting myself in their shoes. They hang on, they don’t complain … Now, what is difficult is that we hear everything and its opposite. So we are incapable of knowing what is going to happen. To project ourselves today, I am incapable of it.

Were you worried at the start of the season, when you didn’t have a club? Even if contacts with SC Lyon had already been established …

It is true that I was in contact last summer, but the club made another choice. Afterwards, it was also a desire on my part to cut, because I had been coaching at the national level for almost eighteen years in a row. I especially needed to enrich myself. I was graduating from BEPF, and I still needed to find tools to progress. There you go, I don’t regret it, today I believe that this is something that serves us enormously, because it brings a lot of serenity in this situation. And I think it is appreciable.

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