Franck Haise before Lens-Toulouse: “I’m very happy with the answers we’ve given”
“You will chain the meetings against Toulouse, Angers and Clermont. Could this apparently very favorable calendar be tricky?
Very favorable calendars, you know what I think. These are Ligue 1 matches, there are not many single matches to win. In three years, of the almost 100 games I’ve coached, I haven’t seen many easy games, maybe just one. It doesn’t do much. I don’t expect an easy match against Toulouse, a very good team, in line with what they offered last year. No more against Angers or against Clermont. We will be preferred in terms of the ranking, certainly, but that’s not why it will be easy. It’s up to us to put things in place.
I am not in the head of all the players. Any striker likes to score goals, he had a pretty thunderous start to the season. We must not forget that he is still a young player, a young striker, a position that requires a lot of things, moreover in the Ligue 1 Championship. The Dutch championship is less dense, less athletic. There is much less space and a higher athletic density in the opposing defenses. You have to get used to all that. He was good with us, he scored goals in the same system, with the same players around. It is a little less the case. There is work, he knows it, he works on his movements, his markdowns. There is work on the technical level, especially under pressure. I am confident, patient, demanding, because he must continue to put a lot of things in place to continue to go through the stages.
“I want us to continue to attack”
Your team knows how to adapt to different scenarios and contexts, as we saw again on Saturday in Marseille (1-0). Have you reached a milestone in terms of concentration?
We have reached a real milestone, even if we are not going to dominate all the Ligue 1 teams either. I think we have a better reading of situations, an ability to adapt too. We saw it in Marseille, where I asked during the break to have a higher block, to defend better, recover the ball better and hold it better. The players who returned were also impactful. When I see what the players still gave and what second period they did in Marseille, given the first and the context, I can only take my hat off to them.
You’ve been scoring less lately, but at the same time you’ve conceded very few goals. Are these two situations related?
Probably, but I’m not asking that we defend more to attack less. Our game requires, if we want to continue to grow, a different maturity, a different way of defending, to be sometimes more balanced, less open. I want us to keep attacking. After 20 minutes, against Montpellier, I was not satisfied with what we offered offensively. I was a player, I know what goes through the minds of players. There are elements that mean that at times we try to reassure ourselves by playing more on the feet, with a game that is a little less open. I am very happy with the answers we provide, even in the most complicated times. The answers are of high quality, that’s what matters to me.
“He’s a really exceptional guy in a group”
We found a more impactful Seko Fofana against OM. How do you view this return to form?
The instructions have not changed. He knows he has this freedom. It depends on what position he plays, he is able to play a notch higher, which gives him more freedom and security, but even in this position there are things to do defensively. He chained a full season, he also stopped and then resumed the selection. There was the whole period of the transfer window when we asked a lot of questions about his future. All that leaves traces. If he was injured at the end of the transfer window, it is never trivial. A wound never falls from the sky. There was a surplus at that time, his body told him to stop a bit, he regenerated. Then we had to restart the machine. I already felt, even in training for a fortnight, that he had again turned a corner. The Marseille match showed it.
Deiver Machado is full of confidence when it comes to finding his old club…
He has always been super positive, even the last season when he started as a starter before blessing himself. He has always been very committed, always being very positive in the group. The cards were reshuffled at the start of the season. He arrived with a lot of desire, his grinta, high level athletic qualities, confidence. It is the Macha that we went to look for, that we had seen in Toulouse, who is well in the group, who has his place. He’s a really exceptional guy in a band.
What is your relationship with your predecessor on the Racing bench Philippe Montanier, and what do you think of his work in Toulouse?
I had a good relationship with Philippe when he was here. I haven’t really had any since, but I haven’t really had any with other coaches either. What is certain is that if Lens is mounted, Philippe and his staff have taken a big part. He doesn’t have to prove his coaching skills. What he’s doing again with Toulouse, whether it’s last season or this start of the season, just shows the qualities he has. »