The AS Saint-Étienne suffered a defeat against Strasbourg last Saturday on the 31st day of Ligue 1 (final score of 3-1). Eirik Horneland, the ASSE coach, returned to the performance of his team in an interview given to Ici Saint-Étienne Loire. Here’s what he said:

“We started the game pretty well with a big opportunity, but then we struggled to maintain our level of play. We lacked consistency between our players and we failed to impose our pace. On the physical, mental and technical level, we struggled to keep the advantage. In the end, Strasbourg was just better than us tonight and their victory is deserved. "

Horneland also pointed out that the team’s current problem is its lack of collective efficiency: “We lacked mental presence, energy and physics. We have been slow with or without balloons, even in our reactions to Strasbourg’s actions. Our lines were too stretched and there were too many spaces between the players. Our game of passes has lost efficiency and we missed this little extra thing to reach the level of the opponent. "

The coach also mentioned that the lack of training time this week could be a contributing factor to defeat: “We normally have four days of training, but this time we only had three. This is not an excuse, but it may be part of the reasons. The match against Lyon also asked us for a lot of emotional energy, perhaps we paid for it tonight by failing to get back on track.”

Horneland concluded by saying that he felt as soon as he warmed up that the game was going to be difficult: “Nothing was simple, everything seemed laborious. It wasn’t the kind of game you feel like it’s going to turn out for you.”