Sampaoli: “An anarchy of the game” – Interview

Coach, very strong defeat tonight, how do you estimate the difference that we could see little by little between Nice and OM?

Jorge Sampaoli: “I think the first half was favorable for us, we were superior in control and we were led 1-0 at halftime unfairly, because we played better than the opponent. Time, we started to give up the collective game, there was a kind of anarchy of play that led us to make mistakes. We took 2nd base when we were trying to push Nice to their field and that ended with an unfavorable game for us. In the first half, it is the best level of play I have seen in the field. We were able to play inside, we were superior at various heights of the game, but we did not know how to materialize the chances, and then we saw a more desperate team and that gives a logical conclusion to tonight’s game.“.

Leonardo Balerdi made a big mistake, what are you going to tell him after this game?

JS: “Leo is a young player who played a good game and unfortunately he made a mistake in the second goal, it is frustrating. Specific errors can be corrected. The most worrying thing is that in the second half, we were no longer the team that we tried to make the game . Today, we abandoned the spirit of the game. We tried to play more individually to seek equalization at all costs and that did not help us. We did not get anywhere. Leo Balerdi made an effort, a good game. What is worrying is the disunity of the team An individual mistake can be redone, but from now on it is necessary to establish a collective spirit of play that we just lost in the 2nd period.“.

What were your ideas tonight, at the start and then at the second period resumption?

JS: “It was a system that we had worked on, but the absence of Kamara gave us the opportunity to play with two midfielders to help Payet and Thauvin. It worked in the first half, we even had the advantage on the right. When Milik was looking at him. first midfielder and the objective was to look for free players to be able to create chances in various heights of the field. In the second half, we made this change with Luis Henrique, with Balerdi more towards the midfield to maintain the pattern where he was no longer alone and Gueye to the left. But beyond the failure of what we tried, once again, we lacked patience in the second half and we abandoned our game“.

Are your players still fed up with what happened before you came to OM?

JS: “You know, we live in a kind of positivist society where everyone thinks that everything has to turn out the way we want, otherwise it’s a total failure. In reality, the atmosphere in a club when things go wrong is conducive to instability. But OM is a very important city and club and it is our responsibility to do everything possible and do everything possible to please our fans. We have to work to know exactly where we want to go. We started the end of the championship, we tried to set up a philosophy and at the start of the match at 0-0 we were superior. And as soon as we were led to the scoreboard we abandoned our philosophy of the game, we have to face the rival and as soon as they take us that is where we must attack. In the second half we played for Nice. We came and went without control, and in that they were very strong. Today we have to know who we are in the game and where we are going“.