“A catastrophe”
,
“a purge”
,
“scandalous”
, Rennes defender Arthur Theate did not mince his words to discuss the defeat of his team (1-2) against Toulouse, Saturday, for the 29th day of Ligue 1.
“It’s a disaster, we didn’t offer anything in the game, in the desire
,” lamented the Belgian international after the match.
“Tonight is a purge, we have to question ourselves and go home, that’s all,”
he continued. Asked about the end of the season where Rennes can still mathematically claim European qualification, despite its three defeats in a row in the league, he wondered:
“if we play like that, how do you expect us to hold on to Europe? ?»
.
“We have to wake up and then we will see
,” he added, especially since Rennes will have two derbies in a row, one in Nantes, which is fighting to maintain itself, the other by receiving Brest, which is prance at the 2nd place in Ligue 1.
“We will have to have a burst of pride (...) because what we did is scandalous
,” he said.
The tone was just as sharp from coach Julien Stéphan.
“It’s a very bad match, that’s it
,” he asserted, recognizing that he had not at all imagined such a disaster after the first twenty minutes which he considered
“consistent”
and crowned with a opening the score by Désiré Doué.
“After the equalizer, it liquefied in all areas. First in the game where there was almost nothing, also in the area of aggressiveness, intensity, we lost a lot of duels. And a second period close to nothing
,” he summarized.
“For the moment, we don't necessarily have the explanations, but we will have to look for them because it is out of the question to end the season in freewheeling
,” he warned.
“We are going to need a big collective questioning (...) we cannot accept that. We can lose, but we don’t want to accept losing like that
,” said the coach. Over the last five days, he expects his team to play
“with character, at least, to show personality (...) and above all more resilience in difficult times”
.