A first match, a first defeat, and behaviors that challenge within a Saint-Etienne team still traumatized.
Last in Ligue 2 after the first day due to the defeat in Dijon (2-1) and the penalty points imposed after the incidents at the end of last season, Saint-Etienne knows that the path to recovery will be complicated. Despite the change of coach, the face displayed in Dijon, however, has reason to worry the followers of the Greens. A formation tactically lost, apathetic, and some players were more eager to come to blows than to seek points. An explosive mix that no longer pleased Denis Balbir, a well-known supporter of ASSE and who decided to let go in his column on Goal.
Mahdi Camara would have refused the armband
👊💚 #ASSENO 🔜 pic.twitter.com/gczFMsTXg1
– AS Saint-Etienne (@ASSEofficiel) August 2, 2022
” In Saint-Etienne, we really fell from above and we feel that the trauma of the descent has not been digested. We always say that there is still time but, with three points less at the start of the season, ASSE must already be aware of the urgency. I am counting on Laurent Batlles and his staff to remobilize the players towards a common goal. In Dijon, I did not see players who played for each other. It is true that we are still in the middle of the Mercato and that some are on the way out. That shouldn’t be an excuse though. On the last match, I understood that Mahdi Camara had refused the armband. We also saw a very nervous Denis Bouanga being sent off at the end of the match… I’m not in the players’ minds. I do not see myself interpreting things by saying that so and so did not play the game, that another is not involved… What I am sure of is that ASSE needs 11 affected players on the field. If some don’t have their minds at the club and preach for their personal interest, they should stay aside., warned the journalist, for whom the atmosphere is really heavy in Forez, with attitudes of certain players which are not suitable for a club and a team which must start from scratch, work in serenity. It will be for the moment without the support of their supporters, who are deprived of Geoffroy-Guichard during the first days.