Beaten 3-0 by L’Olympique Lyonnais Sunday night, Monaco was clearly outclassed. Following the thrashing, Monegasque head coach Thierry Henry had some harsh words for his players.
One more defeat. One more 90-minute chain that lacked energy and effort in at crucial moments. One more disappointing result for new head coach Thierry Henry. Sunday night, AS Monaco lost for the tenth time this season in Ligue 1 play. Beaten 3-0 by OL, the Principality’s top-tier football club failed to impress yet again. In a press conference following the match, coach Henry did not hold his tongue.
In Henry’s words:
“It comes from a lack of desire. Yes, we ended up playing with ten men, and yes we have to have a lot of respect for Lyon who played a good match. But on their the goals, there was a clear lack of desire, that’s all. It’s troubling. It was the same against Dortmund, but then I said, “well it’s Dortmund, we’re already eliminated, we’ll show up differently against Lyon.” But in the end, we were the same. After you find yourself in a situation on the bench where you have to bring in young players, you do it knowing that it is not easy for them to enter a situation like that. But this is our situation in Monaco at the moment, and often the younger guys show up for us. Tonight it was a bit difficult for them.”
Henry went on to detail what he found most bothersome from the matchup:
“The second goal sums up the whole match for me. A 35-meter pass or so from Denayer reaches its target in between two of our players… I do not understand how it got through. After that, it comes down to one guy who wants to center the ball and another who does not really want to defend against it. A guy who wants to score and one who does not want to defend. You can play as many defenders as you like, but with a lack of desire, it’s hard to win a football match. ” He went on: “It’s been a while since I made this observation, but the problem is that as we try to move forward, as we try to work, we remain in a very tough position. I’m not going repeat the situation, everyone knows what’s going on. The injured players, and all that… We lost two more before coming here today. So that’s that but at some point, we can no longer make excuses..”
Coach Henry looking ahead to the matchup against Lorient
In a separate press conference, the Monegasque trainer addressed the upcoming match in the Coupe de la Ligue:
“As I said after the match in Dortmund, losing happens but losing with what we showed on Sunday in Lyon is unacceptable and it has to be said. I hope it will not happen again, we must work to understand, we must not let matches get away from us like that.
I’m waiting for a reaction on Wednesday against Lorient in the Coupe de la Ligue and especially to get our first win at home. There will be a significant rotation with the presence of many young players. We still have a day and a half of good work to put in. I know Micka (Landreau, Lorient coach) well and I know he will want to make his mark at the Stade Louis-II.”