For his return to competition after a long lay-off, Julien Rodriguez put in a great performance in difficult conditions. OM played a match under the snow against Sochaux and suffered their first away defeat in the L1 for over a year.
How are you feeling after the match against Sochaux?
I felt ok during the match, but the last 30 minutes were difficult. I'll be in training this week but I don't know if I'll be playing at the weekend. The coach will make his choices. I got back into training at the start of January and I don't want here about that injury any more. For about an hour of the match I played without any pain. I've learnt to play with it as I've been in pain for years now. It's part of my life now.
How was the match, with such terrible conditions?
It was my comeback game after a year of invincibility and we lose … It's not great. Conditions weren't great, but even taking that into account we could have gotten at least a draw.
Is it annoying to concede a goal from a mistake in positioning …
We could have conceded at other moments, like the header from Pichot where Steve Mandanda pulled off a miraculous save. We cannot be perfect and we all make mistakes, Sochaux made one as well from a long ball, if Sylvain Wiltord had had a little more luck it could have changed everything. Matches turn on such details.
E. Gerets: "A great satisfaction"
The OM coach was delighted with the return to form of Julien Rodriguez. "I didn't have the impression that he was lacking match fitness. We saw the best Julien Rodriguez. It's a great satisfaction and a great example. His ankle was sore, he'll be in pain for the rest of his life, but he didn't mention it as he's from the old school. He had some chances as well, but he lacked a little luck in front of goal, if he'd had a little more he could have salvaged a point.
Guys like him and Wiltord are very important. We're lacking players like that, who can drag the side along with them, but, just the fact that he played is of great satisfaction."
Up until the goal, OM were cruising …
We've just looked at the first half and despite the poor pitch, we were moving the ball around well. Valbuena, Ziani or Cheyrou are used to having the ball at their feet and when they have trouble controlling the ball, things are more difficult. But we did take some positives from the match, our desire, the fact that we won a lot of duels, we had a lot of the ball but were unable to create enough chances. We'll work on that and it will come.
What do you regret the most from the match?
The first half was positive. In the second half, we didn’t manage to create as many chances as we did in the first. We hit the ball long too often, we weren’t in control and that was the undoing of us.
With the knowledge that your opponents for a European spot all drew (with the exception of PSG, who won), you had a good chance to get an advantage points wise …
We were up against a team at the bottom end of the table, but who do not merit being where they are. In the second half of the season I can see the giving a lot of teams a tough time. However, we are more than good enough to be able to beat them and we could have done a lot better. But with the conditions as they were, we did all that we could. We gave our all. Against Lyon we could have been accused of lacking fight, but not against Sochaux. We’re going to try and do a lot better in the next match.
You will be up against Bordeaux next Sunday. Things could get quite complicated in the league if you suffer another poor result …
We mustn’t get into a downward spiral. Bordeaux will be coming to Marseille to get a result as they are full of confidence at the moment. Bordeaux have nothing that makes us jealous. We will have to give everything that we have over the 90 minutes. Both sides will make mistakes, the team that desire’s it the most and is more intelligent will win the match
Erik Gerets has defined this match as a « final ». Is it a turning point in the season?
Bordeaux are one of our direct opponents for a Champions League place, maybe it will be a finale. But when you play at OM, every match is a final. You have to play out of your skin in each match.
Julien Rodriguez, "OM man of the match " against Sochaux
For his comeback in the Ligue 1, Julien Rodriguez was elected «OM man of the match» after Week 22 and the snowy encounter between OM and Sochaux. You were more than 13.000 who voted and the central defender, from Beziers, arrived in first place with 40% of the votes.
Coming in behind him, Karim Ziani (18%) and Vitorino Hilton (9%) made up the podium.
Sochaux could have been a key match, but OM have the annoying habit of not taking their chances when they present themselves …
The problem is not there. Their away form, even after the defeat against Sochaux, has been great. It is the home form that is a problem. We have to get better in order to take a maximum number of points and stay in touch with the top sides, so that we can take part in the final run-in.
Could these two defeats (Lyon and Sochaux) influence the future?
It’s not easy but when you do this job, you have to be prepared for tough moments like this and we have to react quickly. I hope we will be able to do so on Sunday.
In moments like this, as a leader of the group, you have an important role …
Since the break, I have been with the squad, I try and encourage everyone. But when I was injured, I was also there for the squad. Sylvain Wiltord is also in that role. He is very important in the dressing room. Lyon are missing a player like that. He talks a lot. But in the team, it is not just the captain that speaks out, everyone talks and the group gets on very well.
Rennes, Toulouse and Lille are close behind in the L1…
There are six or seven sides that can be considered as challengers. If we keep going on as we are, we will just continue to slip down the league after each match. We have to start winning. Things aren’t disastrous just yet, we’ll see where we are after the match against Bordeaux. There were positives in Sunday’s match, if we do better against Bordeaux we could be in for a good surprise.
In your opinion, can OM still finish in the top two?
If I didn’t think we could, I’d give up now … Last year, we were in a lot more delicate situations than now and we managed to get out of them.
