With the international players on their way back, Mathieu Valbuena gave us an interview in which he looked back at the "slap" received against Caen and the necessity of bouncing back against Valenciennes on Saturday.

"Heavy physical work" and "play", are on the daily schedule of Mathieu Valbuena and the Olympians while those players on international duty return to training on Thursday. The attacking midfielder confided in the media at the Commanderie just before Wednesday’s training session. As a competitor he is annoyed after the defeat against Caen, but believes that the team can react on Saturday at Nungesser. Interview.

Is Saturday’s match still in the back of your minds?
We have to get over it even if it will be difficult. We have other matches coming up and the season is very long, but it gave us a slap in the face. We have to admit it. We are defending our title, it was against a promoted side and we didn’t expect to lose.
It could also give us a kick up the behind and make us aware that we cannot take anything for granted, we have to keep on working and we will have matches like that all throughout the season.

In hindsight, how would you explain this slip-up?
There are a number of factors. Not everyone was 100% fit, me for example, I only returned to training three weeks ago. Things will balance out as the matches go by. We also came up against a very good Caen side, they sat back and hit us on the break. The first goal knocked the stuffing out of us, we did what was difficult in equalizing but then fell towards the end of the encounter. We need to get back on track quickly.
There are a lot of questions at the moment, just like the supporters, who will leave, who will come in … Everyone is thinking about that. We cannot allow it to influence our play though, maybe it did last week but we will have to put an end to that a return to a certain level of stability and finalise the squad for the season.

"We took a slap and now we mustn't just turn the other cheek…"

Do you think that came into the equation against Caen?
It’s not an excuse and it would be too easy to use it as one. Stability is important, but there are arrivals and departures each year. We just need to have a full squad to really start the adventure.

Has the coach spoken to you about Saturday’s defeat?
We haven’t had a debriefing yet (the interview took place on Wednesday afternoon). I think he will bring it up when the players come back from international duty. We have to isolate what went wrong and bounce back. We took a slap and we mustn’t just turn the other cheek …We are away to a Valenciennes side who we haven’t played too well against in the past, but we want to win. This year will be a lot more difficult than others. We are champions, and when faced with OM our opponents are much more concentrated and put 200% effort into their performance and motivation.

You face Valenciennes on Saturday, playing a match which could be tough at a ground that has been difficult for OM, could it be the best way to bounce back?
All of our matches are going to be tough. Valenciennes always play a physical match, but we are going there to win. We haven’t started the league campaign very well and the slap that we got from Caen needs to be put to good use. We maybe thought it was going to be easy, but in football you cannot take anything for granted, even if you have to be sure of yourselves. Let’s go to Valenciennes to win and pick up where we left off last season.

Valenciennes managed a draw against Nice, where they spent most of the encounter behind the ball, do you think they will open up more on Saturday?
I think so, they will want to put on a show for their public, but there will be a lot of density in the midfield, they have athletic players who like a good combat. They will try and use that to their advantage. They are a solid side, who have managed good results in the L1 in recent years. We will have to be wary and remain concentrated.
It will be up to us to play to our strengths as we did during all of our victories away from home last season. Our determination must be greater than that of our opponents and, with that team spirit, we can bring home a positive result.