Antonetti: “The young players ask for a lot, but they don’t give much.”

At the end of the Coupe de la Ligue Round of 32 game lost by his team against Guingamp, the Stade Rennais manager had rather harsh words, criticising the attitude of his players.

“It’s very good to have pretentions, but then when you play, you have to be good. The young players ask for a lot, but they don’t give much. This is a problem of today’s football. If you can show permanent dedication, you can have a career. Else, you won’t achieve anything, Everyone played their little one man show, they did not play as a team”, the Corsican coach regretted, admitting there would be “a before and an after” this Guingamp-Rennes in his mind.

For the players, time was logically to auto-critic. “For our supporters, we had no right to lose against Guingamp. It’s a massive disappointment. We lose a very important game for the club, for the fans and for us too”, Jirès Kembo Ekoko regretted.

Evidently, the words are very different in the Guingamp side. From President Le Graët, enjoying a “beautiful evening” to manager Jocelyn Gourvennec, everybody was delighted with the convincing victory.

«This victory is nothing illogical, Gourvennec stated at the end of the game. We beat them with style. We managed efficient positioning, we did not play in a rush. To equalise early gave us a real lift. In the second half, we were efficient and nearly never in danger. […] We managed not to lose our nerves, as there was a risk of getting disorganised”.

As for the players, some are already thinking about the next round, and the fixtures to be drawn next Tuesday. “I’d like to play Marseille at Le Vélodrome, now”, admitted youngster Anthony Knockaert, the equalising goal scorer in the first half.

Sources :

Stade rennais FC official website, lequipe.fr, francefootball.fr, RMC.fr