Are Arsenal going to win the Premier League?
Well, I hope so! There are still quite a few games to play and it will be complicated until the end. But I hope so and I believe so. When I go to the games and see the quality of the game and the squad, I think this is the season in which we have the best chance so far.
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There are still both cups and the Champions League left, so there are still many games to play and it is up to Mikel Arteta to use the team well and play with the right players at the right time. Because I think it will not be possible to play with the same starting eleven every three days, so it will need to rotate a lot to try to win.
That’s the problem: when you play on four different fronts, you can’t choose, you can’t say that we are going to bet everything on the league or the Champions League. You want to win everything. So you bring out the best team for each game. But some players will be more tired than others. That is why rotation is necessary and it is not always easy to find the right balance.
It’s all about managing the workforce. And in the last two or three years we have been very close to winning the title, and I think Mikel has learned a lot from that, and that is what I have noticed this season; So far, Mikel has managed his team much better, he has rotated a lot more. I have sometimes heard people on the pitch who were not happy to see certain players start on the bench, but I have always said that it is not an XI that will win the title but a team, and each player has a role to play and something to contribute. That is the most important aspect for me.
Moving on to Lorient, when we spoke to you earlier in the season I expected them to be in a relegation battle but they are actually closer to the European places. How do you explain your successful season?
It’s the magic of football, right? One believes that, coming from Ligue 2, the team would have a hard time staying at the top. But instead, they are having a great season. It’s a team of workers and when you have a team that rolls up their sleeves and works hard for each other and is also very well organized, I think the coach has done a great job.
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Lorient was always based on a well-organized team, with attacking players capable of making a difference by scoring goals. But the basics were always defensive solidity, good organization, working together, defending as a team, attacking as a team. And when you find good team management and a good balance between attack and defense, you can create problems even for the big teams in Ligue 1. I remember when I played for Lorient: our good seasons were always based on hard work, on players working for each other, helping their teammates. There were no egos or superstars: we all worked for the club and the team. And I think when you find that, you have something: you have power.
And I think that’s what Lorient has found this season. The coach, with his staff, has done a great job recruiting good players and instilling the message that they can do something special. together. If any player is too focused on his own scoring record or doing something to help him move to a bigger club then it won’t work. So I think that in Lorient everything is about the collective, it always has been, and with the coach assuming that, it is working very well. I hope they keep it until the end of the season and, why not, maybe get a European place. That would be fantastic.
But of course, it is difficult to maintain that season after season, continue recruiting well and not lose important players. It is always about managing the squad from one season to the next.
It’s difficult to be a yo-yo club: promotion, relegation, promotion again. The same thing happens in England: generally the teams that go up have to fight to avoid relegation. That’s why it’s impressive what Lorient have had this season, where they are safe from relegation fairly early and can relax and look up the table instead of down.
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I also think that whether you are in England or France, it is very good to have great players, I mean, look at Tottenham, you look at their squad and at the start of the season you would never have said that they would be in this position (fifth from the bottom of the table) with the players they have. But the problem is that once you are in that position, it is no longer about talent but about quality. It’s about rolling up your sleeves and working as a team to get results. And I’m not sure Tottenham or clubs like that are prepared to do that. While clubs like Lorient are used to going up and down, they know what it means to stay up and what it takes to stay up.
What role do you think Laurent Koscielny’s return to the club as sporting director has played?
I never played with Laurent, so I don’t know him well, although we have seen each other a few times off the field. But from everything I’ve heard about him, he’s a great worker, it’s everything I said before: it’s about the team, the squad, not individualism. That’s why I think having him in the club helps a lot. And in terms of recruiting players, integrating them into the group with that mentality, based on the collective and the main objective of staying up – when you arrive at a club and that is the objective, the need to fight together and for each other every weekend – I think Laurent helps to instil that mentality and find players capable of integrating into that collective.
Jérémie Aliadière spoke exclusively with GFFN courtesy of Casino groups
GFFN | Jeremy Smith