Speaking in the wake of his Paris Saint-Germain team’s seventh defeat of the new year, their second against Rennes, Christophe Galtier looked to defend his players’ commitment amid a growing injury crisis, that saw him put out a makeshift backline.
His words transcribed by RMC, Galtier reacted after the league leaders’ 2-0 defeat, refuting the idea that the team did not give their all. He notably highlighted the depleted squad at his disposal for the game, with the likes of Sergio Ramos, Achraf Hakimi and Marquinhos out of action, on top of long-term injuries for Presnel Kimpembe and Neymar.
“My players gave everything they had. […] Put yourselves in the position of my players, who are preparing a game, who see eight absentees and walk into a dressing room with academy players who they’ll have seen once or twice in training. We knew it would be a difficult game. There’s a lot of tiredness. At the start of the match, there were a few technical errors, we had an inexperienced defence, who weren’t used to each other. Despite that, we created some good chances in the first half. Was it enough? That’s up to you to judge.”
“You can’t incriminate my players on a lack of commitment. That’s not true. You can understand that when you’re 2-0 down to Rennes, that you don’t have a lot of options and that there are a lot of players missing, that there might be some resignation.”
The title holders now sit nine points clear at the top before Marseille face Reims tonight, with their Classique rivals potentially narrowing the gap to seven. Galtier’s men nevertheless go into the international break as favourites to claim a record-breaking 11th Ligue 1 title, with another ten games to go.
GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin
