France Bleu: With this increased competition, but also this new formula from LFH which is a game-changer, do you feel more excitement or apprehension?
Manu Mayonnade: “a bit of apprehension, a bit of excitement like in previous years. Indeed, the plateau seems higher than ever but last year, it was higher than the previous year, etc. Things are are clearly denser and our squad has changed considerably. We have lost players, some of them very important. We don’t have the feeling of starting from scratch, but we don’t have the same level as last summer. And this formula , indeed, does not leave too much time for preparation. The cancellation of the playoffs clearly condemns us, today, to first place and therefore to minimize failures throughout the season.”
France Bleu: We will have to manage LFH and the European Cup at the same time. From this point of view, not all teams seem equal
Manu Mayonnade: “Completely. The many sequences of matches on Wednesday and Saturday or Sunday will come into play. The wealth of the workforce can have a role to play and, in this sense, Brest, which has tripled the positions, can more easily manage the sequence of matches But we also have our team, which we have chosen, which we will take on until the end and we will take up this challenge.
winning the direct confrontations against Paris, Brest and Nantes will be fundamental
Manu Mayonnade: “Winning the direct confrontations with Paris, Brest and Nantes will be fundamental in obtaining the title because, in my opinion, it will be played between these four teams. But moving to Chambray, Besançon will also be very complicated. All the “soft belly” teams will also attempt the feat. So it’s true that there, all the matches will count, that all the matches will necessarily be very important. “
France Bleu: with a team that has changed a lot. Goalkeeper, pivot, centre-half, the whole backbone had to be reshaped.
Manu Mayonnade: “It was a strong focus of our team. Méline and Astride (Nocandy and N’Gouan, editor’s note) had reached an individual level and in their quite incredible relationship. There are a lot of very fine relations in our activity which are upset. It’s a huge project but, on top of that, there is the language barrier which still complicates the task a little bit. We tried to take a week longer than most of our opponents to win a little time but we realize, all the same, that it remains very complex.”