Bruno Genesio: "I'm counting on having Fekir for the next matches"

Published on 10 August 2018 at 1:23 PM by sc

Bruno Genesio : « Nabil Fekir est pleinement dans le projet collectif, je compte sur lui »

Lyon's coach held his first press conference of the season ahead of Sunday's Ligue 1 Conforama opener against Amiens

Injury report

Anthony Lopes and Rafael are suspended. [Fernando] Marçal is still in the recovery phase and will not be available on Sunday. There will be an evaluation tomorrow for Jordan Ferri, who took a knock to the ankle.

Transfer market

There are two markets that have closed, so that gives us a little respite... We have a lot of resources in attack, so there may one or two of those types of players departing. We know that the English clubs have the biggest financial resources... The ideal situation would be to keep two right backs.

Nabil Fekir's future

The fact that we're playing in the Champions League helped convince Nabil and others that the OL project is very interesting. As long as there's nothing definitive, I prefer not to have a definite opinion. He's training well... He was happy to come back. I don't know what will happen but I'm counting on having him for the next matches. I've spoken with him.

Myziane's situation

I don't have any information in that sense. I've also spoken to him. As of now, he's still at OL. I'd rather he didn't go. He has the potential to reach the highest level, he's already shown some signs. He can be a great striker in the future.

Marcelo as vice-captain

Marcelo will wear the captain's armband against Amiens. He's now vice-captain behind Nabil Fekir. It's better that Anthony Lopes has other things to handle when Nabil isn't there ... We discussed this at length with Marcelo. It was important to keep him because he stabilized the defense last season.

Objectives for this season

Things are a bit more certain compared to last season. We think we are stronger than this time last season. The squad hasn't changed much. The main objective is to qualify for the Champions League. I'm not a dreamer: if PSG play according to their potential, it will be very difficult to finish ahead of them. We enter a competition to win it, especially at OL. In order to worry about [PSG], we'd have to play a perfect season

Thoughts on VAR

I'm a little divided. It's not going to solve everything. It's an important tool to ease tensions during a match. But it also takes away a certain emotion from the players and fans. I still think it's a good thing overall, especially to help the referees.