Arrived from Saint-Gall (Switzerland) for 9 million euros (plus 2 bonuses), striker Willem Geubbels, author of only 3 goals including one on a penalty on Sunday against PSG (2-1), is one of the disappointments of the Paris FC transfer window. At a press conference, before the 16th final of the Coupe de France on Monday at the Parc des Princes, the Frenchman engaged in self-criticism and talked about this 2nd derby.
On a personal level, how do you judge your start to the season?
WILLEM GEUBBELS. We’re not going to lie to each other. My start to the season is average. For a striker, finishing with three goals mid-season is not necessarily what I expected. Now, there are two of us playing up front with JP (Krasso), we rotate often. We had a little difficulty finding the right balance, I think both, with this rotation. We have to do what little we have well and make a clear mark. It’s true that it wasn’t necessarily what I expected of myself in the first part of the season.
The club has recruited a striker, Luca Koleosho, and is still looking for a center forward during the transfer window. How are you experiencing this new competition?
The fact that a new attacker has arrived is rather positive. When we talk about competition, I don’t know if that’s the solution to our problems today, but if the club saw fit to bring back a striker, we hope it’s the right decision. We already expect him (Koleosho) that it helps us to have better results. We have already seen that he is a good player, a good alley player. But we hope that collectively we will be able to do better things than in the first part of the season.
You were talking about your stats being insufficient. Do you understand the media criticism and the supporters’ expectations of you?
Honestly, I’m used to it. Critics, positive or negative, I live with, I hear them and I have no problem with that. My duty is to live with all this, correct my shortcomings and score more goals. Honestly, I had no problem integrating here. I found a great group as I expected when I arrived at Paris FC. I’m very happy to be here with these players. Afterwards, there are parameters to take into account.
Which ones?
Like I said, I’m a deep forward. Today, we have a playing system where we really need a number 9 as a pivot. This is what is being asked of me. I try to do it as best I can. It’s true that it’s not necessarily my primary quality. Now everything needs to be perfected. Like everyone else, I’m just human, I get there, I don’t get there, I have failures, I have successes. But it’s true that in relation to that, I am first and foremost at the service of the team and I must not think just about myself. So, if I am needed as a pivot, I do my best to achieve it.
Let’s come back to this match against PSG. You debriefed Sunday’s session with the staff. What lessons did you learn from it?
I think that during the transition phases, we knew how to exploit what was asked of us. We were facing a PSG who defended very well. We knew that in transition, it was a little more dangerous with the squad we had, our attack with good ball players who were very fast. We knew that we would be more dangerous by going behind them and we tried to do that, especially on the penalty spot, which worked well. And maybe we could have done more. But against a team like PSG, we didn’t have the capacity at certain times. But what we had to do, we did it and we will try to reiterate everything that was positive on Monday.
Does this first match give you a little more hope for Monday’s?
We saw points to correct. But we also know that PSG is not going to stay on the same performance as last week either. We will try to do what was asked this week during the match and we will see what happens.
Monday will be a Coupe de France match. Is the approach different?
A little anyway. We often talk about the magic of the Cup. You never know what could happen. We will do everything we can to get through this round, but so will PSG. So, it’s going to be a great opposition once again.
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