Irresistible with his club Chelsea and the Senegal team a few months ago, Édouard Mendy seems to be in difficulty during this 2022-2023 season. A lack of success which materialized during the Senegalese defeat (2-0) against the Netherlands, in Group A of the World Cup. However, the coach of the Lions, Aliou Cissé, and his captain, Kalidou Koulibaly, show their confidence in the goalkeeper, before a crucial match against Qatar.
From our Special Envoy in Doha,
He left the Al Bayt stadium with his face closed. Édouard Mendy probably dwelt on these two goals conceded by Senegal during the 2-0 defeat against the Netherlands, in group A of the World Cup 2022. On these two Dutch actions, the goalkeeper was not imperial. On the goal scored with a header by Cody Gakpo, the goalkeeper was slow to come out and was clearly ahead. On that of Davy Klaassen, the Chelsea resident painfully repelled a first shot from Memphis Depay.
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Two actions that illustrate the lack of efficiency and success of the one who was still the best player in the world or almost, in his position, a few months ago. ” Edouard is finehowever swears the coach Aliou Cissé. He has a steel mind. Of course we discussed with him, as we do with most of our players. His qualities are not in doubt. He is a boy who is going through some difficult times. But I have no doubts about him and he has my full confidence and that of his teammates. And he’ll be on the field, tomorrow “.
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” It doesn’t have to be too big a story. »
A way for the technician to defuse a growing rumor, announcing “Edou” (his nickname) on the bench of substitutes, on November 25 against Qatar, while many Senegalese fans were not kind to Mendy, on the networks social. ” It doesn’t have to be too big a story.claims Kalidou Koulibaly, the captain of the Lions. If there is a defeat, it means that the whole team is at fault “.
The former Stade Rennes player may have been unsettled by the many changes that have taken place within his team, against the Netherlands, as well as by the mistakes of his partners. But for a few months, between doubts and disabling knee injury, the one who was born in France seems to have lost this state of flow. [1] which had allowed him to carry Chelsea to the coronation in the Champions League and Senegal to that of CAN 2021. ” We exchange a lot with Édouardcontinues Kalidou Koulibaly, who knows the goalkeeper like the back of his hand. We are a club partner and brother in arms in the Senegal team. He is a very important player for us. It happens to have moments like that. I think thatdouard knows what he has to do “.
Can he nevertheless, in the event of a new poor performance, find himself in the same situation as with the Blues, where coach Graham Potter sometimes preferred the Spanish goalkeeper Kepa to him? ” I don’t care, I know that Édouard will play a great match tomorrow against Qatar “, insists Koulibaly.
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[1] In positive psychology, a state during which an individual achieves a form of concentration and optimal satisfaction.