Western Sydney Wanderers assistant Jean-Paul de Marigny faced the press after his side’s 7-0 loss to Melbourne City on Tuesday night, with head coach Marko Rudan a no-show after presiding over the worst loss in club history.
De Marigny fronted up for the post-match press conference following the harrowing defeat, in which Rudan made an unprecedented five substitutions at half-time.
The first question came as no surprise: Where was Rudan?
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“It is pretty simple, I’m here now to (answer) questions,” De Marigny said.
“I think that is irrelevant at this stage. So ask me questions, that would be good.”
Pressed on if there was any particular reason the Wanderers boss was not at the press conference, he responded: “ Not really. Let’s speak about the game.
Watch De Marigny’s full press conference below.
“Obviously there’s a lot of people hurting in the dressing room. It was a difficult night for everyone. I felt we started quite well, we looked like threatening quite a bit in the first half.
“When we went one down, we felt that the response wasn’t as we should’ve. We conceded two quick goals, that was a little disappointing. We’ll review the game and basically reset, see if we can have a reaction for next week or this week against Perth.”
After a few questions about the game, a reporter again attempted to change the subject back to Rudan’s whereabouts in what turned into a prickly exchange.
This is how it played out…
Reporter: “Back to Marko, is it a health reason? Is he actually ok?”
De Marigny: “Mate, I’ve already moved on from that.”
Reporter: “I just think that your fans… is he alright?”
De Marigny: “It’s great that you’ve got a lot of empathy. He’s fine.”
Reporter: “He’s fine. So how come he hasn’t rocked up? I think its a pretty poor look.”
De Marigny: “Mate, I’ve got no comment about that. I’m here to answer questions about the game so if you’ve got that, I’ll respond to that, if you don’t I’ll move on.”
Reporter: “Marko really should be here answering them… It’s ended up being the biggest loss by margin in A-League history, what is your message to the fans, if Marko’s not going to be here to give it?” What can they expect in the next match?”
De Marigny: “I think it’s important that we all stick together. That’s important for the whole football club. It’s important that we continue to work and to get out of the situation that we’re in, we need to find solutions, you know, with no excuses.
“And like I said before, we have to have a mentality to make sure that we create an opportunity for everyone to make sure that we get into that top six. So that’s a mentality that we need to have.”
The 7-0 defeat sees the Wanderers drop out of the Isuzu UTE A-League top six for the first time this season, with just six matches remaining in the regular season.
Rudan is under increasing pressure after a major decline in results, which has seen his side concede 21 goals in their last seven matches alone.
Time will tell if the Wanderers can turn things around to earn a spot in the finals.
