FC Lorient: Mohamed Bamba in crisis, his coach explains | OneFootball

Mohamed Bamba

Mohamed Bamba is in the midst of a crisis at FC Lorient. His coach addressed the situation in front of the press.

Yesterday against Lens (0-3) in Ligue 1, FC Lorient's Ivorian striker Mohamed Bamba struck the post with a penalty that could have brought the Merlus level at 1-1. Shortly after, he was substituted. Devastated by his miss, Bamba broke down in tears on the bench. In the post-match press conference, FCL coach Olivier Pantaloni spoke about his player's crisis of confidence, noting that Bamba has struggled to find form since the start of the season.

"We let him take the penalty, thinking that scoring might give him a boost of confidence and get him going again, hoping we'd see the Momo we knew when he first arrived in Lorient. I didn't dare go and talk to him right away. I’m giving him a bit of space, and I’ll check in with him later. He just can’t seem to get his confidence back. It’s not for lack of trying—we speak to him, we try to help by giving him minutes. We know his qualities, but he's struggling to recapture what he brought when he joined us. We still have a lot of faith in him, because if he finds his best form again, he can be a top-quality striker," said Pantaloni.