Monaco coach Thierry Henry believes the appointment of former distance runner Bouabdellah Tahri as a member of the medical staff to aid mental preparation will be a great thing for the club.
Henry s arrival as coach has not sparked a revival in fortunes for Monaco, winning just two games since the former Arsenal and Barcelona star took charge.
The club sit second bottom in Ligue 1 and crashed out of the Champions League with just one point from six group games.
Their struggles have led to the principality club turning to Tahri, a 2009 World Championship bronze medallist, to help deal with a host of injury problems that have hindered their season. He will be in charge of the performance, re-training and mental preparation of the professional team .
I didn t know him personally, but I think it is a good thing for the club, Henry said at a media conference ahead of Sunday s clash with Lyon.
We know what he achieved in his professional career. It s great for the club, he s not the only one who just joined us in Monaco.
Every team needs it. We had one at Arsenal, one at Barcelona, they are everywhere. That s it.
1 Monaco have become the first team to fail to win a single group stage game in two consecutive seasons of the Champions League since Dinamo Zagreb in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Oops.
— OptaJean (@OptaJean)
Lyon qualified for the knockout rounds of the Champions League after a 1-1 draw at Shakhtar Donetsk, and Henry is aware of the challenge his side will face in what is their first Ligue 1 game for two weeks after last weekend s scheduled derby with Nice was one of the many games postponed due to riots in Paris.
We have to play this game now. Winning two games in a row is just anecdotal. You know that we couldn t play our game against Nice and it may have been better for us to have another win, Henry added.
That s what I would have hoped for. We ll play away once again. It s going to be a tough game in Lyon.
It is never easy to play them away especially when they just went through in Champions League.
