On Monday, Olympique Lyonnais sporting director made a call for an improvement to the side's collective attitude in the wake of Saturday's defeat to Bournemouth (3-0) in the club's last pre-season outing before kicking off the Ligue 1 Conforama season in Monaco, on Friday.

"From Friday onwards, it will be the moment of truth. I can accept that sometimes you lose matches, but I had a hard time accepting and watching this game in Bournemouth," he told club channel OLTV. "It was the last match of our pre-season. I was very disappointed. I didn't think this would happen, but we have to accept it and take repsonsibility. But losing in this way, with all due respect to Bournemouth - to be technically, physically and mentally dominated - was tough and we have to work hard to produce a reaction for Friday. Because if we go to Monaco with this frame of mind, we will suffer."

'We have to show the opponent that we also have character'

In the course of their pre-season, OL lost to Servette Genève (2-1) and Genoa (4-3) before winning against Arsenal (2-1), but Juninho did find some positive points. However, it is mainly the last two outings, defeats against Liverpool (3-1) and Bournemouth (3-0), that are in the former Lyon captain's sights.

"We were very disappointed with these two games. They showed us that spirit and collective strength are lacking. We have to show the opponent that we have character too. We can't hide from the truth, and the team has taken these losses to heart."

Since the defeats, Juninho has held meetings with the management and a few players in a bid to get things back on track.

"We must not forget what was bad, especially in terms of character and desire," he explained. "Losing is sport, but losing without giving everything is not acceptable. This was sometimes the face of the last two seasons. There were also some positive points, but these two defeats hurt us."