At Atlético, you worked with Diego Simeone. Can you tell us what impressed you most about him?
"His talks, both before matches and in training, his relationship with each player... If he's been at Atlético for so many years and the club is so much like him, it's because he's a good person as well as being a good coach. There's such a closeness between the players and the staff, the stewards, the directors... There's a kind of union, a family aspect that I love in football, and to be able to find that again at such a high level, that's great."

Can you tell us more about his talks?
"To say that he motivates you is not strong enough, he gives you goose bumps... If he asks you to go to war, don't worry, you go! He gives the kind of speeches that make you want to get out there and kick ass. He's very good because every talk is different. For example, there was a problem with the journalists at one point. I won't go into the details, but it was flowery! But he was absolutely right and, by the end of his talk, everyone was highly motivated and we won the match."

He's a coach who's renowned for his energy and for going through matches in a very intense way at times. Is he like that in training too?
"No, he's much calmer! He's just as focused on the work we have to do, but it's mainly [physical trainer and assistant] Profe Ortega who run the training sessions. Diego is also very vocal, but that has nothing to do with the weekend. In matches, he's like a 12th player! He motivates us, shakes us up, pushes us on the refereeing... He lives the match as if he were still on the pitch. I've got lots of anecdotes, some of them about refereeing, but that's not necessarily the aspect of football that we like best [smiles]. What I can say is that there's a way of putting pressure on the referee and the opposition together, with the coach asking the whole bench to stand up at certain times, for example. It's a battle. And then, of course, I've already seen the coach cross the whole pitch to celebrate a goal, something you rarely see elsewhere. He's pure passion and he passes that on to the whole club."

'Antoine Griezmann hasn't changed at all'

Among the players you played alongside in Spain was a certain Antoine Griezmann...
"I've known him for a long time because we were in the French youth teams together and he hasn't changed at all. In the meantime, he's become a big star but he's stayed the same, very simple. Personally, he's the type of person I like because no matter how famous he has become, he's always stayed the same. And that's as it should be, because at the end of the day, we're all the same."

Since we started talking, you've been sipping mate... Did Antoine convert you?
"Yes, a little! He's the one who got me to try it the first time, but I wasn't hooked right away. It was at Espanyol that I got into it, when my Argentinian team-mate Matías Vargas gave me another taste. So I bought all the equipment and I drink it very often. First of all, it's very good, and secondly, it means I drink less coffee! [He shows the calabash customised with his children's first names and his wife's initials]."

'I really like Yehvann Diouf'

What do you think makes a great goalkeeper?
"It's about the impact he can have on his team and on a match. I don't think it's any specific qualities that make a great keeper, because every keeper has his own style and different qualities. What counts in the end is what you can bring to the team."

Which goalkeepers are you particularly fond of at the moment?
"I've always liked Marc-André ter Stegen because I love the way he plays offensively and defends his goal. Thibaut Courtois also impresses me. I saw plenty of him in Spain and he's very strong, even in areas I didn't know he was good in. Here, I really like [Stade de Reims'] Yehvann Diouf. He was very promising last season and if he continues like that, he could have a great career."

The position of goalkeeper is perhaps the one where psychology is most important. Do you work with a mental coach like some other players?
"No, I don't feel the need to, although of course the mental aspect is very important. The important thing for me is to enjoy myself all week, as I do at Montpellier. I've managed to find a balance and feel good about myself."

'Taking two penalties off Kylian Mbappé? Emiliano Martínez couldn't do that!'

There's one exercise in which psychology counts heavily: penalties. You've saved three of the five that have been taken against you since your return to Montpellier. Do you have a method?
"[Laughs]. If I did have a method, it would be better to keep it to myself, wouldn't it? But there's no one method that works 100%. You can look at a shooter's habits on video, but if he takes his last ten penalties on the left and the one he takes against you goes to the right, what are you going to say to yourself? That it was better to follow your instincts than watch videos? You have to keep everything separate. There's the moment and the feeling on the one hand, and the video on the other. But for all this to continue to exist, perhaps the authorities need to stop inventing new rules to prevent goalkeepers from saving penalties. You have to keep one foot on the line, not touch your crossbar, stop talking to the players... Sorry if I'm being a bit crude, but you might as well take penalties without a goalkeeper if you're going to keep adding rules and changing everything."

So is it a case of 'thanks a lot, Emiliano Martínez'?
"But it's all very well what he did. He was a key figure in Argentina's victory at the World Cup and without everything he did, his team might not have won the title. When there's a penalty, you've got a player in front of you who wants to do everything he can to score. What can we do to try and throw him off balance and stop him scoring? Stand still in our goal and then dive left or right? Why shouldn't we try something? And does it really work? Will a shooter be more unsettled by the goalkeeper or by the crowd whistling at him? We don't know. We goalkeepers try to stop penalties but if the authorities invent things to stop us doing our job, we might as well be told that a foul in the box equals a goal. At least that gives my team more time to equalise at the back!"

At the start of 2023, in your last match against PSG, you saved a penalty from Kylian Mbappé. Is that your best penalty-related memory?
"Yes, because I saved two in a row and that had never happened to me before [after an initial save to his right, the penalty was re-taken - because Montpellier players had entered the area before the shot was taken - and Benjamin Lecomte deflected the second attempt onto his left-hand post). And what's more, it was against the best player in the world! I hear that a lot and I think I'll hear it for a long time to come. Emiliano Martínez never managed to do that [laughs]. It was a memorable moment, but we didn't win (1-3). I would have liked those two penalty saves to have led to a win and then I would have had the feeling that I had helped my team. When you lose, even if you've done the job individually, there's still the frustration of not having taken a point."

To conclude with the mental dimension, the position of goalkeeper is undoubtedly the most exposed because it's the one where mistakes show up the most. Do you have a method for dealing with mistakes?
"When a mistake is made, it's made. You can't go back on it! However, depending on the match and the scenario, you still have time to make a difference. If you make a mistake in the 20th minute, you've got 70 minutes in which to concede no more goals and hope that your team-mates equalise or score a goal to win the match. You have to know how to switch in your head. When a striker misses a penalty, he has to get back into the game. It's the same for us. Nothing's over yet. If you make a mistake when you're winning 4-0, it has fewer consequences than if you're winning 0-0, but there's always time to make something happen. And if we lose because of me, too bad, that defeat will be for me, but that's football, there are mistakes every weekend. You have to keep your head up, keep your confidence and work to ensure that these mistakes happen as little as possible."

'Franck Haise understands everything'

At Lorient, you had Franck Haise as your assistant coach for a long time. What do you think of his development?
"I'm not at all surprised by the direction his career has taken. What I see of him is everything he was before. But, as always in football, it's a question of opportunities. He had the opportunity to coach Lens and he has made the best of it. In human terms, he's a very good person and he understands how everything functions, whether it's his work or his relationship with the players. This last point is the most important. If you manage to create bonds with the players, as Franck does, you've already done 70 or 80% of the job in terms getting the team function. If the players buy into what you're saying, they'll fight. Franck has everything it takes to succeed and to go even higher."

>> Pt I: Benjamin Lecomte: 'Footwork is one of my strong points'

>> PSG-Montpellier preview: Les Parisiens eye top spot