Christophe Galtier was lost for words after Saint-Etienne were embarrassingly dumped out of the Coupe de la Ligue by AS Cannes on Tuesday.
Les Verts were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the competition, after losing on penalties to the fourth-tier outfit following a 1-1 score in normal time.
"It's a disappointment. I cannot find the words," Galtier told reporters. "We ran, jumped and tackled to the bare minimum. But this minimum was not enough in Cannes. It was well below the level of Ligue 1.
"It is logical that we were knocked out. We were too far below the professional level technically. A defeat is always collective, but some of my players are guiltier than others. I will not go into detail. There is no excuse, no red cards, it was not the pitch. We knew what this game would be. Our penalties were logical after the way we played. It's hard, very hard.
"We will quickly see if the group has the quality I thought. Against Lille on Friday, we'll see if we can make a return to form. We are all responsible for this failure even though Cannes earned their qualification."
Saint-Etienne host Lille in Ligue 1 on Friday.
Matt Cotton
