Despite their recent Champions League victory over Olympiacos giving them some respite, Marseille slipped to another defeat on Sunday night when they went down 2-0 at Lyon. Tipped as title favourites at the beginning of the season by myself, and many others, l’OM have capitulated and have gone two consecutive league games without scoring since the international break. They now find themselves bottom of the league with just three points from six games and don’t look like a team capable of finding form anytime soon. What is going wrong?
Well, everything.
The most immediate problem is that Les Phocéens are conceding goals at an alarming rate. Ten goals in six games is not Championnat material and the club find themselves rooted to the foot of the table currently. Despite having lost two games by this point last year when they were eighth after six rounds; they had also won two matches, let in two less goals and scored five more. Interestingly there are parallels with the same point of the 2007/2008 season where Albert Emon left Marseille in 19th place at the end of September before Eric Gerets arrived to lead the club to a third place finish and a famous away victory over Liverpool in the Champions League.
On paper, Marseille’s defence should be a formidable unit. However with defensive midfielder Stéphane Mbia occupying one of the centre-back roles until his injury despite Souleymane Diawara and Nicolas N’Koulou’s availability, the back four has not looked settled. Diawara, N’Koulou and new addition Jérémy Morel all played regularly last season whilst César Azpilicueta is not a new arrival despite his prolonged absence through injury. The backline should not be leaking this many goals. That said; the new-look group has barely had a chance to line up together so far and for them to iron out these issues it will take time that is quickly running out given their rivals’ form.
Despite the fact that the goals have been coming so far this season with six currently, going forward the side does not look as imperious as it has done in the past and the recent 0-0 home draw with Saint-Étienne and 1-0 defeat to Rennes underlined l’OM’s woes. Loïc Rémy and Mathieu Valbuena have been the shining lights in Marseille’s slow start to the season, scoring and providing goals regularly and earning call-ups to Laurent Blanc’s recent France squad in the process. However, the pair will not be able to carry the side through the whole season and the club’s recent treatment of André-Pierre Gignac painfully illustrates how little faith there is in the other striking options.
Deschamps recently admitted to understanding the striker’s difficult position given the club’s actions. Speaking to L’Equipe he said: “His pride has been hurt and I can understand that. The best solution would have been to sign a new forward and keep Gignac, but it was impossible economically. I have not lost trust in him. We have invested a lot in him and it is now up to him to prove that he can be outstanding.”
Bought for €16million last summer, the striker failed to deliver in his first season scoring only eight goals in over 30 games and now after being shipped to Italy for fat camp and then sent to England to unsuccessfully push through a move to Fulham, the club have grudgingly had to welcome the player back into the fold. Gignac’s claims that “I will bust my ass” to get back in the side are admirable given the treatment he has received, but that considerable derrière will take more than a little elbow grease to shift. Also despite the stalemate against Saint-Étienne a few weeks ago, l’OM have scored two goals in every other game so far and this suggests that the problems lie elsewhere.
The aspect of Marseille’s play that has most angered Didier Deschamps so far this year is their mentality. He has consistently bemoaned the side’s complacency and lack of concentration and this was no more obvious than after the Auxerre game when l’OM had let a two goal lead slip in the second half.
Speaking after the game Deschamps said: “It’s infuriating. We were 2-0 up away from home; you have to hold on to a lead like that. At half-time, I told the lads to stay focused and determined, especially in the first 15 minutes of the second half. I repeated this two or three times! We should have stayed in the dressing room.”
It seems that the side need to accept that they have to work as a team for the entire 90 minutes to emerge victorious and not to expect to win games because of their ‘pre-season title favourites’ tag. A number of first team players went missing in the second half of that match and despite a few positive showings from a handful of players so far this season, the side must up their concentration levels and apply themselves fully for 90 minutes.
Perhaps it is this label of being ‘pre-season favourites’ and the expectations that come with it that are weighing on the players minds after they choked under the pressure last season. Deschamps obviously thought he’d addressed this problem during the summer but there is still an air of uncertainty when the players step out on the pitch. Vocal players on the side are quiet and not assuming responsibility, and although they are welcoming a number of new players and an injured one back into the fold, characters such as Alou Diarra, Lucho González and Jérémy Morel have all captained previous sides and should be leaders on the pitch.
Yes the team needs to gel, but if you look at Lille and Paris Saint-Germain especially, they have welcomed a number of new players into their respective sides yet the quality of the players has already started to shine through despite a couple of disappointing and incoherent displays early on.
The former France captain has admitted that these performances have caused him a lot of anxiety and that he considered making some late changes to the squad and feels that the club’s season has yet to really get underway. He told L’Equipe: “We had two very restless days at the end of the summer transfer window. Everyone lost a lot of energy and we have ended up back where we started.”
Some fans opinions differ from Deschamps’ though. They feel that the team’s problems lie in their tactical approach and not the players’ mindsets. The l’OM faithful have been vociferous in their disappointment that the midfield isn’t linking up with attack or defence regularly enough during matches and many of the complaints hinge on the fact that the team appears to lose shape during the games. Alou Diarra in particular has been singled out for criticism because of his forays forward which leave big openings in the centre of the park, splitting the team in half.
Perhaps the problem is also down to the fact that Marseille thought at the beginning of the season that they were playing some clever mind games and adding to the pressure on PSG at the Parc des Princes following their takeover and summer spending spree. The capital club appear to be shaking off that heavy burden thanks in part to some mercurial performances from Argentine superstar Javier Pastore while l’OM however have drowned in the wake of this tactic backfiring.
Speaking pre-season, OM sporting director José Anigo said: “Clearly PSG are putting themselves into the position of favourites for the title. Like Lyon and Lille, we’ll be trying to beat PSG. Because when you spend 100 million Euros, it’s definitely with a view to taking the title.”
He also added: “You can’t build a great team simply by spending millions to get big names. The team has to come together, to have balance and synergy.”
Goalkeeper Steve Mandanda added his voice to that claim by adding: “They’ve had a huge summer of recruitment, which will take them to the next level. So they’ll no longer be able to say, ‘we’re just trying to secure a Champions League spot’ or whatever. They have nowhere to hide now. On paper, it all looks great, but out on the field it’s something else entirely.”
These mind games have failed though and the pressure that is supposed to be weighing PSG down is now firmly tied around Deschamps’ neck. He has always enjoyed a good relationship with the l’OM fans due to his fantastic spell at the club as a player and his tremendous first season in charge of the club. But if results continue, how long is it before the fans realistically start turning on their manager when they have already turned on some of the players?
Speaking after the Lyon match he said: “We need to be conscious of our current situation, and I am. Everybody is. It’s not good enough. We have another game in three days. We need to stick together and be mentally strong.”
One small consolation for Deschamps and the Marseille fans will be the early-season form of Lucho González, the 2009/2010 player of the season who looked a shade of himself last season. He has really found his form recently and is one of the few bright points in what has been a dull beginning to the campaign in Provence. However, they will need more of their first team stars to regain their form if they are to pull away from the bottom of the table and strong characters like Lucho now need to show their influence and experience on the pitch with performances having been eerily subdued of late.
The surprising vulnerability displayed by Marseille so far has affected their home performances too and although this can perhaps be attributed to the absence of many of their fans at the Vélodrome this year due to renovations, it does not excuse limp and passionless performances. A tough season has now become even tougher for l’OM given that the expected title challenges from PSG, Lille and Lyon have materialised earlier than anticipated, and with their chances of winning the league rapidly dissipating, they face a struggle to even finish in a Champions League spot.
Photo courtesy of Comme elle vient.
