PARIS — Two coaches in a season. A new president. A sporting director who resigned then stayed. A change of captain. Team-bonding trips to Spain.
It’s another chaotic season at Marseille with the club facing the dismal prospect of failing to reach the UEFA Champions League. Marseille is sixth in Ligue 1 with only the top three qualifying directly and only four games left, AP reported.
Sporting director Medhi Benatia, who quit in February following the departure of coach Roberto De Zerbi only to change his mind, launched a scathing attack on the players after Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Lorient. Benatia has made several rants before but the same problems persist.
Habib Beye replaced De Zerbi and has lost five of nine matches – including an embarrassing French Cup quarterfinal defeat at home to Toulouse. After the Lorient game, Beye said he was “very angry” and prepared to make big changes.
However, the Lorient loss came after Beye took his players on a team-bonding trip to Marbella for the second time since taking charge, and it made no difference.
In a complete U-turn, the players will have double training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to sports daily L’Equipe, and will stay on site at the Marseille training camp from Thursday until Sunday’s home game against Nice.
So what’s going wrong at Marseille and who’s really to blame for the ongoing chaos? Here’s a look at some key points.
After every poor performance – Saturday’s against Lorient; the 3-0 defeat at Bruges on the final day of the Champions League group stage that ended Marseille’s hopes of making the playoffs; the humiliating 5-0 reverse at Paris Saint-Germain; the sloppy draw at Paris FC, or the 2-0 home defeat to lowly Nantes – the same phrase is repeated, whether by a player, a director, or the coach.
Namely that the performance in question was “unworthy of Marseille,” which used to be France’s biggest club.
The first French team to win the Champions League in 1993, Marseille held bragging rights over PSG until the latter won it last year.
But the harsh reality is that Marseille is no longer a big club in Europe, and maybe not even in France other than historically. For Marseille has not won a trophy since the League Cup 14 years ago, and has not won Ligue 1 since 2010.
After winning a tight league game against Lyon last season, the players did a lap of honour and posed for a group photo. It only served to underline how Marseille is a team which overly-celebrates individual wins in the absence of trophies.
Yet the perception about being a big club still persists.
Marseille’s poor defending has been evident for several seasons, with central defender Leonardo Balerdi making countless high-profile blunders. He was at fault for both Lorient goals on Saturday, failing to mark the striker each time, having made a similar mistake in the French Cup loss to Toulouse.
Bafflingly, he has been kept in the side by Beye – a former defender himself. Beye stripped him of the captaincy and gave it to midfielder Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, but to no positive effect.
France midfielder Adrien Rabiot was Marseille’s best player last season and helped the club finish second behind PSG.
He played only one game this season before being transferred out along with forward Jonathan Rowe, following their locker-room brawl at Rennes.
“When you see behaviour like that, you can’t let it go,” Benatia said about Rabiot, who was sold to AC Milan and scored the winner.
Rabiot has 57 caps for France and his assured presence and leadership qualities have been sorely missed. Marseille was bereft of leadership against Lorient and Benatia even accused his players of apathy.
“How many of the players after the game came (into the dressing room) and tipped the table upside down?” Benatia said.
“None. Everything´s spotless. All the (water) bottles are in place. Which means that you play for Marseille and you accept a performance like that?”
Yet Rabiot was sold, although misguidedly, for showing fight.
Marseille recently hired Stephane Richard as its new president. He will replace Alban Juster, who has been there on an interim basis since Pablo Longoria was replaced. Longoria’s tenure was marked by a heavy turnover of players bought and sold.
“It´s incredibly difficult to get a team playing well when a third or half of the squad changes every year,” Richard said in a recent interview. “The first thing this club needs is a certain stability.”
Teenage prospects Robinio Vaz and Darryl Bakola were sold by Marseille in January even though both had impressed in the first team – with Vaz showing some great finishing skills.
Striker Bamba Dieng was involved in both goals for Lorient against Marseille over the weekend. He burst onto the scene with a flurry of goals for Marseille four years ago, including one in the Europa Conference League semi-final against Feyenoord.
