Ligue 1 Review | Marseille on a road to nowhere | OneFootball

We’re on a road to nowhere, come on inside. Words that could well serve as the new motto at Olympique de Marseille to go with the general redesign at the club. A modernised badge was unveiled at the start of the month, perhaps a tacit distraction from the previous months, during which head coach Roberto De Zerbi left after a humiliating defeat in Le Classique and club president Pablo Longoria stepped down. Sporting director Medhi Benatia also handed in his resignation before being convinced by owner Frank McCourt to remain until the end of the season. 

The triumvirate that returned Marseille to the UEFA Champions League and had them dreaming of former glory has yet to be fully replaced. Habib Beye arrived in the technical area in late February and already faces questions about his suitability for the role, while Stéphane Richard succeeded Longoria as president earlier this month. Benatia’s status as a self-imposed dead man walking has done little to help alleviate this sense of transition and uncertainty that permeates the club. 

When the key architects behind a project are all gone or going, is there any surprise that the general rudderlessness is then reflected onto the pitch? Les Phocéens have lost three of their last four games, the latest of which, a 2-0 defeat away to FC Lorient on Saturday afternoon, saw the club slide from fourth to sixth in the standings and left Benatia glowering at the microphone, lamenting a squad that he had helped put together. 

Reaction to a ‘scandalous’ defeat

“It’s a scandal,” Benatia said in the mixed zone. “We were playing against a team that is almost already on holiday, even if they have quality, and we are playing the first of our five finals. We organise training camps to build connections and to work, and yet nobody reacts in the dressing room. Everything is calm, as if nothing happened.” 

Having spent last week in Marbella doing a training camp, the squad will now spend most of this week at their training ground, La Commanderie. Following the defeat to Lorient, they had their day off on Sunday cancelled and will have double training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, while from Thursday to Sunday they will sleep overnight at La Commanderie in a lock-in ahead of the showdown with southern rivals OGC Nice. 

The idea behind this approach could be seen in the post-match comments from Beye, when he said, “I saw a team that wanted to win, that played together, that fought for every ball… That is what I did not see from my team today.” The theory seems to be that if they can’t turn on their intensity on matchdays, then they will have to endure a week where they will have no choice but to demonstrate their intensity under the watchful eyes of management. 

Marseille and the eternal rebuild

With L’Équipe reporting that several witnesses have allegedly told them that the players are mentally and physically “marked” by a draining season, it does leave you wondering how suitable this response to a poor run of form is and how well the squad will respond to this. Already, La Provence has written that many within the dressing room no longer support their manager. 

The worry is that the management’s response will exacerbate an already tense scenario, when the reality of the situation is that the club has a favourable run of fixtures to right themselves before they face European rivals Stade Rennais (Beye’s previous team) on the final day of the season. Ahead of the match against Rennes, Marseille play relegation candidates OGC Nice, Le Havre AC, and FC Nantes. 

This situation feels as if it is symptomatic of a club that has become trapped in an endless cycle of transition and eternal rebuild. Projects are torn down at the first hitch in the road, and players fly in and out through revolving doors. If the club hopes to right itself and reclaim its former status, perhaps the lesson it needs to learn is that the most extreme reaction is not always the right one. 

This week’s Ligue 1 sub-plots

GFFN | Nick Hartland