Habib Beye makes Marseille’s physical reset his priority | OneFootball

New Marseille coach Habib Beye has made conditioning his central priority, seeking to re-energise a side whose athletic drop-offs have fuelled erratic results. A secretive Marbella camp opened with hard running and gym work, and little time on the ball.

According to L'Équipe, early sessions featured hurdles, sprint drills filmed in slow motion, hydration stops and alternating weights blocks, reflecting Beye’s pledge after the 0-2 defeat at Brest to restore intensity.

Recent matches have underlined the issue. Marseille struggled to withstand Brest’s fast start, then failed to see out 2-2 draws with Strasbourg and Paris FC, and were overwhelmed 0-5 by PSG.

The context is particular. Roberto De Zerbi, whose style is less energy demanding than Beye’s, concentrated much of the summer conditioning during a mid-July camp in the Netherlands, yet 14 of the 28 attendees have since left. Many arrivals followed over the next weeks, some late in the window, producing uneven fitness levels.

Physical coach Alexandre Dellal argues that swings within and between games may point to a capacity that does not match the coach’s demands, either because the asks were too high or the pre-season load too light. He says it is difficult now to change physiology, but without European fixtures there is more time for recovery and high-intensity work, with the aim to push to the break. As usual, forthcoming results are likely to colour the verdict.

Source: L'Équipe