Excellent on the pitch in Nantes last weekend, Quentin Merlin and Pol Lirola certainly have a big card to play with Roberto De Zerbi. Feedback which is good and which may encourage OM management not to buy full-backs this winter.
After a more complicated period for several weeks, Olympique de Marseille returned at the right time and took second place from AS Monaco on goal difference after their success in Nantes (1-2). During this match, Quentin Merlin and Pol Lirola showed themselves to their advantage, giving positive momentum to a team that has been struggling for several matches. In Roberto De Zerbi's system, these two full-backs have shown that in this position, despite recent absences, OM have solid players. On the right, Amir Murillo and Pol Lirola will engage in fierce competition, especially since the Panamanian, who was one of the only ones to have survived the defeat against PSG, had started on the bench at Beaujoire. This is excellent news from a transfer window perspective.
The return of the full-backs, good news for OM
With the return to form of several of its full-backs, Olympique de Marseille will perhaps abandon the idea of recruiting for this position this winter. Even if Lirola must still improve his physical condition to continue the matches and establish in the medium term a real battle for a starting place with Murillo, his decisive goal on the OL pitch at the end of September demonstrates that he can bring to the collective . The same goes in the other corridor with Quentin Merlin. Absent since the international break in September after an injury contracted with the Espoirs, the 22-year-old showed that he had lost none of his talent during the meeting on the field of his former team last weekend. His return will allow Ulisses Garcia to breathe. As Le Phocéen puts forward, seeing the infirmary empty into the corridors is one less problem to manage for an entire club, which still hopes to compete with PSG for the title despite its defeat in the Classic two years ago. weeks.
