Central defender at Olympique de Marseille during the 2014-2015 season, Rod Fanni spoke about the training methods of his coach at the time, Marcelo Bielsa, although the results followed.
It's a real paradox that Rod Fanni mentioned on the set of the talk show Football Club de Marseille this Thursday. An important player in the eyes of his coach Marcelo Bielsa, during the 2024-2025 season, the defender managed to find his place in the hinge, alongside Nicolas N'Koulou and Jérémy Morel. If the former French international (5 caps) had certainly had his best season with the nickname “El Loco”, he nevertheless has many criticisms to make of him.
“The training weeks are robotic. We go through three hours of video, you shoot behind a model 15 times, then 15 times behind another and 3 times there… and go home. “There were no matches that we had, it was individual marking, you just had to follow your player and you were forbidden from taking the ball from your opponent”, complains. Fanni this Thursday, then explaining why, according to him, the Argentinian technician used such methods: “It was just to ruin us mentally and physically, to make us angry.”
“Two seasons with him, you want to stop playing football”
“And that every day, every day, every day… You don't want to play football anymore. You get up in the morning, you don't want to. There was no pleasure. When I tell you zero is really zero fun. Really hateful…” adds the central defender. While these workouts were difficult, they also paid off. “It really made you want to stop playing football, but on the weekend, it was a treat. We all wanted the ball, we all made ourselves available. That's the paradox, you enjoy the weekend , but during the week, you piss yourself off,” he confides.
During this 2014-2015 season, the Marseillais, then autumn champions, finished outside the Ligue 1 podium (4th).
