Less in sight at the start of 2024, publicly pinned down by Pablo Longoria and Medhi Benatia, then injured, Jonathan Clauss is back in shape, for the final sprint with OM. This Wednesday, before challenging Atalanta in the Europa League, he returned to this complicated period.
Jonathan Clauss has had calmer winters. Despite a more than decent start to the season on an individual level, the OM right-back found himself, at the start of 2024, at the heart of a little psychodrama like Marseille has the secret of. Less visible on the pitch, and several times cited in the sights of foreign clubs during the transfer window, the 31-year-old French international had been publicly reframed by President Pablo Longoria for his lack of involvement (among other things) before the sports advisor Medhi Benatia doesn’t give a damn in a sulphurous interview for Canal+.
A complicated period for the former Lensois, who was also the victim, in the process, of physical problems. Now on his feet, and visibly very motivated at the idea of facing Atalanta on Thursday evening in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League (9 p.m.), Clauss explained this Wednesday that he had turned the page and got his head and spirit back. body right side up.
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“I have done a lot of things to come back as best as possible”
“I digested it very simply with discussion,” he confided at a press conference. “It was managed very well with OM. Once the discussion took place, for me it was settled. The final sprint, I was disappointed not to start already due to my injury. That’s why I seemed worried at the start because I want to be part of the adventure 200% and when I’m taken away, it’s a part of me that’s disappointed. I put a lot of effort into coming back. as best as possible, as quickly as possible, to be 300% with the guys.”
“Guys” in whom he wants to be grateful. “Despite everything, it’s thanks to them that, tomorrow evening, I will experience a European Cup semi-final,” he recalls. “That’s the first word I said after the shift: I said ‘thank you everyone,’ because I was helpless, and they made something possible that I didn’t initially imagine.”
Gasset: “I spoke with him, I tried to get him back on track”
Also appearing in front of the press, Jean-Louis Gasset commented on this return to form with satisfaction. By explaining his role in this story. “It’s a secret (what he told him). I’m only talking about sports,” the technician first indicated. “But if an international player is not a plus in a squad, something is wrong. I spoke with him, I tried to get him back on track. The paradox is that he was injured with the France team and that he had to adapt to the situation, take the time he needed, not resume too quickly, limit his playing time like the others. is a contract with him to say that you are at the end (physically) when you are. I feel when the player is at the limit. These are personal things, this is often the case with many players. You have to know what each person’s Achilles heel is.
In any case, Gasset did not fail to emphasize the qualities and importance of Clauss in his squad. “On the pitch, I believe he is one of the best passers. We have the best scorer, Aubameyang, but we have two passers at six, Clauss and Harit, it seems to me. He is a corridor player who gives you depth, quality in the center, quality on set pieces and he scores a goal from time to time. We understand that when he talks about the group. ‘is the truth.” And Gasset concluded by putting all his players in the same basket: “They live well together. We just had to put one or two things in place, but they understood that we had to give everything. On that, they took a step forward.”
