the hell of a rant from Roberto De Zerbi

Badly beaten by Paris Saint-Germain a week ago (0-3), Olympique de Marseille owed one to its supporters on the Nantes field. That’s good, Roberto De Zerbi’s men are more comfortable away (4 wins in 5 matches before tonight) than at home (1 win in 4 matches). After PSG’s victory against Lens (1-0) and Monaco’s defeat against Angers (0-1), Marseille had all the more opportunity to move back to second place in the standings in the event of a good result in the Loire. -Atlantic.

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OM is 2nd

A successful mission by the Phocaeans (2-1), but it was messy! Apart from the will-o-the-wisp Rowe on his left wing and a few accelerations from Greenwood at the start of the match, we were really bored at La Beaujoire. On the Olympian side, the very average performances of Rabiot and especially of Kondogbia, at fault on the Nantes equalizer, even gave the FCN hope while the Canaries were almost never able to create danger. Fortunately for OM, an assist from Rowe for Maupay (24th) and a festival from Greenwood on the hour mark brought home the three points.

Dominant, but not sharp, this OM did not necessarily send a reassuring message after the humiliation suffered last week. This is evidenced by the very defensive changes of RDZ (entries of Cornelius and Brassier) 20 minutes from time. But he will be content with that, while Kadewere still wonders how he could have missed his face-to-face with Rulli in the 67th minute. Moreover, the Italian coach took advantage of a question on the need now for his players to shine at home to make a small clarification. Aware of the criticism his team is receiving, RDZ did not raise his voice, but he gave a little rant to get his messages across.

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RDZ bangs his fist on the table

«I want to be clear. I think my players are, for the most part, new to this club. When they came to Marseille, they were very happy. They knew what awaited them. Myself, I am very happy to have come to Marseille, I feel very good here, in this city. We must not forget that we are trying to build a new team, a strong team. We were eighth in the standings at the end of last season, we lowered players’ salaries by 20 million. It’s not something perfect, especially at the Vélodrome, but it’s something that affects us a lot. We would like to have more continuity at home. This defeat against PSG was very hard, physically too. You can’t imagine how much the players suffered, it was a difficult week. You have to know. Either we decide to build, or we stop at “one match won and Greenwood is the best in the world and the next defeat, he is no good”. We know we have to improve. We are not at the level I would like. This evening, we only had 40 minutes of good play, but that’s not it yet.“, he declared, before concluding.

«Even if the Vélodrome needs more results, more personality, we must not forget that we are second tonight, that we have 20 points in 10 matches, that we are the second best attack, that we has the second highest scorer in the championship (Greenwood). I am speaking to the people of Marseille, I want to say that my team is made up of good people, who have human values. They suffered all week after this defeat. Construction takes time, you will have to succeed in overcoming these obstacles, sometimes it will involve defeats. For some players, this will exceed their limits. But I would like to emphasize the very high level of this team. We want the supporters to be happy. Obviously it saddens us to see the supporters unhappy. We know that there are people who left the stands at half-time against PSG, that’s not something we don’t want. But we must not forget that this OM was born two months ago, we are second. Last year we were eighth, those are facts».