Adi Hütter's terrible week

This was the poster for this 13th day of Ligue 1. AS Monaco traveled to Marseille to face OM on the legendary pitch of the Vélodrome stadium. On the one hand, the Phocaeans wanted to achieve another success to once again become runner-up to Paris Saint-Germain. On the other hand, the Monegasques had the mission to consolidate their 2nd place and bounce back following their frustrating defeat against Benfica, earlier in the week in the Champions League. And despite a good start to the match marked by Aleksandr Golovin's opener, AS Monaco completely sank in the second half, suffering another setback this week. Even if there is positive content to remember from this meeting despite the final score (2-1), the same defensive problems persist on the Rocher side and this is something to worry Adi Hütter and all Monegasque supporters.

The rest after this ad

After the setback against Benfica on Wednesday, Adi Hütter had already pointed out the defensive wanderings: “I'm annoyed by the result because we started very well. We played fifteen excellent first minutes, we scored a fantastic goal and then we made too many mistakes. I can't be happy with the way we defended. We should have done better on crosses, in the box and we were punished. We deserved at least a draw. It's a heavy defeat but we have to accept it“, explained Adi Hütter. Against OM, AS Monaco had to be reassuring, but this was not the case. The Monegasques have lost 4 of their last 7 matches in official competition (3 victories). Also note that ASM had not lost after leading at half-time in Ligue 1 since May 2, 2021, a setback then against OL.

Gifts offered to OM

While AS Monaco thought they had done the hard part by opening the score at the Vélodrome and controlling the match rather well, Adi Hütter's players twice committed the irreparable. Mohammed Salisu completely missed his clearance, giving Neal Maupay the luxury of finding Luis Henrique for the equalizer. Then Christian Mawissa was guilty of a handball inside his area, giving Mason Greenwood the opportunity to seal the Marseille victory: “It's a big disappointment because in the end, we didn't deserve to lose this match. When you see the whole match, taking a point was normal. When we see the big chances in this match, we had more. We gave two gifts which enabled Marseille to win. At this level, against Benfica, we made mistakes and today too, we must avoid that. At the start of the season, we were solid in defense. At the moment, we also have a bit of bad luck but these mistakes are too big. These are more gifts than mistakes. It's difficult to accept. I didn't have much time to prepare for this match. But we had a pretty good match. We lose and we win together», declared the Monegasque coach.

The rest after this ad

As a reminder, against Benfica earlier in the week, AS Monaco also made an error with Caio Henrique passing to Vangélis Pavlídis on the Lisbon goal. In Marseille, defensive errors were once again very costly this Sunday evening despite the general performance: “For me, in the second half, we were more aggressive, we managed to do good things, we caused them difficulties. We need to do better, be more efficient. We don't have much luck on the penalty. We are young, we are on the right track but it is difficult to accept. We have just lost twice in a row, that was the case against Nice then Angers then we won three times in a row. I think we have to analyze this match, we have a whole week to prepare for the match against Toulouse. There are 5 games left until the end of the year. We also love these moments with all these challenges“, he concluded with a smile despite everything. In any case, AS Monaco must now react next weekend against Toulouse because the Monegasques are officially no longer the runner-up to Paris Saint-Germain this evening.