As defeats go, Olympique de Marseille’s 2-0 loss at Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday night was about as humbling as it gets. As a comprehensive victory and three points took Remi Garde’s side to the top of the Ligue 1 table, it dumped the 2010 champion rock bottom, still without a win after six matches. So much for the “age of stability” predicted by French daily L’Equipe in its pre-season summary.
“Relief.” That was captain Steve Mandanda’s one-word description of his feelings at the final whistle of Wednesday’s maiden season win, against promoted Evian. Nobody at the Stade Velodrome thinks that the heat is off after OM moved off the bottom. “We had no room for error tonight,” Mandanda said post-match. “We’ve already made enough of those this season.”
Certainly footage broadcast by Canal+ on Tuesday night suggested continuing internal disquiet. Following the Lyon defeat, OM’s players had a 40-minute meeting to clear the air at their training center La Commanderie before starting work, but TV pictures showed Souleymane Diawara and Mathieu Valbuena still arguing as they took the training field afterwards, and continuing to bicker for a good few minutes as they jogged.
It has been clear for some time that all is not well behind the scenes at the club. The acquiesce between boss Didier Deschamps and sporting director (and former head coach) Jose Anigo has always been an uneasy one, but the summer replacement of Jean-Claude Dassier as president with Deschamps disciple Vincent Labrune was supposed to fix this and further entrench the former France captain’s power base at the club. So was the extension of Deschamps’ responsibility under the new title of “manager.” The new hierarchy seemed positive and managed to tie up the summer’s four major signings (Lorient pair Jeremy Morel and Morgan Amalfitano, Monaco’s Nicolas Nkoulou and sometime-France skipper Alou Diarra) within a month of Labrune’s arrival.
After narrowly failing to retain the league title last season, these signings said ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Three of the four were defensive players, and sought to iron out the weakness that had let eventual champion Lille through on the home stretch back in spring – the overall lack of cover at the back that saw Deschamps’ side cede 15 goals in the final nine matches of the season. In reality, stability has more accurately translated as inertia.
Labrune proudly trumpeted the importance of OM’s early transfer dealings this year. The key was to avoid the late dramas of last summer, when iconic top scorer and captain Mamadou Niang left for Fenerbahce with the season already underway. The problem was that the last-minute nature of Niang’s departure, together with the influence of Anigo, had left Deschamps stuck with a replacement he was none too keen on, in the shape of record signing Andre-Pierre Gignac. The club’s board had earlier jettisoned a deal for Sevilla’s Luis Fabiano on account of the Spanish club’s financial demands.
Deschamps was to experience transfer window disappointment once again this time around. OM sent the unwanted Gignac on a flight to London to seal a loan move to the Premier League with Fulham, only to recall him at the last minute when a loan move for Juventus striker Amauri proved prohibitively expensive.
This was acknowledgement that something was still lacking in the side’s offensive make-up, despite the strong improvement in Loic Remy and the breakout season last time out of Andre Ayew, who also scored a hat-trick in the thrilling Trophee des Champions win over Lille. Yet some believe that Deschamps’ tactical circumspection is the problem, including some within the locker room. Back in April, midfielder Benoit Cheyrou told La Provence: “We must do better in terms of the quality of our football. For my part, I’m a bit frustrated.” Cheyrou admitted that OM’s less well-heeled rival from the north had the drop on it as far as entertainment went. “As far as quality goes, Lille is very good to watch. I’m not jealous, but I am an admirer.”
When a functional side stops getting results, it’s left with little else. In the wake of Sunday’s slide to the bottom, a delegation of a handful of OM fans had been admitted to La Commanderie earlier on Tuesday to address their concerns to Anigo. The meeting seemingly did little to quell their fears. “We can reproach the club’s management for its mistakes, but matches are played on the pitch,” Michel Tonini, the president of the prominent supporters group Yankees, told the media on leaving. “We’re not asking to win the Champions League, but to be bottom of the table is unacceptable. They’re covering us in shame.”
Being given a lesson by a direct rival in OL has been the nadir. After big financial losses, Garde has been required to rejuvenate on a small budget, and has done so superbly thus far. On Sunday, OL’s zest put OM’s current torpor into sharp relief. “There’s nothing; no movement, no creativity,” chided Canal’s co-commentator (and Deschamps’ erstwhile France colleague) Christophe Dugarry as the first half reached its close.
Playmaker Lucho Gonzalez, questions over whose future threatened to turn into the Niang saga of 2011, has started the season well, but is largely ineffective without others to do the running for him. Perhaps the most pertinent image of the evening was Maxime Gonalons dumping OM’s midfield dynamo Valbuena to the turf with a perfect tackle in the center circle, before sending Michel Bastos surging past the struggling Cesar Azpilicueta to hit the second goal.
If Gignac needs any encouragement that there might be a way back for him, it’s in the stats. As well as being bottom of the pile, OM has the worst shots to goals conversion rate of any team in Ligue 1 – just 7 per cent so far. There would be a rich irony in Deschamps turning to the former Toulouse striker as he battles to save his job, but the enormous goodwill towards the man who lifted the 1993 Champions League for OM as player before returning to end the club’s 17-year trophy drought as coach may well have its limits. The real question is not whether the boss has the ability at his disposal to turn things around, but whether he has the will to adjust his philosophy.
With OM in a fix, the experienced Deschamps will have to adapt quickly if his, and the club’s, season is to avoid mushrooming from a flounder to a failure.
