Beaten in Rennes, doubled by Monaco: OM fall from above
The most worrying thing is that the Marseille club was caught in its own trap by Stade Rennes, boosted in the first period then resolutely managerial in the second. Otherwise, the addition could have been heavier. And yet, “ we know their strengths and weaknesses, they also know ours » cried Jorge Sampaoli again on Thursday, two days before the clash between what the experts have integrated as the two most interesting teams in Ligue 1 in terms of play.
In the first leg on September 19, a running-in OM beat a running-in Rennes (2-0). But that’s before the Olympian “turning point in rigor” which came after the defeat against Lens (2-3), a week later. Saturday evening, it was the quintessence of Rennes who beat the quintessence of OM, by the same score.
Zero shot on target, a first this season
“ We must neutralize them during their domination, And we, when we have possession, we will have to make them retreat, [faire en sorte] that they are as far as possible from our surface », Sampaoli still believes before the meeting. None of this happened. Rarely, OM have lost more duels than their opponents. Unprecedented fact, he never worried Alfred Gomis apart from the two actions muddled by Bamba Dieng shortly after coming into play (67and68and): zero shots on target on the Breton goalkeeper’s cage, and only one corner while the Red and Blacks got six.
Caught in his own trap
It has too often been said of this team this season that their sterile possession game had difficulty in front of the low blocks, against eleven grouped together in front of their cage seeking only the fatal counter. Feyenoord had shown that they also struggled against formations that dared to challenge them in placed attack.
It was therefore by doing what it knows how to do best that Stade Rennes stifled the Olympians: by playing high, it intervened very early on William Saliba or Mattéo Guendouzi, and cut off the usual transmissions between Saliba and Valentin Rongier . Worse, he was amused by the Provençal passing game (more than 600, including 517 successful but none interesting apart from Guendouzi’s openings for Dieng or Caleta-Car’s crosses for ander and Rongier). Three times in the first period, like a rugby team, he forced the Marseillais to re-engage the game on touches close to the corner post, as if to tell them: “ Want to spin the ball? Well do it in front of your goal line to see. »
No plan B
In front of Mandanda’s cage, OM had no choice but to throw the balls in front. Without any attachment points in attack, he lost them. Because once again Sampaoli thought it would be smarter to play without attacking or rather, with a false nine. But Amine Harit is not Dimitri Payet.
The Argentinian took an hour to make his only change of the match (do we really have to count Lirola’s entry into play?): Bamba Dieng. With the enormous technical limits that we know him, the Senegalese had the merit of fixing a local defense hitherto little requested. But that was it, and especially too late, since Arek Milik, who warmed up for a long time, sat down on the bench.
“ We started from the principle that we had to control the game. We had prepared, the opponent did not give us the opportunity. We had to change our plans but at this point we don’t really have many options, so we have to insist on what we can do. », a pleaded Sampaoli. Mattéo Guendouzi, the only Marseille player to come and speak after this slap, spoke of a first half “ missed». Both indicated that there was one game left. Yes, but this time OM don’t really have their destiny in their hands.