MHSC – OM: Montpellier attacks Marseille to confirm its start of reconquest
Reassured by their success in Lorient, Romain Pitau’s team measures their renewal in front of OM, on this 17th day of Ligue 1.
Time is on his side. Perhaps. Montpellier move away from 2022 as one extricates oneself from an impasse. And rushes into the year that opens with a spirit of reconquest. He runs after himself, after his game and his sensations at La Mosson in the nostalgia of an autumn 2021 which is not so far away and makes everything possible.
“We need to find serenity. We also had to make people want to come back to support us, to find a team and a pailladin spirit, ”hoped last week Laurent Nicolin. The president of Montpellier wants a sacred union, wants all the forces of the club to crystallize their energy behind the team of Romain Pitau, at the dawn of an uncertain second half of the season and the arrival this Monday of OM, that scatters hearts on the shores of the Mediterranean.
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“We need all the strength in Montpellier and our supporters. I know that they will be present against Marseille and that the stadium will be won over to our cause. It is important that people are proud of their team and see our players make every effort,” echoes the new coach, backed by his Hérault past and the prestige of a title.
It’s like that. Montpellier does not get rid of its past, clings to it to mend the present. This is the whole meaning of the latest reshuffle, it is the whole meaning of the momentum initiated at the truce and validated by the success (0-2) in LorientThursday for the resumption of Ligue 1.
Take another step
Each match is a march for Montpellier. A test to regain a place in the first half of Ligue 1, but also a strength at Mosson where he won only four times in 2022. “We will try to be in the continuity of this that we’ve been doing for a while. If we are in this disposition, we will have more chances of reconquering things”, to persuade Romain Piteau.
Four days after this first victory of the season in front of a better ranked team, he tackles a completely different machine. To a candidate for the Champions League, present on the podium, to a candidate for forgiveness after his premature dismissal from Europe and to a team which immediately showed its intentions in front of Toulouse (6-1) in a feverish Velodrome.
Whether he plays at home or away, where he conceded only one defeat: in Paris (1-0), theOM of Tudor deviates neither from its inflexible organization (3-4-3), nor from its collective force, with the airs of steamroller, nor from its contagious energy.
Compete against OM
“It will be another challenge, it will be a strong match, intense in terms of physical volume. Skillful in transition, this team met with good aggressiveness. When it moved into the opposing camp, it encountered great pressure and talented attacking players to be dangerous, ”sums up the Montpellier coach. If Montpellier has got rid of the somewhat ghostly Lorient clone, it will measure its physical and athletic response, its ability to resist pressing and an attacking trio led by the Chilean Alexis Sanchez and the ghost Dimitri Payet.
“There will be adjustments, but no big changes”, warns the new Montpellier technician who will rely on his reinvigorated environment around ferry and savannah. To hope to accelerate the transition from one year to another, from one era to another. So that time plays for him.
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The number
4. Montpellier have lost in 4 of their last 6 matches against Marseille in Ligue 1 (2 draws), after having lost only 2 of the previous 9 (4 wins, 3 draws).