Everything should be fine for the best of all worlds. Undefeated for sixteen games, second in the championship, Olympique de Marseille (OM) goes to Lyon in the quarterfinal of the Coupe de France, Wednesday, February 12. But as the season progresses, the Marseille team’s game has lost in ambition. Forced to adapt to a quantitatively limited workforce, OM coach André Villas-Boas changed gear.
After chaotic beginnings, the Marseillais' matches nevertheless augured offensive football carried by a foolproof pressing. The setbacks against PSG and Monaco, in October 2019, and the quantitative limits of the workforce nevertheless pushed Villas-Boas to adapt its strategy.
A first turning point took place when OM moved to Angers on December 3: the Marseille coach had decided to leave the ball to his opponents. The choice of Villas-Boas is paying off. Only 40% possession for OM but a 2-0 win in the end.
"Angers was the last team in the championship in terms of possession, so we tried something different, we left the ball to them and we were expecting construction errors. It worked ", welcomed the Portuguese after the meeting.
Less offensive but more solid
His "tactical move" is hailed. But what could have been the blow of an evening becomes a trend: OM produces less play and solidifies its defense (only two goals conceded since the beginning of the year 2020).
But this turning point questions. Can a club of OM stature, with the motto "Right on target", afford to offer such an unambitious game? Villas-Boas doesn't care. Its mission is clear: to qualify OM for the prestigious and lucrative Champions League.
The Portuguese coach has already shown pragmatism in the past, he who, at the start of his career, presented himself as an apostle of the beautiful game, in the offensive style, who insisted on the importance of possession, and declared in a interview at Telegraph that his “Philosophy was to play beautiful football for the fans, beautiful football to win matches. "
His 2010-2011 Porto, with Hulk, Falcao, or the young James Rodriguez, was thus an incredible machine. In addition to the C3 victory, the team won the championship that season without a single loss, with 73 goals scored, or more than 2.4 per game.
It was in England, at Chelsea and then at Tottenham, that the Portuguese began to set aside some of his principles.
"If we are Payet-dependent, we are Payet-dependent"
This adjustment is reminiscent of that of Leornado Jardim with Monaco in 2014, the year of the title of Monegasques, called by the journalist of Nice morning Mathieu Faure, in an interview at Le Phocéen site:
"Jardim was very pragmatic at the time. He was presented as a football teacher who proposed the game, but he saw that the team was taking far too many goals and he adapted by putting a fairly low block and betting on the talent and speed of his attackers . He realized that it worked and he stayed like that, including the year of the title. I don’t know if it’s viable in the long run, but it’s perfect when you need to be reassured. "
In Marseille, Villas-Boas must especially deal with the means at hand: OM turns with 14 field players (Kevin Strootman, Maxime Lopez and Valère Germain most often complete the minimal rotation of a short squad) and cannot s '' rely on his best offensive player, Florian Thauvin, absent since the start of the season and who will not push back the lawns until March.
With a Dario Benedetto who has been silent for months and a Valère Germain who has scored two unfortunate goals since the start of the season, all the offensive animation rests on the shoulders of one man, Dimitri Payet, who has been blazing for several weeks.
André Villas-Boas recognizes this and assumes it: "If we are Payet-dependent, we are Payet-dependent, that doesn't worry me! Juve is Cristiano-dependent, Barcelona is Messi-dependent. " Pragmatism, always.
