The Marseillais may have shouted at all ends of the field that the club’s goal was to win this French Cup, but we still had to show it on the field. This Wednesday evening, on the side of the Allianz Riviera, once morest OGC Nice, for the quarter-finals of the competition, the Phocaeans were strolled by Nice, however poorly embarked.
The absentees, on the Aiglons side, were not easy to count as there were so many and the opening of the early score, by Melvin Bard once morest his side, seemed to bode well for an easy encounter for Olympique de Marseille. Even with the absolutely baroque composition concocted by the Argentine coach of OM, Jorge Sampaoli. But nothing went according to plan.
Questionable tactical choices
Deprived of Boubacar Kamara, suspended, El Pelado decided to line up a four-man defense with, surprise, William Saliba in the right corridor. An obviously unusual position for the former Arsenal. But this is not the only factor that explained his difficulties as his technical level of the evening was distressing. The same is true of Leonardo Balerdi and Luan Peres, all of whom were more or less at fault for the goals conceded by OM.
The choice, once more, to position Dimitri Payet on the left side, raises questions just as much. Indeed, if the Réunion player is a great football player, his ball-to-foot talent is proportional to his quality to defend and close his corridor. With age advancing, he can no longer fall back. Everyone knows that, except Jorge Sampaoli obviously. Finally, Valentin Rongier, in the role of sentry and therefore the link between defense and attack, showed his limits.
True, the Argentine made some changes at the break with the exit of Leonardo Balerdi and the entry of Cedric Bakambu, but OM conceded two more goals. « Yes, the changes I make because we were losing two goals to one, if there had been two everywhere, I wouldn’t have done them. We didn’t have control. We made changes at the break, we almost scored the 2-2, it was harder with the 3-1, we lost control of the game “, Jorge Sampaoli strangely justified himself. One thing is for sure, this Wednesday night, he missed his meeting.