Six goals and seven assists in 17 league games, plus one in the Trophée des Champions: the statistical record of Thauvin's first half of the season is very solid, even if like his club, he has hardly any existed in the Champions League.
After a white season last year, the French world champion has regained a good level and has often appeared as the savior of his team, very struggling in the offensive sector.
“We need him at this level.
He's in a good time and it's not easy because he's coming to the end of his contract.
His statistics are impressive and he is well on the team.
He knows that he is important for us and I hope he will stay at this level, ”summed up his coach André Villas-Boas on Friday.
Captain on Wednesday after Mandanda's injury exit, Thauvin could wear the armband again on Saturday against Nîmes and that says the place he occupies at OM, where he has played since 2013, apart from six months at Newcastle.
And even if it is not unanimous among Marseille supporters, the question of his contract extension is an important issue for the Provencal club and its sports director Pablo Longoria.
"I would like him to extend and stay."
Steve mandanda
"Me as a friend, OM player and captain of this club, I would like him to extend and stay," Mandanda ruled in December.
The arguments for maintaining Thauvin in the Marseille workforce are to be found in his statistics but also in those of others.
"If we have the three exploding in front, we can start to score a lot of goals," Villas-Boas explained in December, referring to his titular trio, Thauvin-Benedetto-Payet.
But the Reunionese, between Covid, suspensions, misform and internal sanctions, scored only three goals and gave three assists in the league.
The results are identical for Benedetto.
Villas-Boas continues to defend his Argentinian center forward, assures us that he will “regain confidence” or that OM's “bad offensive moments” serve him.
But the shadow of the famous grantatakan, untraceable since the beginning of the McCourt era, once again hovers over Marseille.
No Diego Costa
The substitutes did not do much to pull the Marseille attack upwards and, with 25 goals scored (but two games late), OM are only the 11th best attack in the championship.
Germain has certainly scored three goals but ... on his only three shots of the season.
Radonjic alternates for its part rare blows of brilliance and appalling performances, like Wednesday in Lens, while the young Aké and Luis Henrique seem very tender at this level.
So there is still the transfer window.
"I know.
+ Grantatakan + it's the first thing you hear when you arrive in Marseille, ”Longoria joked on Friday.
The Spanish sports director of OM did not give many details on the Milik file, the Polish center forward of Naples, which the Italian press gives very close to Marseille.
"It is moving forward, it is not moving forward .... We are working on different tracks, we have several open files that we are trying to move forward", he simply said.
That of Diego Costa, who has just broken his contract with Atlético de Madrid, is already closed.
“Yes, I got a whatsapp from someone, maybe their agent, who said they were interested in OM.
I thought it was a joke, but no, ”Villas-Boas said.
“But he touches 16 million euros per year.
»End of the track.
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