Four defeats in the last five matches in all competitions, including three in a row in Ligue 1: Marseille must absolutely stop the bleeding on Saturday in Strasbourg during the 13th day, on pain of seeing the pressure increase frankly on its coach Igor You sleep.
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Barely a month ago, OM and Tudor seemed launched.
The Croatian team signed the best start to the season in the club's history, driven by the ideas of the former Hellas Verona coach, intense pressing, spontaneity in the axis and repeated runs on the sides.
But everything started to change with the home defeat against Ajaccio (2-1), harmless at first sight and which had been followed by a major success against Sporting Portugal in the Champions League.
Since then, OM have only lost.
Few defeats, against good teams (Lens, Frankfurt), and very good teams (PSG), but defeats all the same, which hurt the legs and the head.
“
The last two performances (Lens and Frankfurt, editor’s note) please me much more than those of two months ago when we won.
But we have to take points
, ”admitted Tudor on Friday.
“
We will make some changes but we will have a strong team.
The group is good, the atmosphere positive.
Once again, the performances are good, not the results
”, added the Marseille coach before joking: “
There is just this very small detail, we lose.
»
Also a final
To prepare for Saturday's match (9 p.m.) in Strasbourg, which is experiencing a really painful first third of the season (16th in the Ligue 1 ranking), the Marseillais stayed in Germany, sparing themselves an unwelcome round trip while fatigue accumulates.
In Alsace, Mattéo Guendouzi's teammates will want to break this nasty series of defeats, especially since the rest of the championship is not particularly reassuring with shocks against Lyon and Monaco before the World Cup.
But difficult to have your mind fully focused on Strasbourg when Tudor himself spoke of "
match of the year
" for the reception of Tottenham on Tuesday in C1.
"
To be frank, after these average results, the Strasbourg match is almost considered a final too
," said side Jonathan Clauss on Friday.
“
We want to reverse the trend, so we don't project ourselves.
To focus on the match after is to lose the match before
, ”said the Alsatian.
But whether against Strasbourg or against Tottenham, Tudor is now on the front line and must find solutions, several of his choices creating misunderstanding.
After having explained several times at the start of the season that he was counting on each member of his workforce and that the five authorized changes were a precious resource, he now seems to rely on a hard core of essentials.
Gerson aside
These breathe little and are on the verge of exhaustion (Clauss, Nuno Tavares, Rongier...) while others have disappeared from circulation over late and often ineffective rotations.
Wednesday in Frankfurt, Payet and Gerson, who hardly play anymore after a series of insufficient performances, thus remained warming up along the touchline for the entire second period and the Brazilian then worked like someone who knows that he won't play.
In attack, Sanchez's talent and experience make him essential, but behind him, Suarez and Dieng are two question marks.
After an encouraging start, the Colombian is now very little used and the five minutes he spent on the Frankfurt lawn on Wednesday were terrible.
Three days earlier against Lens, it was Dieng who had entered for an equally weak twenty minutes.
The management of the club having pushed all summer to separate from the Senegalese before finally yielding Milik and Bakambu, two attackers with an admittedly irregular performance at OM but otherwise accustomed to the highest level, Tudor's responsibility is not the alone engaged.
But in Strasbourg and then against Tottenham, it is he who will have to find the answers.
