Team Focus: Bielsa Exit Leaves Marseille at Crisis Point

Sunday morning’s edition of La Provence needed little wit or nuance to sell its main story. The cover said it all, a gut punch to Olympique de Marseille fans – “Bielsa démissione” (Bielsa resigns) was the headline, plastered over a photo of the coach on the touchline mid-match, in typically effusive pose.  

The shock of Marcelo Bielsa’s sudden resignation, at just the point when the doubt around his future seemed to have dissipated, will be felt on La Canebière for some time. That’s not to say there isn’t already considerable wrath being directed towards the man who changed the very face of OM.

Monday’s L’Equipe led with the headline “L’histoire d’une trahison” (the story of a betrayal). That sentiment was shared in the city. “As a fan of Olympique de Marseille, I’m very angry with the man,” former player Eric De Meco had already told beIN Sports on Sunday morning. “A lot of players came because of him. Where does that leave them?” An anonymous member of the dressing room told L’Equipe that Bielsa had left his players and staff “in the s***.”

For Bielsa’s part, his claim is that a couple of last-minute alterations by owner Margarita Louis-Dreyfus to a new contract already agreed with president Vincent Labrune forced his hand, and he made his decision on Wednesday. As he seemed relaxed – for Bielsa, at least – in a Thursday press conference, after receiving a number of his preferred transfer targets, this seems unusual.

Perhaps the grisly reality of what he was left to work with became wholly apparent against Caen. The departures of André-Pierre Gignac and André Ayew (who scored 31 of Marseille’s Ligue 1 goals last season between them) were painful, but unavoidable. The club couldn’t afford to extend their lucrative deals, and missing the Champions League meant they were forced to sell Dimitri Payet (supplier of 17 assists last season) and Giannelli Imbula (3 dribbles per match on average) to West Ham and Porto respectively.

There is no sense that the haemorrhage will stop, either. Both highly-rated defender Nicolas N’Koulou (fervently courted by rivals Lyon this summer, and OM’s second-best performer last season behind Payet with 7.59) and goalkeeper and captain Steve Mandanda are out of contract at the end of the current campaign.

Never mind the future for now, though. What about the present? This is still very much Bielsa’s team, possession-based – only Paris Saint-Germain had more of the ball than OM’s 58% last season – and attack-minded. They had a whopping 69.8% of possession against Caen, though this in itself is no guarantee of success in Ligue 1. The four sides who saw the most of the ball on the opening weekend – OM, Lyon, Montpellier and Nantes – scored once between them, and that was an own goal.

A certain lack of experience showed in the Vélodrome side, though. Michy Batshuayi, so explosive in a pinch-hitting role last season, (9 goals in 6 starts, and 20 substitute appearances in 2014/15) must now step up to replace Gignac. He did most things right, getting in 4 efforts on goal, but only managed 1 on target.

Back up for Batshuayi is thin on the ground. Lucas Ocampos, whose loan from Monaco was made permanent this summer at Bielsa’s behest, was brought on at half time for the ineffective Romain Alessandrini. Ocampos, a winger by trade, showed his lack of killer instinct in the centre, having 3 efforts but none on target. One particularly jarring miss from close in just 8 minutes after his entrance summed up OM’s night, and their short to medium-term problems.

Enter Andy Delort, a failure in the Championship for Wigan last season but a seasoned goalscorer in the French second tier, to show them how it should be done. This was Delort’s long-awaited Ligue 1 debut and it didn’t disappoint. The 23-year-old got 3 of his own 5 efforts on target, including a quite spectacular winning goal from distance. When incorporating his loan spell back at Tours last season, it meant that 4 of Delort’s last 5 goals in France have been scored from outside the penalty box.

Delort could have put the destination of the points beyond any doubt in the closing minutes, but hit the side netting when clean through. His knowhow further exposed the greenness of this OM side, playing with a pair of 20-year-old centre-backs in Stéphane Sparagna and Karim Rekik, who found Delort tough to deal with.

While the players’ mood in post-match barely moved out of disbelief, Alessandrini’s words that the dressing room “shouldn’t forget what he (Bielsa) taught us” are wise ones as OM seek to move on quickly. Even while in difficulty, there is a sense that creative solutions are already there.

Abdel Barrada, who started just 3 Ligue 1 games last season (appearing for only 276 minutes over the entire league campaign), showed the potential to be the conduit that this team can flow through. Taking more touches than anyone else in the side (82), he also delivered 4 key passes, as did Florian Thauvin.

Labrune has already been in contact with Jürgen Klopp to sound him out about becoming Bielsa’s replacement. It’s ambitious, sure, but this is Marseille, after all. Whoever takes over needs to get to grips with the fact that this work in progress is still, definitively, Bielsa’s team.

Who should Marseille appoint to replace Marcelo Bielsa? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below