De Zerbi: ‘I‘m still here‘

Marseille is boiling. And this time it‘s not fans (as usual), but the sporting director and the coach. The giant from south of France lost at home to Liverpool in the Champions League 3-0 and then allowed three more goals from Bruges in the next round. Combined with four goals from Benfica against Real, and Marseille finished in 25th place due to goal difference and are out of Europe. A huge disappointment for the club, not only due to a serious money which will be lost now (we are talking about millions of euros), but also due to to shameful display showed against Bruges, who are hardly a European powerhouse. And the situation is not calming down not even on Saturday, when Marseille are facing 14th placed Paris.

The inconsistency is what is killing Olympique. They defeat league leaders Lens 3-1 but don‘t have a problem losing at home to Nantes, who are in serious relegation fight. And the Brugge game was just a trigger for Medhi Benatia to start ‘spitting fire‘ in the media.

“You play a match like that against a team with an average age of 20-22. You don't win a single duel. All week, I've been giving team talks. When you have this kind of disgusting, horrible defeat, people tend to blame the coach. But I attend the talks. All week, we knew they were going to attack hard, that they would start strong. If there's a player in the box and four of us are watching him, is that the coach's fault? No, it's not the coach's fault. 'I want this to have consequences for the rest of the season. I hope it will have consequences, that they will ask themselves the right questions. I'm not putting everyone in the same boat, some gave their all and fought hard. When you're at a club like this, you can lose matches. You can't lose like tonight. We're dealing with a recurring problem. Football has to be respected, and we have to apologise to the fans, to the people who make sacrifices for this club. I hope the players realise that tonight was a professional mistake. I've lost matches in my career, but I've rarely felt this sense of shame, being capable of conceding six goals in two games.'“ he raged after the defeat on Wednesday.

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Former Marseille, Bayern, Juventus and Roma defender also underlined that there ‘must be consequences‘ after such a display. Many believed that Roberto De Zerbi will pay the price, but so far, he is safe. He had talks with Benatia and president Longoria and now came out ‘defending‘ the players.

“We lost an important match. We're out of the Champions League. We need to try and understand. Pablo Longoria and Medhi Benatia, we spoke last night. We met to try and find the best possible solution. This match is also partly my fault. We'll do everything to bounce back. I'm still here. Together we will get out of this rough patch. I won't say anything to my players. There's no point in talking. They are already angry enough about the match in Bruges, there's no point in adding to it“ said the Italian, who added that he would like to stay in Marseille for another five or six years.

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L‘ Equipe also reported that Benatia is not on good terms with the club‘s star player Mason Greenwood and that both men avoid each other whenever possible. The former Moroccan international also had a row with captain Leonardo Balerdi during a late-night meeting ahead of the Champions Trophy meeting with Paris Saint-Germain at the start of January. Voices were raised and De Zerbi was not at that meeting. Marseille are in a fight for the place in the Champions League as they seem to be too far away from both PSG and Lens so any future defeats might force Benatia to sack De Zerbi rather than changing half of the team in a situation where January transfer window is all but over.

LIGUE 1 - MATCHDAY 20

Friday

Lens - Le Havre 1-0 (1-0)

/Aguilar 45+1/

Saturday

19.00: (3.80) Paris (3.75) Olympique Marseille (2.00)

21.00: (1.85) Lorient (3.70) Nantes (4.50)

23.05: (2.10) Monaco (3.60) Rennes (3.60)

Sunday

17.00: (1.93) Olympique Lyon (3.75) Lille (4.05)

19.15: (2.20) Angers (3.45) Metz (3.60)

19.15: (2.15) Nice (3.50) Brest (3.60)

19.15: (1.77) Toulouse (3.65) Auxerre (5.10)

20.45: (5.00) Strasbourg (4.50) PSG (1.65)

***odds are subject to change***