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PARIS (AP) — A change of coach has given Marseille’s demanding followers the attacking soccer they so crave.
Since Jean-Louis Gasset took cost, the aspect scored 12 occasions in three video games going into the house recreation towards Villarreal within the Europa League late Thursday.
With 10 video games remaining within the French league, there’s even room for ambition. Seventh-placed Marseille has closed the hole on third-placed Monaco to 6 factors and has an outdoor shot at qualifying for the Champions League.
“I’ve instructed the gamers that we’ve not hit prime velocity but,” mentioned Gasset, who has shortly improved their confidence. “We’re not scared to get on the ball. We’re enjoying higher and higher, in many alternative methods.”
It’s a exceptional transformation, contemplating how Marseille had been enjoying earlier than his arrival late final month.
Marseille started the 12 months with a scrappy 1-0 win towards a non-league aspect within the French Cup. Weeks of drudgery adopted as Marseille went seven video games with out a win and scored solely seven objectives.
Gamers went lacking throughout video games, and tension-filled defenders performed with an acute dread of constructing errors.
It led to the sacking of Gennaro Gattusso, the previous AC Milan and Italy midfielder, who changed Spanish coach Marcelino after he resigned in September amid tensions.
Whereas Gasset’s arrival has clearly galvanized the staff, false dawns at Marseille are nearly as frequent because the seagulls fluttering round its sunny port.
Gasset is Marseille’s third coach this season and thirtieth coach for the reason that starting of the century, the very best complete of any top-flight membership in France.
Eyebrows had been raised when Marseille employed the 70-year-old Gasset till the tip of the season. A month earlier, he was fired as Ivory Coast coach in the course of the African Cup of Nations.
Gasset was previously Laurent Blanc’s assistant coach at Paris Saint-Germain from 2013-16. The very first thing he did at Marseille was change from a counterattacking fashion to a possession-based strategy. It labored towards Clermont final Saturday, with 4 second-half objectives in a 5-1 win.
“I do not like leaving the ball to the opposition, it is not my cup of tea. I might reasonably my staff has it,” he mentioned. “I preferred how we performed towards Clermont. We did not do every thing proper, however we managed the sport.”
Gasset is getting so much out of 34-year-old striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has scored 4 objectives in three video games since Gasset took cost and celebrated each with a trademark backflip.
The previous Arsenal and Barcelona striker is Marseille’s prime scorer with 9 league objectives. On Sunday, they host Nantes, which is hovering above the relegation zone.
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