Autumn Champion, OM has a highly successful first half of the season. With Bielsa at their head, Marseille can they maintain this momentum and win the title in the nose and PSG beard? Response Elements.
The first part of the season bright Om opens great opportunities in the title race. Autumn champions, two points ahead of Lyon and three on the PSG, Marseille had never started as strong since the introduction of the three-point victory. Arrived on the bench last summer, Marcelo Bielsa, became an icon at the Velodrome in a few months, has managed to give a conquering spirit his players despite rigor at all times. Transfigured by the first six months of the year, however not Marseille has a large room for maneuver.
+ A well-oiled team
How not to associate Bielsa Marseille successful start to the season? Argentina coach applied his methods to a group still ossified by a difficult end to the 2013-14 season and made it a war machine. The players have all recognized the importance of management of Bielsa, his desire to see his players develop a team and make the effort for each other. The former coach of Athletic Bilbao takes its group with an iron hand, but that’s what OM needed to be included again among the potential candidates for the title of champion of France.
+ executives at
The backbone of OM responded. Each line, Bielsa has a determinant of its workforce: André-Pierre Gignac scores goals (12), although it may be more effective, Dimitri Payet (5 goals, 7 assists) is now the custodian of the Marseille game with excellent Giannelli Imbula recovery and revival behind him, Nicolas Nkoulou has again become the boss of the defense and Steve Mandanda, as a good captain, multiplies the decisive parades. These five, if they keep their level, can maintain OM at the top.
+ Master home
The brand new Velodrome turned into impregnable fortress . In ten home games, OM won nine. With 27 points, the highest total in Ligue 1 tie with Lyon. Since the defeat against Montpellier (0-2) in August for the first game of the season in front of their public, Marseille chained nine consecutive victories. In the second part of the season, they will receive nine times, including PSG and Lyon, and move ten times
. – Negative balance against the big
This is the black spot OM in the first five months of the championship. Against clubs in the top 5, the team of Marcelo Bielsa earned only against Saint-Etienne (2-1) and bowed in Paris (2-0), Lyon (1-0) and Monaco (1-0). Direct confrontations between the candidates under often decide the outcome of the season. These matches will be more decisive in the second part of the championship. And OM will have the advantage of receiving three out of four (Saint-Etienne-OM late February OM-Lyon mid-March, early April OM-PSG, OM-Monaco in May).
– A somewhat limited bench
The departure of African players in their selection for CAN (January 17-February 8 Equatorial Guinea) has saved the Marseille squad, which lost only two. While these are two frames since it is Nicolas Nkoulou (Cameroon) and Andre Ayew (Ghana), but other important elements will be available to Bielsa as Alaixys Romao and Brice Dja Djedje. Good news for Argentina coach, the fallback in case of absence of the owners are not numerous. And is dependent upon the state of form of potential replacements, like Romain Alessandrini, Michy Batshuayi and Jérémy Morel
. – Tributary PSG
It would be simplistic to consider first place in the OM as the result of a first part of the season too irregular PSG. The Marseillais than worth to be leading, but their scope is still thin on the Parisian rival while Lyon threat is present as well. If Laurent Blanc’s team returned to upright, it could take everything until May and deprive the OM title, especially in cases of breathlessness in the results. On paper, PSG is over Marseille. In fact, this is not (yet) the case.
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