“Trop de pression au Vel? Vous avez ¼ d’heure pour jouer libéré.” There were a number of banners on the Stade Vélodrome’s Virage Nord expressing the disquiet of Marseille’s ultras at their favourites’ current predicament, with the mark of six months without a Ligue 1 home victory passed since their last meeting there, against lowly Toulouse.
Among the messages, the one noted above explained the absence of those ultras for the first 15 minutes, who responded to talk of too much pressure from the fans contributing to the team’s winless run at home by staying out of the stands for the first quarter-of-an-hour of Friday night’s game with improving Rennes, so their players could be “freed” from the tension.
The message may have been sarcastically angled, but it didn’t work, whether taken literally or tongue-in-cheek. By the time the ultras did come in and take their places, Marseille were already trailing 3-0 to Rennes in their latest home horror show. Coach Michel’s job is hanging “by a thread”, according to Monday’s edition of L’Equipe, though some would say he is lucky to have this much slack after such a disastrous run.
It’s not as if the Spaniard is alone with the blame. Far from it, in fact, as supporters protested against owner Margarita Louis-Dreyfus and president Vincent Labrune. Cutting costs, as the ownership have aimed to do, is one thing, but the policy of letting big earners’ contracts run down has proved ruinous. André-Pierre Gignac, André Ayew and even the versatile Jérémy Morel’s deals were allowed to expire last season, when short-term extensions would have given the club licence to sell them.
Unfortunately, there’s more of the same in the post, with goalkeeper and captain Steve Mandanda - who looked like a broken man at the end of this encounter - and defender Nicolas Nkoulou both set to become free agents this summer. With no money in the kitty to adequately replace them and no European football on the horizon as things stand, things are very possibly about to get worse before they get better for those long-suffering fans.
The gulf between home and away form is extraordinary. Marseille’s away record is the fourth-best in the division, and Michel’s men have taken 24 of their 39 points on their travels. They’ve hardly been unwatchable at the Vélodrome, either. Only Paris Saint-Germain, Lyon and (curiously) Guingamp have scored more goals in home games than Marseille’s total of 25. With that said, it must be noted that only rock-bottom castaways Troyes (29) have leaked more on their own patch than the 23 that visitors have rattled past OM.
Rennes certainly made the most of it. The Breton club leapt to being the league’s third top scorers on the back on Friday night’s result, taking their tally to 11 in their last three matches. Their 18-year-old emerging superstar Ousmane Dembélé has scored four and assisted two of those, in case you were wondering.
So OM sit on just two home wins in Ligue 1 this season, with the last having been over Bastia in mid-September. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that anxiety is at the crux of the problem, which has snowballed in a venue that looks more magnificent than ever since its redevelopment, and which will surely be the jewel in France’s Euro 2016 crown.
On the road, Michel has found a way for OM to be efficient and organised. Their game away from the Vélodrome is hardly expansive and dominating - they take a modest 10.5 efforts at goal per game - but they have only lost twice in away matches, which is an excellent building block.
The problem is that at home, results have plummeted to such an extent that today, Marseille are just six points ahead of 18th-placed Gazélec Ajaccio, who occupy the final place in the relegation zone. One senses that discipline has been lost as the situation has escalated. They have collected four red cards in home matches. Only Troyes (7) and Toulouse (5) have fared worse in this sense. Three of those dismissals were picked up in the space of five home games between December and February, strongly suggesting that nerves are getting to the team.
It could have been so much worse. In three out of the four Ligue 1 games at Vélodrome that preceded the Rennes encounter, late equalisers were needed just to salvage a point. Of those, the face-saving strikes by young Antoine Rabillard and Michy Batshuayi - against Lille and Saint Etienne respectively - were both deep into stoppage time and virtually the last touches of the game.
These narrow escapes draw us back to the coach. Even though Michel has had a number of difficulties out of his control to deal with, one wonders if he’s fully grasped what Marseille’s problem is at the Vélodrome. Against Toulouse, he switched to an unaccustomed 4-4-2 formation, with Batshuayi partnering the on-loan Steven Fletcher, to try and sweep OM to victory. It worked in a sense, as they had 20 efforts at goal. It did nothing to sort out the principal problem, however, in defence, as Toulouse had 18 efforts from just 43% possession, with a seven on target. Téfécé average just 10.3 shots per game on the road. Again, Mandanda was forced to bail his side out with a late save from Oscar Trejo. His heroics have added gloss to the away record too.
He won’t be doing it for much longer, of course, with a Premier League move the most likely leap for him in the summer. Friday night offered a window into a bleak future, with the France number two far from his best, recording a season-low rating of 4.4 and making an error for the fourth goal from Yoann Gourcuff. Just prior to that goal, Rémy Cabella had hit the post with a chance to make it 3-3 and complete an unexpected comeback. The margins are fine, but the mistakes dumping OM in trouble are big ones.
It was left to a former Vélodrome coach, the returning Rennes boss Rolland Courbis, to sump up. “For me, Marseille’s season isn’t all about tonight,” he told media after the game. “Being mid-table is their reality since the second half of last season.” That bleak reality could yet degenerate further. One increasingly doubts if Michel will be the one to stop the rot.
How much long do you think Michel will last as Marseille manager? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
