Match Focus: Bielsa’s Marseille Caught Out by Makélélé’s Bright Bastia

As Marseille’s tracksuited players enjoyed the traditional pre-match pitch walk on the turf at the Furiani, they looked like they were without a care in the world; enjoying the warmth of the Corsican summer, and the calm before the storm. Then, they were suddenly snapped out of their comfort, as a small group including Gianelli Imbula and Benjamin Mendy were hosed by a sudden jet from one of the automatic sprinklers under the pitch.

It was an apt metaphor for how the game itself turned out. For the most part, the Vélodrome giants looked assured on Marcelo Bielsa’s debut as a Ligue 1 coach. Set up in his habitual 3-3-3-1, they enjoyed 58% possession, and led 3-1 just past the hour mark.

Yet just 12 minutes after André-Pierre Gignac’s penalty had given OM that handy-looking lead, they had been pegged back level. “We should have known how to neutralise our opponents’ reaction,” Bielsa later lamented. “The result wasn’t fair, but I have the impression that we were below our normal level.”

Even if Bastia are habitually a force to be reckoned with at the Furiani, it was surprising to see Marseille caught out in such a context. After all, it was not only Bielsa making his Ligue 1 bow. In the opposite dugout, Claude Makélélé was in charge of his first top-flight match.

If we had expected a tactical masterclass from the experienced Argentinian this season, Makélélé proved that he has learned much under Carlo Ancelotti and Laurent Blanc, and that he is no greenhorn. We had a pre-match reminder of the pecking order in terms of seniority, as the cameras caught the touchline greeting between the two coaches. “You were a crack as a player,” Bielsa told Makélélé. “A true great. Good luck.”

In the opening stages, it seemed like the former Chelsea midfielder might be needing a dash of fortune. The visitors showed all the swagger that Bielsa had injected into their play in pre-season, despite Christopher Maboulou’s opener for the hosts. Marseille wing-backs Brice Dja Djédjé and Benjamin Mendy were heavily involved, as might have been expected. Left-sided Mendy, marked out as an early favourite of the new boss, ended the match with more touches than anybody else on the pitch by some distance (79). 45% of Marseille’s attacks came down their left-hand side, by far the busiest offensive area during the match.

Mendy provided the assist for the goal that got OM going, with a sumptuous cross which Gignac emphatically headed home. There was control in the centre of the pitch too, with Imbula shining after his transition to Ligue 1 last season. The 21-year-old, an accomplished tackler and passer of the ball, shows all the potential to be Bielsa’s on-field compass, landing 88% of his passes.

Not all was quite as Marseille’s exacting coach would have wanted, however. The key attacking three behind Gignac – Florian Thauvin, Dimitri Payet and Romain Alessandrini – met with limited success in the new system. Thauvin had a key role in the second goal, eventually cuffed into his own net by Romaric (with a cross from Mendy again the original source), but that was one of only 2 efforts on goal. Payet touched the ball just 29 times during his 79 minutes on the pitch – only goalkeeper Stève Mandanda touched the ball as infrequently for his team. We can expect more from Alessandrini, freshly arrived from Rennes, with 2 key passes marking out his potential to shape games.

If Bielsa had concerns about the creative hub of his team, so did Makélélé, and the home coach reacted decisively. Having committed in pre-season to using Ryad Boudebouz as his main conduit, in the number 10 role – to cover the exit of Wahbi Khazri – he decided it wasn’t working, and introduced Junior Tallo for the former Sochaux man just before the hour, thus switching to 4-4-2.

It worked superbly. Bastia managed 13 efforts on goal to Marseille’s 9, with only 4 of those coming from set pieces – a little surprising, considering Bielsa’s post-match explanation that he brought on Lucas Mendes for teenage debutant Stéphane Sparagna in defence “so we could match them in the air”.

Tallo, loaned for the season by Roma after a similar spell at near-neighbours Ajaccio last season, was key to this. He scored the penalty that brought Bastia back into the game at 3-2, and had 3 efforts on goal in little over half-an-hour. Only Gignac (4) had more over the course of the match. 

Brandão, newly arrived and facing his former club, clicked perfectly with the new man, using his aerial power and strength and assisting the equaliser too, expertly finished by Maboulou. The Brazilian delivered 3 key passes in the game. Maboulou, with his stealthy breaks from midfield, promises to be one of the brightest new faces of this Ligue 1 season. Making his top-flight debut after 10 goals for Chateauroux last season, his is an inspirational tale, having recovered from minor heart surgery to flourish at 24.

Neverthless, Mandanda’s role in that opening goal will concern Bielsa. His struggles continued (with a match rating of 5.13) after a difficult last season, peppered with high-profile errors and ending with a freak vertebra injury in the final game against Guingamp which “could have left me tetraplegic”, as he reflected in a recent interview with France Football. He was badly caught out by Maboulou’s looping volley, which gave Bastia the lead.

On the early evidence, there is little doubt that “OM fans will be spoiled” on an entertainment level, as France Football’s website pointed out after the match. Bielsa does, however, have some key issues to iron out before next weekend’s home game with Montpellier. Who would have thought that Makélélé would have finished the season’s opening day having tactically trumped the old master?

Can Bielsa's Marseille challenge at the very top again and will Bastia beat the drop? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below