Player Focus: Andre-Pierre Gignac (Marseille)

As his right foot shot beat Geoffrey Jourdren into the near corner Andre-Pierre Gignac peeled away in celebration, ecstatic to have scored his second league goal in three games, but this was more than just a game winner for the French striker, this questionably was the return of one of Ligue 1’s top marksman. On the same ground that saw Olivier Giroud score 12 of his league topping 21 goals last season, was this the return of “Le Big Mac”?

Gignac ended last season on somewhat of a high. Scoring against Auxerre in the 90th minute at the Stade Velodrome was a nice way to end what had been a terrible season for the former French international striker. Before that game the last time Gignac found the back of the net in Ligue 1 was the second last game of the 2010/11 season when he equalised in the 89th minute in a 2-2 draw with Lorient.

That run took him two days short of going one whole year without scoring a league goal. An amazing record for someone who back in the 2008/09 season scored 24 league goals. For Gignac those four years must have felt like centuries had passed.

It’s hard to criticise his performances last season, plagued by injuries for most of the campaign, never really fully fit, and his physique showed that more than his performances did. In six starts and 15 substitute appearances he only managed one goal, didn’t create any goals and even more worryingly only took 40 shots all season, that’s 1.9 shots a game. A meagre average for a centre-forward.

When you look at his last season for Toulouse and his first season for Marseille you can see that he has definitely struggled but still performed much better than last season. In both season’s he scored eight goals and created four goals for his teammates. For Toulouse he average 4.8 shots per game, but for Marseille it rounded down to exactly three. So in 50 starts and 11 substitute appearances for both clubs he attempted 238 shots, finding the net 16 times. Although he wasn’t finding the net, he was at least getting into the positions to trouble defences. This was still miles away from his 24-goal season.

Already, in just three league and four Europa League games there are definite signs that we are seeing the return of the old Gignac. Against Reims on the opening day of the season he attempted six shots on goal, with three on target and then against Sochaux he had another seven shots, three again on target, but this time he found the back of the net with a header. Add to that the two goals against Eskişehirspor and you have a genuine number 9 that seems to be enjoying his football again.

Drifting wide left in his casual style he is now cutting inside with determination and purpose and that he showed against Montpellier, linking up with Morgan Amalifitano to pounce on Daniel Congre’s mistake and score the only game of the game. Another five shots on goal took him to 18 for the season, only 22 short of his total for last season and surely he’ll go on to pass the 2010/11 total of 90 shots, an average of three shots per game. This year’s average stands at six, and Coach Elie Baup will hope his striker continues in this confident mood. Baup also thinks he knows the secret to Gignac’s excellent start.

"The main thing for me is that he has not been injured, he did a real thorough pre-season. He recognises how important it is for a player in his position to be physically fit. When he gets there, he starts to score goals, the mental aspect and everything else follows"

Back in the 2007/08 season Baup was the man in charge of Toulouse when Le Téfécé signed Gignac from Brittany side Lorient for €4.5m. Unfortunately for Gignac the coach preferred to play Swedish striker Johan Elmander upfront and Gignac ended the season with a grand total of two goals.

Things would have to go drastically bad now under Baup if he wasn’t to destroy that total this season. Three seasons ago he managed his best ever WhoScored rating of 6.80 when playing at Toulouse, this season he has started strongly and the average sits at 7.18. Anything around seven this season would show that “The Beast” is certainly back!