The Marseille coach explained why he only brought in one player during the opposition against Nantes.
At the opening of the 4e day of Ligue 1, OM let slip two points on Friday evening. On the ground of Nantes and while they were in numerical superiority for 85 minutes of play, the Olympians drew (1-1).
“We could win with this team”
A counter-performance for which Marcelino, the team coach, bears a good part of the responsibility. The Spanish coach made only one change throughout the game, notably leaving a few players on the bench capable of changing the course of the match.
Asked about this passivity at the final whistle, the Iberian technician did not run away. And he made his choices. “Why only one change tonight? We had chances, we were comfortable and we wanted to keep pushing with a team like that. I thought we could win.”
Marcelino does not overwhelm his players
Olympian midfielder Valentin Rongier appeared annoyed after the match, regretting that his team “repeating the same mistakes match after match”. Marcelino was a little more measured in his comments, indicating that he was not “pissed only at the result”.
The former Bilbao coach has adopted the coué method. Nevertheless, he recognized that there was room to do better, especially on the power play. “We didn’t do what we had to do. We started well, and we had chances to score. The opponent is at 10, but from there they were better”.