The former Marseille coach, Rolland Courbis, dared to set a goal for the current OM coach, Gennaro Gattuso.
Marseille finished the first leg of the championship in 6the place. It’s not infamous, but it doesn’t correspond to the objectives that were assigned at the start of the season (a place on the podium). The Marseille team still has a whole return phase to correct the situation. And according to Rolland Courbis, it would be a huge failure if she did not manage to do it.
Courbis would be “disappointed” if OM do not finish in the Top 4
In an interview with La Provence, the former Olympian coach indicated that a place in the Top 4 is the minimum for Gattuso’s OM. “Catching up with Nice (2nd), Monaco (3rd)… It’s definitely playable. The problem is that these teams will be comfortably sitting on their sofa in February, when OM will play the Europa League (round of 16) and will have to travel to face Shakhtar Donetsk. But the 4th place is more than playable. I would be disappointed if OM did not finish, at least, in this position. To do this, however, we will have to avoid physical problems, not lose too many feathers in the Europa League and hope that the Africans return to Marseille in good shape.”
Courbis is optimistic for the Marseille team, but he recognizes that reinforcements are necessary to be able to achieve the various objectives. “I think they should recruit two players so that the team is not too weakened during the CAN, and also fill in the absences due to injuries, including that of Rongier which seems detrimental to me.”
OM have not won a title since 2012 and a triumph in the Coupe de la Ligue. Would it be for this year? Courbis’ response: “Will we have the chance, or even the highway, that OM had last year when they hosted Annecy at the Vélodrome in the quarter-finals? I fear that we will long regret this golden opportunity that the Olympians wasted. This year, the first draw is not bad, hoping that they do not have another bad surprise in store for us, which they have the secret against amateur clubs.
To conclude, the 1999 French vice-champion coach also gave his opinion on Gattuso and his ability to succeed at OM: “It shows that he is passionate about his job, even if sometimes we don’t really agree with his choices. I’m surprised, sometimes, that it took us so long to understand that we have very interesting pistons, and four central backs who play better in a three-way system. I find the formula interesting, too, for the two leading attackers.”
