After the draw conceded in the last minutes against Strasbourg (1-1), Gennaro Gattuso took responsibility for these lost points. “I wasn’t good enough,” said the Marseille coach.
The year 2024 is off to a difficult start for Olympique de Marseille. After a sluggish qualification against Thionville (0-1) in the Coupe de France, the Phocéens were held in check Friday evening by Strasbourg (1-1), in a meeting where they led practically the entire match. Samuel Gigot opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, but young Sebas equalized for the Alsatians in added time (90th+1).
It is therefore a bitter draw for OM, and Gennaro Gattuso pleads guilty. “ I think it’s my fault, I wasn’t good enough, confided the Italian coach at a press conference, relays Le Phocéen. This is something that has happened before, it’s not the first time. I know that and it obviously annoys me. I think it’s my responsibility. If we do an analysis, it’s true that the second half, we defended too much, we stayed too withdrawn, we paid for it in the 92nd minute, but I repeat, there is something that I haven’t managed to change yet. It is my responsibility to ensure that we make progress on this. »
A decimated workforce for OM
With his team going backwards, as he admitted, Gattuso made just two changes. The recruit Jean Onana replaced a Geoffrey Kondogbia who was affected again, and the young Bilal Nadir gave way to another inexperienced element, Noam Mayoka-Tika, whose big debut in Ligue 1 was. In his defense, Gattuso had to deal with a squad decimated by injuries and especially departures from the CAN, a situation to which was added the Renan Lodi soap opera (remained on the bench while awaiting a possible transfer to Saudi Arabia).
“I think it would be too easy to come here and clear myself by saying that there are players missing, Gattuso replied. It’s true that in modern football, the five changes can make the difference. Objectively, we used all the players available. So playing the whole match with the same team is difficult. » And for now, the person responsible for this situation would rather be Pablo Longoria…
