The Olympique de Marseille players have had their ears ringing since Wednesday and their defeat against Atalanta Bergamo (0-1). Because if there was a lot of talk about the refereeing just after the match, a consequence of the forgotten penalty at the very end of the match just before the goal scored by Lazar Samardzic, Roberto De Zerbi’s men suffered very severe criticism.
As usual, Jérôme Rothen was no less vehement.
“OM are ridiculous in terms of results, that’s the reality, he said on the microphone of his show, on RMC. In terms of results, defeat was forbidden. They find themselves in difficulty and in a pack of teams who are currently eliminated and who look more like Europa League teams than Champions League teams. You have to call a spade a spade. OM is in its place compared to what we see. The ridicule is on the performance of the players. »
The former Parisian player continued by criticizing the work of Roberto De Zerbi and the level of the Marseillais. “When you see De Zerbi’s record, it’s 10 Champions League matches and one victory. You summed it all up. Tactically, he does not have the weapons, he does not find the ingredients and the skills to push OM to be better,” he said, adding towards the Olympian players: “Between commitment and technical quality, they are not at the level of the Champions League. There was a casting error. Who recruited and made this team? When you see the means of OM, which are not the means of Atalanta, and you see such a difference in performances and technical achievement… In yesterday’s match, apart from Greenwood and Rulli, the rest is tossed away. »
Jérôme Rothen displayed by Ali Zarrak
The criticisms expressed by the former midfielder were not to the taste of Marseille leaders. And Ali Zarrak, Medhi Benatia’s right-hand man, did not hesitate to respond to him on Twitter, attacking him for places claimed last season.
“ It’s ugly to spit in the soup, last year when you asked for seats in the VIP lounge (between 4 and 8 / match) for all our matches, OM was not to be thrown away, the soup was good eh”, he wrote, revealing screenshots of private conversations between the two men.
