Marcelino does not intend to be Pablo Longoria’s puppet at OM, and the Spanish coach refused a request from his compatriot concerning the preparation of the Provençal club this summer.
Rightly considered a coach very close to Pablo Longoria, with whom he collaborated at the very beginning of the career of the president of OM, Marcelino does not intend to play the puppets either. For the transfer window, if Longoria holds the rope and clearly has the last word with regard to strategy and recruits, his coach still has his say. The proof, some profiles do not like him very much, like Jonathan Clauss, yet indisputable holder last season. In terms of organization, Marcelino also intends to impose his version of things.
Marcelino wants ball-hungry players
For the preparation that started this week, OM must be as efficient as possible because the Champions League play-offs are coming quickly. The idea is to be already at a very good physical level in August, so as not to miss the very lucrative march towards the C1 chickens. For this, OM will have four friendly matches against Nîmes next Saturday, the Belgians from Eupen, the Dutch from Wallwijk and the Germans from Leverkusen. And not one more. Pablo Longoria indeed wanted a fifth game to allow the entire workforce to be sharp and the players to have as much playing time as possible before the Champions League.
See this post on Instagram
According to La Provence, Marcelino opposed it, judging that he would also prefer to chain the sessions to perfect his game plan, thus rejecting the request of his president to add a preparation match before the internship in Germany. The OM coach prefers well-muscled sessions and obviously wants to see players hungry for balls for the cutthroat matches in August. This choice will in any case be quickly judged, OM’s season being partly played out in this crucial month of August.
