Lorient, the last stepping stone…

By: Magnusson | November 2nd, 2007

Saturday night’s game against Lorient is the last one before next week’s fateful trip to Lisbon. Marseille needs a good dynamic before stepping into the Dragon Stadium on tuesday night. If we get a good enough result in Portugal, we’ll be sure to make it to the second round of the Champions League. But before that, we’ll have to face a team that has managed to humiliate both Lyon and Paris. Christian Gourcuff’s boys will be highly motivated to get their first victory in eight games against a Marseille team that has played far from stellar football this season.

November 3rd 2007
@ Stade Vélodrome in Marseille
Marseille - Lorient
08.00 PM on Foot+

The Opponent, Lorient

Lorient has had a booming start this season (one draw and four wins in the first five games, including against Lyon and Paris) but they’ve been in some kind of a slump lately, with four draws and four losses. They’re looking for their first win in eight games and Marseille could be their restart after losing to Auxerre last week (5-3 in a pretty incredible game). Their only away win was against Paris at the Parc des Princes.

Christian Gourcuff (yes, he is Yoann’s daddy) is one of the best theoricians in soccer. And that’s in ANY championship. The computer man (he’s known to spend endless hours thinking about tactical schemes on a software he created) has been very faithful to a 4/4/2 this season with two defensive midfielders and two wingers. He’s been able to take a few outcasts from a lot of different teams and make them put their egos aside for the better good.

Major nutcase Fabrice Abriel has been on his best behavior lately and playing like everybody was predicting he would when he was at Amiens (seriously this dude was supposed to replace Vieira in the french National Team at some point and he just lost his shit). He’ll be paired with Ewolo to try and stop Samir Nasri tomorrow night. Lorient won’t be playing with everyone though. Namouchi is out six months (and that includes the African Cup of Nations, for any tunisian reading) after rupturing a ligament a few days ago.
Marama Vahirua is also out, his knee hurting him still. The team should remain unchanged with Rachid Saïfi replacing Vahirua up top.

One of the other funny confrontations will be Nicolas Marin, the Marseille native (and incidently Djibril Cissé and Phillippe Méxès childhood super-buddy). Another Marseille native and ex-marseille player, Alain Cantareil will be starting in central defense. After fifteen years in our team, I guess the oddest thing for him will be to use the visitor’s locker room.

The Marseille situation

On our end, the infirmary is still filled with players, notably Jacques Faty who will not even be fit to report for duty against Porto and Julien Rodriguez getting the last finishing touches on his leg as Eric Gerets said during a press conference this morning that he’ll be playing against Porto on tuesday. Now I know Eric Gerets has been having some fun with the press and the lineups lately but at least that’s a good news to hear that “le Taulier” (The Boss) could be back soon.

Mathieu Valbuena should be back in the Ligue 1 after having been spared last weeks disaster agaionst Sochaux. So is Karim Ziani who will need to confirm his great performance against Metz by another great performance at home. This guy hs not been able to shine yet in the Ligue 1 at home. Tomorrow’s game should be that reference-match for the midfield.

Salim Arrache and Matt Moussilou won’t be making the trip. Neither will Fabrice Fiorèse nor Vincent Gragnic. Krstic and Hassoune Camara will not make the trip as Gerets gives a try to his rotation of kids with Leyti N’Diaye getting his call in the first team.

Marseille’s group:
Mandanda, Hamel
Bonnart, Taiwo, Givet, Zubar, L. N’Diaye
Cana, M’Bami, Cheyrou, Ziani, Zenden, Oruma, Nasri, Valbuena
Cissé, Niang, Ayew

This game will be another nice chance to give the Cissé-Niang pairing some mileage. They have both been able to score against Metz and could (SHOULD) have scored more. That pairing was pretty efficient when Niang and Cissé were both getting served by Ribery and Nasri. After trying to put Niang in Franck’s position like Emon did, Gerets is quietly trying to get out of the 4/2/3/1 to a more complicated but way more efficient 4/4/2 with Niang and Cissé as our goleadors. Let’s see how this works with a team that will be at the Vélodrome to play and not to defend. Lorient play attractive football and will be ready for us tomorrow. I just want us to win and to clear that dreaded relegation zone for crying out loud.