Marseille loses the Derby….and its captain.

By: Magnusson | August 29th, 2007

There’s a word nobody really wanted to use since the beginning of the season. Not anyone who really follows this club anyway. Nobody wanted to be ridiculed for their alarmism but here you go. The word we’re talking about is “CRISIS”. All capitals too. Marseille has been designed as the only team capable of annoying Lyon for the title this year. On paper, Marseille just has the sexiest team there is in this league. But the mayonnaise is just not taking. Marseille had us fooled on Sunday because they showed initiative and confidence while beating Caen on their home turf. We wanted a confirmation tonight. We needed everything but this. First of all we lose the only player whose been physically and mentally fit this year so far in Djibril Cissé, than we put the man touted as the best player we have - Mamadou Niang - at his original position in the axis and the guy is phantomatic. Matthieu Valbuena as well as Ronald Zubar get to start their first game this season respectivally on the right wing and as a right back. Karim Ziani, who has yet to prove us right in recruiting him was on the left side while Bolo Zenden is on the bench alongside Laurent Bonnard, the young Ayew and Moussilou. Let’s just say Albert Emon is enigmatic but this lineup didn’t make any sense.
Before the kickoff, there was a minute of silence for Antonio Puerta and every Marseille player was training with a shirt to show their support to Cedric CARRASSO, our starting goalkeeper, recently injured.

So Marseille started this game with these facts: Nice hasn’t scored a goal in the Vélodrome in seven years and Marseille hasn’t lost to this team in thirty two seasons and more importantly, we haven’t lost a game home since last March. We were pretty sure we could keep this momentum going.
The game started with a clear Nice domination with Habib Bamogo being quite dangerous twice in five minutes. And more alarming were mainly Valbuena and Karim Ziani’s total lack of impact on the sides, and Mamadou Niang’s inability to fill in Djibril Cissé’s colorful shoes. Everyone isn’t able to be alone and decisive.
At the thirteenth minute, a hurt Gaël Givet is substituted by Jacques Faty who takes Julien Rodriguez’s spot, the aforementionned Rodriguez sliding on the right. That shake up in our defense is followed by the most exciting ten minutes of our game. Lorik Cana then Samir Nasri show initiative and kick it from afar, enabling Lloris to show his skills. After that, it’s all Nice. And Mandanda…

I really don’t feel like reviewing the rest of the game because I’m fucking pissed off right now. First of all we don’t see the team that has been able to win six out of seven games. Than I like Albert Emon, I really do but having too many players can be a bad thing. Hes been playing with his lineup for five games now and even though we haven’t had a healthy team in awhile, we shouldn’t be playing with lines and positions like he’s been doing. I think Ronald Zubar is the future (not necessarily in Marseille but this kid reminds me of Gallas) but he’s not Matthieu Bodmer when it comes to versatility. He made him play at the same spot as Samir Nasri Sunday with surprisingly good results but to put him on the right side seems ridiculous. He’s not quick, he can’t take the wing and he doesn’t have any chemistry with Valbuena. Taïwo’s inexplicably back on the left when Laurent Bonnard has been infinitly more impressive since the beginning of the season. Samir Nasri and Mamadou Niang should be left to rest. There’s too much pressure on these two guys to lift up the team while everybody is willing to say they’re still not fit. Let them rest goddammit.

The other thing I’m pretty fucking pissed about is the HABIB BEYE CASE. Screw anybody who’s responsible for this fiasco. How do we treat one of our most loyal players, one who’s been playing here since 2003, who’s been the captain for two years and a leader since he arrived in this team. You make him the scapegoat for a collective disaster and just kick him out of the group to give the armband to sometone else. Habib Beye was player of the year in 2006 according to the fans and has always been able to help the team get to the next level. And because he’s so-so for the first two games you kick him out? Thank you very much Albert Emon and José Anigo! You have just lost the soul of the team trying to prove that “nobody is irreplaceable” bullshit. This is just as dumb as when Rolland Courbis benched Laurent Blanc in 1999 because he was “finished”. For memeory, Laurent Blanc was our captain and played two more years for Inter Milan and two additionnal years in Manchester. Habib Beye was the link between the coach and the players, he was the glue that held this team together. While everybody was mesmerized by Samir nasri and Ribery’s skills, by Lorik Cana messy haircut, nobody talked about Beye but everyone aknowledged the most important pice of our puzzle. If not for him, we wouldn’t be in the Champions League and that’s a fact.
Everybody was aware he was playing hurt last year, that didn’t prevent him from being excellent for thirty games or more. Everybody was aware he needed to rest more than the others but as his personnality dictated him, he never complained and he even went to the extra effort of coming back to Marseille earlier than most africans (who were playing the African Cup of Nations qualifiers) to be able to show the newbies the ways of the club. He only took a week of vacation and came back to start the championnat. Getting hurt very early on, he only played three friendlies and his first entire game was the season opener against Strasbourg.
Our whole organization dropped the ball by hurting such an amazing player in his pride when we needed the locker room to be united the most. So of course Habib Beye asked to be traded immediatly. Of course he’s already done with the club and of course his mind is already at Newcastle. We treated him like dirt for being subpar when we know nobody’s as good as him in this team. He was supposed to be a fixture and we humiliated him. I just hope we realize we’re messing up tommorrow and stall until friday night.
Pape Diouf said that this was one defeat too many and everybody’s already talking about heads rolling. He also accused the recruits of not having given what they had been recruited for. This was a collective disaster if I’m not mistaken, so why point fingersa t players who have only played together for a month and a half. We needed this victory to go to paris with a clear head, we’ll go there to play for our whole season on the seventh round. That’s ridiculous. The last time we fired a coach this early was the year after Didier Drogba was sold for 38 million to Chelsea (José Anigo was “replaced” by Phillippe Troussier after four defeats.). Let’s not be dumb here, please!!!
Tonight will be a very eventful night. Modeste M’bami seems to be on his way to Birmingham City and Matthieu Valbuena is considering Auxerre’s loan offer.

Here are the two videos of the goals we took tonight. Check them out, they’re pretty well constructed, especially the second one. I don’t have the heart to watch them again and see Julien Rodriguez get blown away by Baky Koné.