What can we expect from Olympique Marseille?

Cordo Bastien, an emerging talent scout in the south of France and lifelong Marseille fan, gives us a sense of how things are going at OM.

Richie Mills

2023-10-05T06:00:00Z

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has four goals in ten appearances for Marseille, after joining them in the summer from Chelsea.

Marseille have talented individuals that can hurt Albion in their Europa League clash.

That is according to Cordo Bastien, an emerging talent scout in the south of France and lifelong Marseille fan who also admits it is hard to know what to expect from the French side at present.

In the space of just over four months, OM are on their third manager after Igor Tudor resigned at the start of June, Marcelino was in place for just seven games before stepping down last month and now Gennaro Gattuso is in the hot seat.

The AC Milan legend has had just one game in charge of his new team, a 3-2 loss to Monaco at the weekend. Bastien believes it may be too soon to draw any conclusions from that match ahead of Albion's trip to Stade Velodrome on Thursday.

"Marseille have individuals who can greatly impact a game, especially in a one-off game," he said.

Chancel Mbemba has previously played for Anderlecht, Newcastle United and Porto.

"[Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang is an example, Valentin Rongier, Azzedine Ounahi, Iliman Ndiaye as well, and Chancel Mbemba is a really good defender but Marseille are not playing as a team.

"I think it will take months to fix. It is a hard job for Gattuso.

"Marseille need to put aside what happened off the pitch when they play on it. But, they still have dangerous players."

Tudor led Marseille to a third-place finish in Ligue 1 last season but left 12 months into his two-year deal.

Marcelino quit after just three months shortly after a meeting between fans' groups and club staff, with Marseille describing his departure and the fallout from it as a "deplorable situation". But there may be fresh hope with Gattuso in charge, says Bastien.

Marseille are currently 12th in Ligue 1.

"Marcelino's Marseille didn't have much personality. The fans want exciting football, sometimes a bit crazy but we want to be entertained," he said.

"Under Marcelino, Marseille would react to how the opponent would play, rather than being proactive. In Gattuso's first game there were some positives but he has a lot of work on his hands. He changed the tactics from a 4-4-2, which Marcelino used, to a 4-3-3 for the Monaco game.

"That allowed Ounahi, for example, to get into dangerous positions, whereas before he was played on the left and wasn't as effective. With time, they can improve, but at the moment it is too soon to say how this will unfold and what Gattuso wants from this team."

Marseille currently sit 12th in Ligue 1 and are coming into this game after a 4-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain, on top of the defeat to Monaco. Amid this uncertain situation, they pulled off a creditable point away to Ajax in a 3-3 draw in their Europa League opener last month. Now, Bastien is hoping success on the pitch settles matters off it.

"It's hard as a Marseille fan. This is a deep crisis. Many fans don't know exactly what has caused this crisis and feel powerless. We just want to support our team and be proud of our team."