What does Friday's defeat mean for Olympique de Marseille?
March 3rd, 2025by Brendán MacFarlane
Despite an initially shaky opening two games in which they drew three-all with Bastia and then lost two-one at home to Montpellier, Olympique de Marseille started the current 2025-2025 with a renewed sense of optimism, and why wouldn't they have?Arguably France's best supported club, OM started this season with a magnificently improved Stade Vélodrome and with one of football's most recognizable managers, the Argentine Marcelo Bielsa, ready to implement his positive high-pressing tactics into his new side's game.
The optimism then soon involved into genuine excitement when Les Marseillais began to thrill their support as the season got well underway with their new style of play, before eventually embarking on an eight game winning the streak. By the time Marseille took on Paris Saint-Germain in the capital, there was a wide sense of belief that Bielsa's side could actually do the unthinkable and beat their deadliest rivals in their own backyard.
With this first half of the season sense of success in mind, Friday's three-two home defeat at the Vélodrome against SM Caen would have been seen as an unexpected result for football fans who had taken an eye off the men from the Phocean city.
The manner in which Caen, a side that are in full confidence at the moment, came back from two-goals reveals a lot about the psychological state of this current Marseille side, with their low levels of confidence contrasting that of Les Caennais' starkly.
It was a point that former Marseille coach Élie Baup touched upon recently, when he said in an interview with Marseille-based daily La Provence, when he alluded to the fact that Marseille's high-pressing style is not only physically draining on the players, but that it is also psychologically tiring. According to Baup, Bielsa's system places high amounts of pressure on players because of the importance of their individual roles to the side's shape.
Despite winning eleven games out of fourteen matches in Ligue 1 sur La Canebière, Marseille's away form has been, to be quite frank, distinctly average. OM have managed to record just four victories on the road this season, with their run without an away victory in France's top flight stretching back to a narrow two-one win over Caen in October. Their form on the road has been, quite simply, not good enough for a club of its size, with title winning ambitions.
Questions could also be justifiably raised about the manner in which Marseille have won some of their games at home this season, as the home side narrowly won matches against traditionally weak away sides such as Guingamp and Lens, and two serious penalty claims were turned down for Évian TG when the home side won by a single André-Pierre Gignac goal from a penalty of their
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