A powerful mistral is blowing through France’s Ligue 1, and like the wind of that name that affects the Provence coast from time to time, it is both exhilarating and laced with threat. Its name is Marcelo Bielsa, a coach with an aura and, at the moment, a magnificent momentum.
Bielsa’s Marseille go into the weekend top of the table. They are, man for man, pretty much the same club who finished last season in sixth place, 29 points behind champions Paris Saint-Germain and 20 behind Monaco. Almost all the players occupying the first XI were there in 2013/14.
Read more: Marseille solidify Ligue 1 lead with doubles from Andre-Pierre Gignac and Andre Ayew
But one thing that has plainly altered is an ambition to be more than just one of the clutch of French clubs who try to grasp third-place in the end-of-term rankings, reconciled to the fact that PSG’s vast resources, and the yields of Monaco’s lavish recent recruitment mean third is as good as can be aspired to, for the rest.
The momentum is conspicuously Bielsa-powered. The Argentinian, 59, took over in the summer and imposed on the squad many of the principles which make him so admired within his profession: the high-pressing, attacking game, the vigour, the emphasis on possession.
For periods during the run of five successive victories that they bring into Saturday’s meeting with Saint-Etienne, they have overwhelmed their opponents. By the time the mistral had swept through Stade de Reims, on Tuesday, Marseille’s goals from their past four fixtures had reached 15. Poor Reims lost 5-0, in front of their own supporters, and Andre-Pierre Gignac, the Marseille striker who scored twice, took his tally for the campaign to eight. No scorer has started a French domestic season so prolifically since 1999.
Few coaches new to France have announced themselves so spectacularly, either. There was inevitably a degree of excitement when Marseille chose to replace Elie Baup with Bielsa, an anticipation there would be thumping wins, some good and some awkward surprises and the odd eccentric aspect in his approach to the job. With cyclone Bielsa, too, there comes a fear that the high winds, the lightning and thunder, will at some point subside.
Bielsa is an obsessive. His rigour and dogmas have over the past 25 years gained him a distinguished list of disciples. Bayern Munich’s Pep Guardiola and Atletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone, two of the game’s most respected younger coaches, cite him as a key influence. His Chile team gained global fans at the 2010 World Cup with their attacking flair.
Athletic Bilbao were resurrected under his watch between 2011 and 2013. That adventure, his second in European club football after a brief stint at Espanyol in 1998, included appearances in the finals of the Copa del Rey and the Europa League, but it did not bring a trophy. For a man with such a big presence in his sport, trophies have become sparse on his CV; his most recent was Argentina’s gold medal at the 2004 Olympics.
His objective at Marseille, he says, is to qualify France’s best-supported club for the Uefa Champions League, a tournament they are missing this season. But he already has made clear he expected to be given more resources for the task.
In a startlingly candid press conference, he announced he was “disappointed” by his president, Vincent Labrune, whom he accused of “making promises that he did not keep”.
Labrune has nothing like the money to spend that Qatar-back PSG do, or that Monaco have been able to access since they came under the ownership of a Russian billionaire, and Bielsa knew that when he accepted the post. But his public complaint against his employer was pugnacious, as was his revelation that his contract could be terminated after a year. “I don’t like long-term agreements,” he said.
Statements like that might easily have an undermining effect on players. Instead, Marseille’s footballers, the ones their coach wanted more alternatives to, look galvanised. He has barely rotated his starting XI so far and can only be pleased with how they have absorbed, applied and weathered, his high-energy game plan.
Can it last? Saint-Etienne, third in the table, two points shy of Marseille, may help answer that question. They are probably the strongest team Bielsa’s team have faced.
He will have studied them in great detail. And he knows the Marseille fans, for now, are behind the club, enjoying the invigorating blast that is Bielsa.
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