While not a match for the ages, the Olimpico on Sunday night between Lyon and Marseille offered a stark contrast between ambition and reality. Marseille, now under the ownership of American businessman Frank McCourt, have been trying to create a big splash in the transfer market – most notably in their clumsy pursuits of Dimitri Payet and Jordan Amavi – but for now they have had to make do with signing Morgan Sanson, whose situation provides an ideal lens through which to examine both the match and the two clubs.

Marseille’s pursuit of Payet comes on the back of a brilliant season for West Ham and superb performances for France at Euro 2016. West Ham finished just four points short of fourth place in the Premier League in 2015-16 and Payet was named in the PFA’s team of the season, becoming the first West Ham player to feature in the team since Trevor Brooking in the 1977-78 season. His indifferent attitude and inconsistent performances have held him back this season but, at 29, he remains a box-office attraction in France, especially in the city he called home from 2013 until 2015.

However, Marseille have so far failed to meet West Ham’s asking price, embarrassing themselves in the process. A public rebuke from Aston Villa chairman Tony Xia has bedevilled their pursuit of Amavi, putting McCourt under pressure to make some sort of gesture to improve the team. That pressure has fallen on the shoulders of Sanson, the promising youngster who was signed from Montpellier last week for a fee that could rise to €12m. His arrival has given McCourt and his newly installed president, Jacques-Henri Eyraud, and the sporting director, Andoni Zubizarreta, something to cling on to in the face of rejection. But Sanson did not exactly cover himself in glory on his debut against Lyon.

Still just 22, Sanson is a talented all-action midfielder, who is superb at breaking up play and starting counter-attacks. He was a France Under-21 international for almost three years and is viewed as an intriguing prospect. That said, despite a decent season with Montpellier, he would struggle to make it into the Monaco or Paris Saint-Germain teams.

It may seem heartless to pick on a player who joined Marseille less than a week ago but, if McCourt wants his team to compete for the top honours in France, he will not be able to make do with players like Sanson. For Marseille to fulfil their “Champions Project” they must not only significantly narrow the gap between themselves and the top two, but also open one up between themselves and the likes of Lyon and Nice.

Marseille may be ambitious, then, but the quality of the squads on display at the Parc OL shows how hard it will be for them to reach the top. On a frosty night in the Rhône valley, Marseille started with an aggressive press, led by Sanson, who was playing on the left side of midfield in manager Rudi García’s preferred 4-3-3 system. Lyon’s back line, missing the injured Mouctar Diakhaby and the Africa Cup of Nations absentee Nicolas N’Koulou, failed to respond well, with both full-backs joining the central partnership in hoofing the ball long. That partnership featured the young Argentinian Emanuel Mammana, making his first appearance in two months, and the former Newcastle player, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa. Both are accomplished enough but they had never played together, making their nascent relationship the obvious weak link for Lyon.

Marseille had the better of the match in the early stages, forcing Lyon’s goalkeeper, Anthony Lopes, into a string of saves. Slowly but surely though, Lyon began to creep into the game. Playing in what amounted to a 4-4-1-1, with forwards Nabil Fékir and Alexandre Lacazette often drifting wide or dropping deep, the hosts created little in the way of meaningful chances early on. Youngster André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, deployed in an unfamiliar role in front of Marseille’s defence, was a rampaging menace, charging about and winning tackles. His mobility and the forceful play from their centre-backs helped Marseille stay tight at the back, at least initially.

Mathieu Valbuena scored a sublime opener for Lyon on the stroke of half-time and, cowed by going behind, Marseille dropped their press, with Bafétimbi Gomis’ half-hearted attempts at pressure comprising only the slightest nod to the frenetic pace of the match’s early stages. A similar situation had unfolded against Monaco last weekend, when Bernardo Silva scored in the 45th minute and killed Marseille’s resolve.

Encouraged by the space afforded to them when Marseille dropped back, Lyon midfielders Maxime Gonalons and Corentin Tolisso drove forward, compressing the pitch and overrunning the mediocre duo of youngster Maxime Lopez and Sanson. Marseille went further behind on the hour mark, as Sanson, desperately trying to make a mark on the match after slipping into anonymity, lunged to block Gonalons’ through ball for Valbuena but only redirected the ball into the path of Lacazette, who made it 2-0. Marseille pulled a goal back but the result was never in doubt. Lacazette’s second seemed almost inevitable, settling the score at 3-1. Mercurial and sometimes a bit melodramatic, Lacazette can be a picture of frustration at times, but his goal record speaks for itself.

Sanson, by contrast, is a player full of potential but without a certain future. The same goes for his club. Rather than quixotic chases of marquee players, Marseille need to build holistically, eschewing the metaphorical desperate lunge. Making Sanson the first of many signings who boast both potential and experience would be a decent beginning for the club but improving their ramshackle defence should be prioritised over bringing in the flash of Payet. After the match, Garcia put his club’s defeat down to “small margins” but the difference between Lyon and Marseille – and the task facing McCourt – is far from small.

Talking points

• Angers’ coach Stéphane Moulin took the unusual step of deploying centre-back Mateo Pavlovic in the centre-forward role for the trip to Saint-Étienne, in an attempt to combat his lack of striking options. Remarkably, Pavlovic repaid his manager’s faith with a towering first-half header but a pair of ricochets, one from a Romain Hamouma cross and the other off captain Loïc Perrin’s wrist, gave the opposition a fortuitous, but much needed, three points.

• Leonardo Jardim’s irrepressible Monaco continued their goalscoring exploits in unceremoniously dispatching with struggling Lorient on Sunday lunchtime, adding four unanswered strikes to their tally of 60 from the previous 20 Ligue 1 games in 2016-17.

• Genuine goalscorers are rare in Ligue 1 but Metz’s new signing, Cheick Diabaté, is one such man. The rangy Malian was a constant threat during his six seasons at Bordeaux with 66 goals in 152 games. An ill-fated summer move to Turkey and Osmanlispor has seen him swiftly return to France and back on the scoresheet this January, bagging a debut brace in a 2-0 triumph over Montpellier to lift his new club out of the bottom two. Diabaté will be key to Les Grenats’ survival hopes, if they can keep him fit.

• A pair of disastrous away losses at Guingamp and Montpellier in December had reportedly put PSG coach Unai Emery on the brink before the winter trêve. However, the turn of the year has seen a handful of impressive displays from the Ligue 1 champions including a Julian Draxler-inspired victory at Rennes and an Edinson Cavani brace in a routine 2-0 win in Nantes this weekend to put the champions back on track. An otherwise unremarkable encounter will be remembered for a baffling passage of play which saw Marco Verratti kneel to head the ball along the ground back to his goalkeeper, Kevin Trapp, in a bid to circumvent the back pass rule. The Italian was booked for unsportsmanlike conduct, amid vehement protests from the PSG players. His action was considered to be a form of “trickery” and not in the spirit of the laws of the game.

• “So racism is legal in France? Or only in Bastia?” asked Nice’s Mario Balotelli on Instagram after Friday night’s draw in Corsica, the Italian claiming to have suffered racial abuse from the home fans. SC Bastia later responded by saying they were “astonished” by Balotelli’s claims which “carry considerable harm to the [club’s] image” and the LFP released a statement condemning “with the utmost firmness the perpetrators of these acts, who have no place in a football stadium” before launching an investigation. During the 2007-08 Ligue 2 campaign, SC Bastia were deducted two points after supporters racially abused a Libourne St. Serin player.

• The frozen pitch at Stade Michel d’Ornano resulted in the postponement of Nancy’s Saturday night trip to Caen, the home side’s second such situation of the winter after fog put paid to their tie with Nantes last month.

• Lille’s new owner, Gérard Lopez, remained coy over the potential appointment of his friend and former Marseille coach, Marcelo Bielsa, stating that he has a ‘verbal agreement’ with the Argentine but is also pursuing other options. A summer arrival now looks more likely for “El Loco”, with Patrick Collot remaining in interim charge of Les Dogues in the meantime.

Bastia 1-1 Nice

Nantes 0-2 PSG

Dijon 0-0 Lille

Caen P-P Nancy

Metz 2-0 Montpellier

Bordeaux 1-0 Toulouse

Guingamp 1-1 Rennes

Monaco 4-0 Lorient

St. Etienne 2-1 Angers

Lyon 3-1 Marseille

• This is an article from Get French Football News

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