PARIS (AP) โ A change of manager has given Marseille's demanding fans the attacking football they crave.
Since Jean-Louis Gasset took over as manager, the team has scored 12 points in three games leading up to the Europa League home game against Villarreal late on Thursday.
With 10 games remaining in the French league, there is still room for ambition. 7th place Marseille narrowed the gap with 3rd place Monaco to 6 points and qualified for the Champions League.
“I told the players they weren't at top speed yet,” Gassett said, quickly regaining his confidence. “We're not afraid to get on the ball. We're playing better and better in a lot of different ways.”
It's a surprising change considering how he was playing for Marseille before his arrival late last month.
Marseille started the year with a crushing 1-0 win against a non-league team in the French Cup. After a few weeks of monotony, Marseille went seven games without a win and scored just seven goals.
A player went missing during the game, and the nervous defense played with extreme fear of making a mistake.
This led to the sacking of former AC Milan and Italy midfielder Gennaro Gattuso to replace Spanish manager Marcelino, who resigned in September amid tensions.
Gassett's arrival has clearly reinvigorated the squad, but false dawns are as common in Marseille as seagulls flitting around the sunny harbour.
Gasset becomes Marseille's third manager this season and 30th manager since the turn of the century, the most for a French top club.
Marseille raised eyebrows when they hired the 70-year-old Gassett until the end of the season. A month earlier, he was sacked as Ivory Coast coach during the African Cup of Nations.
Gassett was an assistant coach to Laurent Blanc at Paris Saint-Germain from 2013 to 2016. The first thing he did at Marseille was change from a counter-attacking style to a possession-based approach. It paid off in last Saturday's game against Clermont, where they scored four goals in the second half to win 5-1.
“I don't like to give the ball to the opponent, it's not my strong suit.'' “I would rather my team have it. I liked the way we played against Clermont. “We didn't have much control, but we controlled the game,” he said.
Gassett has extracted a lot from 34-year-old striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has scored four goals in three games since Gassett took charge, celebrating each goal with his trademark backflip.
The former Arsenal and Barcelona striker is Marseille's top scorer with nine league goals. On Sunday they host Nantes, who are above the relegation zone.
mbappe addiction
Kylian Mbappe's two goals against Real Sociedad on Tuesday not only propelled PSG into the Champions League quarter-finals, but also highlighted how dependent they are on him.
Mbappe heads into Sunday's home match against Reims with a French league-leading 21 goals. This is 15 more than any other PSG player and nine more than Lille striker Jonathan David or Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette. The two teams share second place with 12 people each.
Mbappรฉ's departure this summer will leave a huge void in both PSG's attack and league prestige.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer
Jerome Pugmire, Associated Press