You can’t help but think were he not worshipped by Olympique Marseille fans, Didier Deschamps would be under serious pressure by now. The French champions have had at best a mediocre start to their defence of their domestic league crown and offered no threat whatsoever against Chelsea this evening. They are yet to get off the mark in their Champions League campaign either. Carlo Ancelotti’s men didn’t have to be anywhere near their destructive 6-0 calibre best, as they started the English season with back-to-back score lines, to breeze past the opposition from across the Channel at Stamford Bridge tonight. A John Terry header went in at the near post past Stephane Mbia who’s effort to clear the ball from the line looked half-hearted and that is putting it kindly, to put the home side in front inside ten minutes. The Cameroonian player also foolishly raised his hands to protect himself to block a cross leaving the Belgian referee no option to award the blues a penalty which Nicolas Anelka converted just before the half hour with nonchalance. These two first half goals were enough to see off their opponents.
Matching Chelsea’s 4-3-3 formation was nothing short of a tactical blunder and Deschamps alone must take responsibility. Having let Senegalese frontman Mamadou Niang join Turkish giants Fenerbahce for the relatively cheap price of €8million and Ivorian forward Bakari Kone go to Qatar for just €5million, the former World Cup winning captain has spent more than twice as much on home grown duo Andre-Pierre Gignac and Loic Remy. The former, who according to some reports cost as much as €18million, barely made double figures in all competitions last season and was little more than a passenger in France’s farcical antics in South Africa over the summer. As for Remy, a €15million acquisition from Nice, I have seen play quite a few times now and just cannot understand what all the fuss is about. At twenty-three years old the time for taking about potential is over. Neither man has found the net for Marseille yet and on tonight’s evidence that is not surprising. Gignac will be twenty-five before the turn of the year and has had got just one good season under his belt whilst at Toulouse who do not seem to be missing him.
Deschamps’s central midfielders looked like they were treading water this evening, not carrying it as he did. Argentine Lucho Gonzalez, who himself cost Marseille the best part of €20million last summer, showed none of the attacking endeavour we saw of him when he was at Porto. He needed to perform in this way as his fellow teammates in the middle of park, Benoit Cheyrou and Edouard Cisse are not known for getting forward and showed no signs of enhancing that reputation at Stamford Bridge. We also saw tonight compelling evidence that converting holding midfielders into centre halves doesn’t always work with M’bia’s horror show. Paul Le Guen tried this tactic with Cameroon at the World Cup, playing the lad out of his natural position at right back in the first two group games and in the centre of defence in the final match. The Indomitable Lions finished bottom with no points. The manager had a fully fit squad to choose from; there were three other options to partner Souleymane Diawara at the back, four if you include moving forming Manchester United and Real Madrid star Gabriel Heinze infield from left back.
M’Bia was not the only player to be played out of his position. Substitute Mathieu Valbuena came on and played down the left wing when as we have seen in the past for both club and country he is more comfortably in the centre in an attacking role. All this criticism aside, we must not forget that Deschamps guided Marseille to the French title for the first time in nearly twenty years last season and has also taken a team, Monaco in 2004, to the final of the Champions League. Chelsea needed to respond to their defeat at Manchester City over the weekend, but the French made it so easy for them. M’Bia’s defensive calamities, the midfield’s lack of creativity, movement and attacking intent, together with inevitable lack of service into what looks like a strike force that wasn’t worth the money can be viewed as nothing but a complete disappointment. Perhaps it was just as well former Marseille player Didier Drogba was unavailable through suspension as if he had played we might have had a cricket score on our hands. To put it simply if Deschamps and the Stade Velodrome outfit wish to progress in Europe this season they are going to half to put in performances which are light years ahead of the display we saw tonight, and the same it can be argued could be said for them domestically if they wish to retain the Ligue 1 trophy.
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