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PARIS (AP) — A change of coach has given Marseille’s demanding fans the attacking soccer they so crave.
Since Jean-Louis Gasset took charge, the side scored 12 times in three games going into the home game against Villarreal in the Europa League late Thursday.
With 10 games remaining in the French league, there is even room for ambition. Seventh-placed Marseille has closed the gap on third-placed Monaco to six points and has an outside shot at qualifying for the Champions League.
“I’ve told the players that we haven’t hit top speed yet,” said Gasset, who has quickly improved their confidence. “We’re not scared to get on the ball. We’re playing better and better, in many different ways.”
It is a remarkable transformation, considering how Marseille had been playing before his arrival late last month.
Marseille began the year with a scrappy 1-0 win against a non-league side in the French Cup. Weeks of drudgery followed as Marseille went seven games without a win and scored only seven goals.
Players went missing during games, and tension-filled defenders played with an acute dread of making mistakes.
It led to the sacking of Gennaro Gattusso, the former AC Milan and Italy midfielder, who replaced Spanish coach Marcelino after he resigned in September amid tensions.
While Gasset’s arrival has clearly galvanized the team, false dawns at Marseille are almost as common as the seagulls fluttering around its sunny port.
Gasset is Marseille’s third coach this season and 30th coach since the beginning of the century, the highest total of any top-flight club in France.
Eyebrows were raised when Marseille hired the 70-year-old Gasset until the end of the season. A month earlier, he was fired as Ivory Coast coach during the African Cup of Nations.
Gasset was formerly Laurent Blanc’s assistant coach at Paris Saint-Germain from 2013-16. The first thing he did at Marseille was change from a counterattacking style to a possession-based approach. It worked against Clermont last Saturday, with four second-half goals in a 5-1 win.
“I don’t like leaving the ball to the opposition, it’s not my cup of tea. I would rather my team has it,” he said. “I liked how we played against Clermont. We didn’t do everything right, but we controlled the game.”
Gasset is getting a lot out of 34-year-old striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has scored four goals in three games since Gasset took charge and celebrated each one with a trademark backflip.
The former Arsenal and Barcelona striker is Marseille’s top scorer with nine league goals. On Sunday, they host Nantes, which is hovering above the relegation zone.
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