Fot their third pre-season friendly OM wil be taking on Bordeaux on Tuesday in Dax (20h00). Despite the quality of the opposition, the coach announces that he will mostly be able to share out playing time for this match without anything at stake.
In Saint-Jean-de-Luz on a training camp since Sunday, the Marseille squad have been alternating physical, tactical and technical sessions at the municipal stadium. Having gone through a final séance under the overpowering heat they will be able to put into action the theory when they plat Bordeaux this evening at the Maurice-Boyau Stadium in Dax at 20h00. Here are some questions surrounding this match.
Will Deschamps make any changes?
Against Ajaccio last Friday, the coach put out a side which seemed to look like a side which could start the season, with the new recruits and an attractive style of play. A starting eleven? Deschamps cuts that hypothesis short. «It was the team that played at Le Pontet, there will be a different side on Tuesday (Bordeaux) and Saturday (Toulouse) » he warns. My idea is to give a full 90 minutes to the majority of players «in one match and not over the course of two » which would give us two very different sides in each encounter. It remains to be seen whether Diawara will have the chance to cross his former team-mates?
There will most likely be a change in formation as well as personnel. The main formation is the 4-3-3 we have seen during the last few matches, but the coach is not ruling out the possibility of changes in view of the coming season: «There will be different line-ups and maybe different formations as I want to have all the answers before the start of the L1 campaign. I won’t be stuck on one formation, but I don’t want to try something in the league without having tested it in a friendly match.» The game against Bordeaux will allow me to balance playing time and to work on different systems as «the entire squad is available and they have all taken part in each training session » states Deschamps.
A “big” friendly game?
The French champions will be facing the team that finished runners-up, there will be the reunion between Laurent Blanc and Didier Deschamps, the stadium at Dax is already sold out, there are a lot of elements that have brought people to consider this friendly “the” match of pre-season. However, this is far from the opinion of the coach who, as he stated on Monday, only sees «a pre-season friendly ». Worse, he would have preferred to have not played Bordeaux. «I would have preferred to avoid them, not because its Bordeaux but because I don’t like playing friendlies against a side we will meet in the first month of competition , he announced, it just happened, it’s not easy finding sides to play against. We will play, but there is nothing at stake tomorrow.» Certainly there will be some big names out on the pitch and probably some great play, but it is only a friendly.
What level are Bordeaux at?
Just like OM, Bordeaux will be playing their third pre-season friendly on Tuesday. They have so far managed a draw with Brest (1-1) and a defeat against Toulouse (0-1). For the moment they are still training at Le Haillan and did a double session on Monday with some jogging and mach play. Reinforced during the transfer window with Plasil, Carrasso and the definitive transfer of Gourcuff fromn AC Milan, Bordeaux have a squad which is almost complete, apart from the injured youngsters Diabaté and Traoré. Laurent Blanc will take a group of 22 players to Dax, including Chamakh who has still not left the club. Once they have played OM, Bordeaux will fly off to Montréal for the Champions Trophy match against Guingamp on Saturday.
