With the exception of Samir Nasri, out with a sprained left ankle, Albert Emon has his full squad at his disposal and is preparing in the best possible way for the season ahead.

Since Tuesday, Olympique de Marseille’s squad has been assembled in its entirety. Indeed, while the players in Capbreton finished their training camp, the African internationals (Habib Beye, Karim Ziani, Taye Taiwo and Modeste M’Bami), accompanied by Djibril Cissé and Boudewijn Zenden resumed training at the Commanderie. And so on Tuesday morning, after 48 hours of rest for those who went to Capbreton, the complete squad was assembled for the first time. “It’s always fascinating to see everyone together, ready to train,” enthused Albert Emon. “But when there are a lot of people, it requires serious concentration on the work at hand.”

However, the purely tactical work has not yet begun. The OM manager has decided to wait until such time as all his squad members are at roughly the same fitness level before moving to this stage.
The players who arrived at the end of last week are still in the basic stages of their physical preparations, while the others a fit and ready to go. “Even if they never quite bridge the gap, they’ll get close,” noted the OM manager.
It’s also for this reason that the player present at Capbreton will, on Wednesday, travel to Sète for a friendly match against Montpellier (L2). The African internationals as well as Djibril Cissé and Boudewijn Zenden will stay at the Commanderie to continue their work there.

“We’ll keep training going until tomorrow, and we’ll just look at the friendly matches as training matches with a bit more oomph,” announced Albert Emon. As early as next week the Olympiens will get stuck into it with some serious tactical work that they will be able to put into practice in the 4 friendly matches that remain before Ligue 1 resumes.

Montpellier-OM: Wednesday July 11 in Sète at the Stade Louis Michel and Marcel Tomaszower at 20h.
Watch the game on OMtv on July 12 at 18:05