After the new setback of OM, beaten by Lorient (2-0) on Saturday for the 30th day of Ligue 1, Mehdi Benatia described the performance of his team as a “scandal,” as they struggle in their sprint for the Champions League. The sports director has promised a stricter approach and intense weeks ahead at La Commanderie.
He had planned not to speak until the end of the season, “because we talked too much in the first six months.” However, furious after the disappointing performance of OM in Lorient, Mehdi Benatia couldn’t resist talking to the media.
“I have no problem with being told that the players I brought in, who were very good in September, are now very bad. I have no problem with that. I accept that I brought in a new coach (Habib Beye) who is also not good… But when I see the match we played today (Saturday), even if I don’t want to talk, I am forced to come to the press, because it’s a scandal. It’s a scandal,” he ranted with a stern look.
“Zero, nobody came into the locker room and turned the table over?”
Fuming, the Marseille sports director did not hold back. Referring to “the sense of responsibility” and not sparing his players following a defeat that could cost them dearly in the race for the Champions League. “You play Lorient, who have nothing to play for, and you don’t win a duel, you don’t make any runs forward, you’re not proactive, you don’t try anything… You watch them, and in the stadium, they do the wave because they nutmeg you, do a step-over… Yes, that’s the truth,” he mocked.
“When you come here, and you have five finals to play (the last five matchdays, editor’s note) for a Champions League goal, it should show, except it doesn’t show. (Addressing a journalist) In your opinion, how many came into the locker room and turned the table over? Zero, nobody. Everything’s fine, the bottles are in place, all of that. So in fact, you play for Olympique de Marseille, you have a match like this, and you accept it?” Benatia continued.
“If we have to spend the next four weeks together…”
Very little dangerous and punished for two glaring marking errors, OM, temporarily fourth, risks seeing the podium slip away and letting Lyon and Rennes overtake them. The Olympians were returning from a training camp under the Marbella sun, aiming to improve group cohesion and work on certain tactical aspects. “Some will leave because they have the World Cup, they already have a club… And then in two months, we’ll say, ‘Oh, damn, he’s actually good!’ But here, you didn’t make the effort. That’s what’s more serious.”
And Mehdi Benatia continued: “So I told them (the players) not to plan anything for the next four weeks. We will spend more time together at La Commanderie. (…) We will go in the morning, in the afternoon, we will work, with a good nap in the middle. And we will work,” he promised.
“If the players think someone from the club has let go, we will show them that we are ready to spend every day at La Commanderie. There are people who come to work every day at 7 am and don’t earn what we earn. If spending time together helps boost things, we will do it.”
