A new season, a new Olympique de Marseille head coach. However, if the club thought they were going to be able to save on interpreting expenses after Chilean Jorge Sampaoli (and his interpreter) went out the door in the summer, they should’ve thought better than hiring Igor Tudor (and his). Croatian to French football interpreters must be in short supply so Tudor, who spent much of his playing career in Italy, looks as if he’s going to have to use his Italian a fair bit for the next little while.
Here’s what he and others had to say about OM’s opening weekend 4-1 victory over Stade de Reims.
Marseille midfielder Valentin Rongier:
“Not everything was perfect although we’re not going to be too fussy. Winning like this in front of our fans in the first game of the season is what we had to do. We scored four but we also conceded one, we didn’t manage to keep a clean sheet. I think we lacked a bit of energy to take the game to them more in the second half. But it’s normal, we’ve just done a pre-season and the way we want to play requires a lot of intensity.”
“I think you can see that there are moments when we are too slow (in our counter-pressing and intensity). We haven’t quite mastered knowing exactly when to press but we’re getting better and better in training every day thanks to the tactical sessions we’re doing. In any case, we’re really pleased with our performance today.”
“We’re really happy that the squad is getting stronger with players of a very high quality, which they showed tonight. It’s really good that everyone can bring something to the team because it’s going to be a long season, we’re going to need everyone. With five substitutes every game, everyone will get game time and we’ll need that.”
Watch Rongier’s interview here.
OM’s new head coach Igor Tudor:
“I’m obviously happy because it was a comfortable, well-deserved victory. I really liked how we played in the first half – lots of intensity, we pressed well, lots of crosses…we worked on all of these things in training. The second half wasn’t quite as good but overall we totally deserved our win. I have to congratulate the players and also the fans for the atmosphere they created.”
Reims manager Óscar García:
“Our idea was to control the game in the first half and especially not concede a goal in the first 15 to 20 minutes. We knew that if we did that, they’d get frustrated. But that’s not how things worked out, we were unlucky to score an own goal and the second goal in the last minute of the first half hurt us. But I think we were much better in the second half and I think the final scoreline was harsh.”