At the Vélodrome stadium,
A ball inherited just in front of the central circle, a climb of a good fifteen meters before sending a heavy dry strike almost at ground level to beat Philipp Köhn. A shot and a goal worthy of an attacker scored by Leonardo Balerdi, just after returning from the locker room (50th) to allow Olympique de Marseille to come back to the score against AS Monaco (2-2), Saturday evening at Vélodrome stadium during the 19th day of Ligue 1. Enough to blow up the entire Vélodrome stadium with this “golazo”. “I controlled, I moved forward, and I didn’t ask myself any questions. I have the confidence and we were higher on the pitch. I’m happy for the goal, my family was there in the stands,” said the defender who has just celebrated his 25th birthday.
So much for the best, except that like his team, the Marseille defender is also capable of the worst despite his full confidence. And unfortunately we got another glimpse of it a few minutes earlier, just before returning to the locker room. On a ball lost by Aubameyang at the entrance to the area, the Marseillais suffered lightning, enough to make Balerdi dizzy. Ben Yedder calmly led the attack to fix the Argentinian, before serving Akliouche on the right side.
And rather than following the ball, with his eyes as in the race, Balerdi preferred to take a look in the rear to finally let the young Monegasque calmly adjust Pau Lopez (45+4). Unforgivable defensive placement and body orientation at this level, even if Balerdi has shown a lot of progress in recent weeks. Despite this defensive wandering, he was again the best defender on Saturday night and it is no longer a coincidence that his name is mentioned towards certain big clubs like Atlético Madrid.
Small mistakes that cost a lot of money
Like the Marseille supporters, we are once again hard on Balerdi and the fault is more to be placed at the credit of Aubameyang on the second Monegasque goal. What the striker readily admitted: “I have to finish the action with a cross or a strike. If the team does not take the second goal, we win.” Too bad when we know that the Marseille number 10 had just equalized for the first time, a few minutes earlier in surface fox mode (39th).
However, it had already been almost half an hour that Gennaro Gattuso’s men had been playing in numerical superiority after the severe expulsion of Maripan (11th) in a duel with Vitinha. But because of small individual errors, like that of Balerdi, the Marseillais had already been chasing the score for almost as long, and the opening of Ben Yedder left behind the entire four-man defense cobbled together by Gattuso ( 7th).
“I think we are not happy, we have to win this match. It’s hard we don’t have all the players but we have no excuses. We were missing a goal, we had a good match but to concede the second goal, or even the first, we have to be more careful because it’s too easy,” admitted Balerdi.
“The representation of what we are”
His coach was ultimately more lenient with his players: “Before the match, everyone was sure we were going to lose. But we did what we had to. Of course, we had an advantage by playing 11 against 10, we also missed things. But I saw a team alive, that could win. I can’t fault them for anything. It’s hard not to have won, it’s a big frustration, of course. »
A great frustration, born as much from defensive errors as from Vitinha’s countless misses, which once again costs points. OM are standing still with this new draw and are missing the opportunity to come back against a direct opponent. As for more than a month and the points shared in Montpellier just before the break (1-1).
“I think it’s a representation of who we are. We have to look forward, but honestly I don’t think it’s possible to ask them for more. They did what they had to do. I’m not going to talk about bad luck, but small episodes cost us dearly. With the staff and the players we have not yet found the solution to reverse the trend,” Gennaro Gattuso could only admit.
The next match, at Olympique Lyonnais, still in poor shape after the defeat against Rennes, could cost even more, especially mentally. But OM will be able to count on the good form of Balerdi, despite his few wanderings, he who denied any departure during these last days of the winter transfer window.