At the Toulouse Stadium,
The Netflix cameras have not (yet?) invested the locker rooms of Ligue 1 like the backstage of F1 or tennis, while waiting for those of the Six Nations Tournament, the Tour de France and of La Liga. We will therefore not know precisely what speech Igor Tudor made at the break of this TFC – OM (2-3), Sunday.
But the Croatian coach managed to transform an apathetic formation in “the worst first half of the season”, according to Pau Lopez, into a team capable of reversing the situation in seven minutes (goals from Mbemba and Ünder, 57th and 59th ). And, finally, to win a badly embarked match, to follow in the footsteps of the other four members of the top 5 (Paris, Monaco, Lens and Rennes), all victorious earlier in this 24th day of L1.
“I told them: ‘If you want to take points, you will have to have a very good second half'”, indicated to the press the coach of the 2nd in L1, five points behind a PSG again expected from firm footing at the Vélodrome next Sunday. Given the size of the man, we did not dare to ask his translator (in English) how to say “true truism” in Croatian.
Ounahi released at the break
We just tried a raise, to get a few more details. We let you be the judge of the result: “I told them most of the things I told you, that to take points against a good team, you would have to do better, press more. The Toulousains have dropped a little physically and our qualities have made the difference. »
The technician also released Azzedine Ounahi, or rather the ghost of the Moroccan revelation of the last World Cup, at half-time to launch another winter recruit, Ruslan Malinovskyi, whose volley from a corner brought Chancel Mbemba’s equalizer . Precisely, the Congolese defender stopped in the mixed zone, a few minutes after the furtive passage of its president Pablo Longoria, silent but radiant: “When we returned to the locker room, the coach spoke, then our captain [Valentin Rongier]then every player,” the centre-back listed.
“He didn’t yell at us”
Yes, but what exactly did Tudor say to make his players overturn the table and win their 9th victory away from the Vélodrome this season in Ligue 1, the sixth in a row, which makes OM the best team in the championship at the moment? outside? Has it stung some players more than others? Did he speak in English, in Italian, in Esperanto? “The coach had the right words at half-time to boost us, all together we came out on the field to change the course of the match and we did it well”, quickly dropped Jordan Veretout, another Marseille attendant. the mixed zone.
No need to insist, since obviously what is said in the locker room stays in the locker room: “He didn’t yell at us, he just found the right words, repeated the international environment, who “grit his teeth” after taking a knock early in the game. We knew we had a bad first half and that if we kept playing like that, we were going to lose. »
He had the words, got them hooked. We do not know if Sheryfa Luna broke through in Croatia, but this hit from the 2000s sticks well to the Tudor effect. The 44-year-old former defender did not know any state of grace when he arrived in Marseille last summer, for lack of flashy references on the various benches he had frequented until then in Croatia, Turkey, Greece or Italy. . But he managed to seduce a club and an extremely demanding environment, developing an often attractive game and allowing OM to score 52 points after 24 matches in L1, unheard of in Marseille history.
Next Sunday, Alexis Sanchez and his friends will try to bring down PSG, like on February 8 in the Coupe de France (2-1), and get two points closer to Mbappé and Messi. Until then, Tudor shouldn’t need big speeches to motivate his players.