It’s rarely a goalfest, and it’s not always exciting.
That will sound familiar to English readers who remember Andre Villas-Boas from his Premier League stints with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.
At Marseille, that much has not changed, but the Portuguese’s standing is the highest it has been since he won the Europa League as a 33-year-old head coach at Porto almost a decade ago.
There was always a sense that “AVB” was given his big shot at English football a few years too early.
The pressures of working under Roman Abramovich led to him sleeping in a Japanese style pod at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground.
Daniel Levy did not prove a much kinder master, sacking the young manager nine days before Christmas and replacing him with Tim Sherwood.
At Stade Velodrome, he is finally sleeping easier. While Villas-Boas’ relationship with the board hasn’t been easy and he is still having to persist with rumours of a takeover from Saudi Arabia, he has finally found a club where he is loved by millions of normally vociferous supporters.
They will not be present when Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City roll into town on Tuesday night for the second round of Group C Champions League fixtures. Instead, they will be watching at home as Marseille relish being back at Europe’s highest table for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
France’s best supported club have experienced plenty of lows since winning the competition in 1993, when they beat AC Milan in the final. There have been flirtations with relegation, assaults on the established big hitters, and 24 different managers since the turn of the century. Marcelo Bielsa, the Leeds United manager, quit just one game into the season in 2015.
The hot seat’s current incumbent has had his own quarrels with the board. Villas-Boas threatened to leave when he lost his sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta in May. He was convinced to stay on until the end of the season and now finds himself on the cusp of earning a new contract.
AVB meets Guardiola a decade on from their European triumphs
Marseille have lost just once in the league this season and go into the City game on the back of consecutive wins over Bordeaux and Lorient.
The latter they managed without Dimitri Payet, who sat out through suspension.
Along with Florian Thauvin, the former West Ham playmaker will be one of their greatest threats against a City side that has kept just two clean sheets in eight games in all competitions so far this season.
The Premier League outfit still travel to France as clear favourites, but Villas-Boas has reasons for optimism as he prepares to field five at the back to thwart an attack missing both Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus.
At White Hart Lane, that spoiling approach did not always yield results, particularly against big six sides. Spurs were on the receiving end of some horrendous results under Villas-Boas, a 5-0 loss at home to Liverpool proving the final straw before he was dismissed.
Marseille still come unstuck sometimes as caution remains paramount. In their opening Champions League fixture, they suffered a 1-0 defeat in the last minute away to Olympiakos, leaving them with an uphill struggle to make the last-16.
Yet their presence in the competition at all is testament to the progress Villas-Boas has made personally.
Two and a half years ago, it seemed he was ready to quit management altogether, moving from Shanghai SIPG into rally driving.
A serious crash in Dakar curtailed his career prospects in that sport, mindful of his young family.
Since returning to football, a man who was once mentored by Bobby Robson and Jose Mourinho has shown he is still willing to learn. Marseille have been reaping the rewards.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3kwVnvy
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