PLAYER RATINGS | Marseille 4-1 Montpellier: Emphatic first Ligue 1 victory in 2024 for Les Phocéens

If the decision to fire Gennaro Gattuso was widely accepted to be the right call from Olympique Marseille then it was the timing that left questions. It was a decision that had been brewing for weeks but was eventually made a few days ahead of the second leg of their Europa League playoff against Shakhtar Donetsk. 

The tie was still very much in the balance after a 2-2 opening leg and the conventional wisdom was that Gattuso would at least lead the team into this match. Why throw the club into chaos before the most important fixture in their calendar? 

Only conventional wisdom is not something Marseille operates on. They are a team borne out of unexpected decisions and unexpected times, and to the club’s credit, their choice to swap Gattuso for Jean-Louis Gasset looked to be the right call as a new manager bounce saw Marseille win for the first time since the 7th of January as they cruised to a 3-1 victory. 

That victory came with an early goal against them, and Marseille looked to repeat the scenario as Montpellier opened the scoring within five minutes. A poor clearance from Samuel Gigot sliced the ball across the box and into danger as Musa Al-Taamari sensing the opportunity headed the falling ball home. 

Montpellier looked composed out of possession and broke with a ferocity that looked to completely unsettle Marseille immediately after the goal. And yet all it took was a momentary lapse in communication for the hosts to level the scores. Iliman Ndiaye capitalised as Benjamin Lecomte and Cheikhou Kouyaté struggled to recover from stumbling over one another. 

Marseille rode this momentum and finished the half with a confident performance capped off by a beautiful passing move that saw Ismaïla Sarr and Chancel Mbemba