Olympique de Marseille beat Toulouse 2-0. I read that on Monday, at the chip shop, in my weekly. The score had not changed.
Then there is the press conference. Bruno Genesio admitted that his team had curled up further in its own box in the second half. “We curled up a bit,” he told RMC Sport. He speaks of “traumas”. Those of Angers. A week earlier, Angers had come close to pulling back level against OM despite trailing by four goals.
I’m not criticising. I’m comparing.
In 1980, a team that was ahead also dropped back. It dropped back into its own box, in the pouring rain, and nobody asked it why. People said it was holding the score. Nobody then stood in front of microphones to explain what he had felt. On Monday, you read the result. Two-nil. That was enough.
Today, you lead, you drop back, you win, then you explain. Note that I like the word. Curled up. It is a precise word. There is even a “bit” in front of it. You can feel a man weighing things. I have known managers who weighed nothing, and they won too.
Marcel, curling up is my second-half game plan. We defend up the slope.
Freddy calls that a plan. I call it a Sunday at three o’clock.
What troubles me is the week. A comeback that never happened, against Angers, is enough to make a team drop back a week later, against Toulouse. In my day, we forgot the match by Tuesday. Now we carry it around with us.
OM won 2-0. Well. It’s the times.
It’s true, we checked: RMC Sport.
