Stade Brestois – Olympique Marseille: Transitions Are Still De Zerbi’s Top Trump (1-5)

Generating counters against a chaotic defense is Roberto De Zerbi’s bread and butter, but Olympique Marseille is still a few tools short of what they want to become. And don’t let a crazy scoreline fool you into thinking they dominated in their opening game of the season.

Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.

A gloomy summer in French football has been spearheaded by one coach’s arrival. Roberto De Zerbi was expected to land at one of the European elites, so turning up at Marseille can be considered a major coup.

That isn’t to say expectations have been low in Marseille. Tetchy ultras demand success and De Zerbi has pressure to keep his patternized play fresh after his Brighton team had gone stale. He has landed his targets too: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg arrived on loan from Spurs, Elye Wahi was brought in from RC Lens and Mason Greenwood was signed, despite the mayor’s disapproval and many fans protesting against the club, citing alleged domestic violence charges.

Greeting De Zerbi, in his first game, was Ligue 1’s surprise package of last season. Eric Roy led a team that had never finished above eighth into the Champions League spots. Brest lost Steve Mounié upfront, as well as Lilian Brassier (to Marseille) and Martín Satriano (on loan from Internazionale) but Romain Faivre has rejoined his former club on loan from Bournemouth.

Brest started the season in a 4-3-3 formation, with Jordan Amavi – who just signed from Marseille for free, after a season on loan at Brest, preferred at left-back. Experienced midfielder Jonas Martin was . . .