Marseille’s fans are getting the attacking soccer they demand under coach Gasset

PARIS (AP) — A change of coach has given Marseille’s demanding fans the attacking soccer they so crave.

Since Jean-Louis Gasset took charge, the team has scored 16 times in four games including the 4-0 home win against Villarreal in the Europa League late Thursday.

With 10 games remaining in the French league, there is even room for ambition. Seventh-place Marseille has closed the gap on third-place Monaco to six points and has an outside shot at qualifying for the Champions League.

“I’ve told the players that we haven’t hit top speed yet,” said Gasset, who has quickly improved their confidence. “We’re not scared to get on the ball. We’re playing better and better, in many different ways.”

It is a big transformation, considering how Marseille had been playing before his arrival late last month.

Marseille began the year with a scrappy 1-0 win against a non-league side in the French Cup. Weeks of drudgery followed as Marseille went seven games without a win and scored only seven goals.

Players went missing during games, and tension-filled defenders played with an acute dread of making mistakes.

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It led to the firing of Gennaro Gattuso, the former AC Milan and Italy midfielder, who replaced Spanish coach Marcelino after he resigned in September amid tensions.

While Gasset’s arrival has clearly galvanized the team, false dawns at Marseille are almost as common as the seagulls fluttering around its sunny port.

Gasset is Marseille’s third coach this season and 30th coach since the beginning of the century, the highest total of any top-flight club in France.

Eyebrows were raised when Marseille hired the 70-year-old Gasset until the end of the season. A month earlier, he had been fired as Ivory Coast coach during the African Cup of Nations.

Gasset was formerly Laurent Blanc’s assistant coach at Paris Saint-Germain from 2013-16. The first thing he did at Marseille was change from a counterattacking style to a possession-based approach. It worked against Clermont last Saturday, with four second-half goals in a 5-1 win.

“I don’t like leaving the ball to the opposition, it’s not my cup of tea. I would rather my team has it,” he said. “I liked how we played against Clermont. We didn’t do everything right, but we controlled the game.”

Gasset is getting a lot out of 34-year-old striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has scored six goals in four games since Gasset took charge — including two Thursday night against Villarreal in the first leg of the round of 16 — and celebrated each one with a trademark backflip.

The former Arsenal and Barcelona striker is Marseille’s top scorer with 21 goals, including nine in the league. On Sunday, he will look to add to that when Marseille hosts Nantes, which is hovering above the relegation zone.

MBAPPE DEPENDENCY

Kylian Mbappé's two goals against Real Sociedad on Tuesday not only put PSG into the Champions League quarterfinals, they highlighted how much PSG relies on him.

Mbappé led the French league with 21 goals heading into Sunday’s home game against Reims. That’s 15 more than any other PSG player, and nine more than Lille striker Jonathan David and Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette. They share second place with 12 each.

Mbappé's departure this summer will leave a giant void, both in PSG’s attack and in terms of the league’s prestige.

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