KPatterson

Saturday 13th September 2003

Marseille v Bordeaux
Stade Velodrome
French First League

Despite the fact that Bordeaux were yet to win a league game before their visit to Stade Velodrome, I always thought today’s game would be a tricky one. The players could easily have lost their rhythm because of the break an international weekend causes, and in the first half it certainly looked that way.

Our passing was sloppy and the players looked a little tired, even at this early stage in the season. Admittedly, some of them have played in every minute of every game so far this season, but I felt that we were more lacklustre than tired so I gave them a bit of a boot up the backside at halftime. It definitely had the desired effect.

We came out a lot sharper and moved quickly into top gear. We put tremendous pressure on the Bordeaux goal in the opening stages of the second period and it took just 8 minutes for Kallstrom to break the deadlock. Borbiconi clipped the ball down the line to Drogba who flicked it inside to the on rushing Swede for his first goal in Marseille colours.

That goal signalled the opening of the floodgates as Kallstrom turned provider on two occasions from corner kicks as Khrapkovskiy twice rose above defenders to head home. The big Belarusian has been a marvel so far and those two goals took his tally for the season to three and makes him the joint second top scorer at the club.

We now have just two whole days to recover before we play Besiktas here in our first group game in the Champions League.

Marseille 3 – 0 Bordeaux
Marseille: Runje, Beye, Borbiconi, Mexes, Khrapkovskiy, Edson Araujo, Vachousek (Skacel 76), Arteta, Kallstrom (Meite 76), Mido, Drogba (Dagoberto 76).
Marseille scorers: Kallstrom, Khrapkovskiy 2
MoM: Khrapkovskiy

KPatterson

Monday 15th September 2003

We received a welcome boost before tomorrow’s game when Philippe Christanval returned to training, and he may even manage a place on the bench for the match. The 25 year old centre back is still a long way off match fitness, but I think it will heighten his confidence if he can feel part of the squad. He’s been out a long time and I’m sure he’s missed being involved.

Christanval has a good pedigree having had spells at Barcelona and Monaco, and he has 6 caps for the French national team as well. However, my assistants Jean-Philippe Durand and Albert Emon (why I have two I don’t know) tell me that that Christanval doesn’t have a lot of pace and he isn’t too good in the air. Thankfully his reading of the game is second to none according to them. It had better be, otherwise he won’t be playing much under me.

To help him regain match fitness we’ll play him in a couple of reserve games before he figures in the first team. That will also give me a chance to see what he can do. When he does regain full fitness he may have a bit of trouble getting back into the team no matter how good he is, such is the form of Khrapkovskiy whose partnership with Mexes seems to be improving with every game.

Christanval’s return means that Torres Mestre and Dos Santos are our only first team players currently on the sidelines with an injury, although they are still three months and two weeks away from fitness respectively.