Marseille’s European night dissolved in the closing stages as Besiktas ran out 4-1 winners, leaving Bruno Genesio to confront another painful collapse from his side.
The OM coach said his team had competed well for long periods on Thursday, much as they had in last Friday’s 1-0 Ligue 1 defeat at Rennes. But once Marseille lost their shape after falling further behind, the match escaped them completely.
Quick facts
- Marseille lost 4-1 to Besiktas in the Europa League on Thursday.
- Genesio felt OM were level with, or slightly better than, their opponents before the decisive late spell.
- He highlighted Marseille’s passive defending from a corner as a key failure.
- The coach admitted the team have repeatedly failed to correct the same problems since the opening match.
- Genesio said changing system may not be the answer, but accepted there is major mental work to do.
Genesio believed Marseille had responded well in the first half and created opportunities to take the lead. He also saw a promising opening five to 10 minutes after the interval before the performance unravelled.
“After that, we mixed everything up: tactically and in terms of concentration,” he said. “On the corner for their goal, we were completely passive. At the end, it was chaos at every level.”
The Marseille manager said the scale of the defeat could have been worse. His biggest concern was not simply the result, but the sense that his players stopped believing they could find a route back when Besiktas went 3-1 ahead.
“We had chances to make it 3-2, but we did not look as though we still had the energy to do it,” Genesio said. “Once we were behind by two goals, we forgot the basics, became disorganised and were punished.”
For Genesio, the repeated nature of Marseille’s setbacks means they cannot be dismissed as bad luck. He said the staff must examine why the same flaws have continued from the start of the campaign.
“When things happen again and again, it is not coincidence,” he said. “There are reasons, and we have to analyse them properly.”
The coach also addressed his own position during what he called a particularly harsh spell. He did not suggest he would walk away, but accepted his responsibility for a side that has not found solutions quickly enough.
“As a coach, there is always responsibility,” he said. “I have to question myself. Since the first game, we have not managed to fix these errors. We are asking ourselves whether more things need to change.”
Genesio was unconvinced that a tactical overhaul alone would solve Marseille’s troubles, arguing that the players still have reference points in their current setup. The more urgent issue, he said, is psychological: Marseille keep chasing matches, and each repeat of that pattern leaves a deeper mark.
