‘Fundamentals, desire, rhythm’ – Bielsa disciple Sampaoli’s stimulating start at Marseille – tactical analysis

Jorge Sampaoli is almost two months into his reign as manager of Olympique de Marseille and thus far, the 61-year-old Argentinian has been quite successful in a job that’s been described as carrying “suffocating pressure”. Sampaoli led Marseille to 16 points in his first seven games in charge at the Orange Vélodrome, which is the best start to life at the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur-based club since his compatriot and mentor Marcelo Bielsa, whos currently in charge of EPL side Leeds United after winning the EFL Championship last season, was Marseille boss.

With the current top-four, Olympique Lyonnais, Monaco, PSG and Lille, far ahead of the chasing pack in Ligue 1 at present, the best that Sampaoli could realistically achieve on arrival at Les Olympiens is fifth place and thanks to his side’s positive start to life under his management, Sampaoli has got Marseille challenging for that fifth-place finish.

On arrival at Marseille, Sampaoli declared that his goal for this season was to transform the team from the André Villas-Boas version by putting “in place a playing philosophy” by returning “to the fundamentals, desire, rhythm” and while it’s still early days for the Argentinian in France, his Marseille side is already vastly different to that of his predecessor in several areas, which perhaps gives us an indication of the playing philosophy that Sampaoli intends to mould this team around.

This tactical analysis provides analysis of the tactics that Sampaoli has used in the early stages of his time in charge of Marseille. We’ll look at some key elements of the tactical philosophy he is bringing to Orange Vélodrome and how it has quickly brought some success to his new team.

Sampaoli’s Marseille in the build-up

Firstly, we’ll look at how Sampaoli’s new side have played in the build-up. One glaring change in Marseille’s tactics under their new manager is they’ve been playing with three centre-backs regularly, whereas before Sampaoli’s arrival, they typically played with two centre-back formations  usually either 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. Under Sampaoli, Marseille have primarily utilised either 3-4-1-2 or 3-4-2-1.

This is somewhat reminiscent of Marseille under Sampaoli’s friend and mentor Bielsa, as they also frequently played with three centre-backs. However, the similarities between Sampaoli and Bielsa don’t stop there, as like his compatriot Bielsa, Sampaoli also favours a heavily possession-based style of play, which has been evident in his time as Marseille manager thus far.

In their eight Ligue 1 games under Sampaoli, Marseille have kept an average of 58.4% possession per 90. Over the course of the 2020/21 season so far in its entirety, however, Les Olympiens have kept a lower average of 52.8% possession per 90.

This is a fairly significant difference that highlights a key element of the tactical philosophy that Sampaoli intends to bring to his new team. Marseille fans can expect to see their side attempt to dominate the ball more under their new, possession-focused manager. Had Marseille kept an average of 58.4% possession over the entire course of the Ligue 1 season, they’d be second only to PSG in this particular area.

Marseille would also be second only to PSG in the area of passes per 90 if their average under Sampaoli so far were their average for the entire season. Les Olympiens have played an average of 548.75 passes per 90 over their last eight league games, which is far more than the average of 445.62 passes per 90 that they’ve played over the entire season so far.

Sampaoli’s side hasn’t just shown that they intend to play a lot of passes, however, they’ve also shown that they intend to play a lot of progressive passes. Over the entirety of the 2020/21 Ligue 1 campaign, Marseille have played an average of 67.13 progressive passes per 90, which is fewer than as many as seven other Ligue 1 sides, however, in their eight league games under Sampaoli, Les Olympiens have played an average of 81 progressive passes per 90. If they’d managed to play that number of progressive passes per 90 over the course of the season, they’d have played the most progressive passes per 90 of any side in Ligue 1 by a notable margin.

So, Sampaoli’s football isn’t just heavy on possession and a large volume of passes, but he incorporates a lot of verticality into his football and he encourages his team to be constantly looking for line-breaking passes that get the ball upfield, into more dangerous positions from where his team can threaten the opposition goal. They are constantly looking to get forward with accurate passes, but at the same time, daring and threatening forward passes. This is something that distinguishes Sampaoli, which Marseille fans can expect to be a staple of their side’s football for the foreseeable future.

In figure 1, we see an example of how Sampaoli’s Marseille have typically shaped up from a goal-kick. At this very early stage of the build-up, two of the centre-backs  the central one and often the right-sided one, stay inside the box and sit either side of the goalkeeper. Meanwhile, the other centre-back, often the left-sided centre-back as was the case here in figure 1, pushes into more of a full-back position.

The right wing-back also drops into a full-back position on the opposite side and the two central midfielders stay in line with those full-backs, centrally. The left wing-back advances into the left-wing position at this stage, with either the ‘number 10’, one of the strikers or the right-winger  depending on the formation  taking up the right-wing position. Then, either the ‘number 10’ or one of the strikers takes up the ‘10’ position at this stage, leaving just one striker up top, to complete a 2-4-3-1 shape at this stage.

Sampaoli’s Marseille are const