Ligue 1 2020/21: Marseille vs Bordeaux

Marseille came into this game with mixed feelings, seeing as they had drawn their previous three games. Even though they showed great promise at the beginning of Ligue 1 by beating PSG, their progress has slowed down. With the win in this game, they will go to the UEFA Champions League with a good spirit.

On the other hand, Bordeaux had won, drawn, and lost games in their previous three. In their last game, they beat Dijon by 3-0 which was great. They sit in twelfth place in the league but have the team and potential to be doing better.

This game ended in a 3-1 win for Marseille in their stadium. They were quite superior throughout and the game was conditioned by the early lead that Marseille took in the fifth minute. This meant that from the beginning, Bordeaux had to set their tactics in order to make a comeback and Marseille had to keep the lead and seek to make it higher.

In this tactical analysis, we will observe both team’s tactics, especially how Marseille using a 4-3-1-2 impacted the game. In this analysis, we will check how Bordeaux tried to combat the fact that Marseille had no wingers and thus, how Marseille planned to minimise this disadvantage.

Lineups

As mentioned before, Marseille played in a 4-3-1-2, with Darío Benedetto and Florian Thuavin leading the attack. In the midfield was Morgan Sanson, Boubacar Kamara, Valentin Rongier, and Michaël Cuisance just ahead of them. The two full-backs were Jordan Amavi and Hiroki Sakai, with Álvaro González and Duje Ćaleta-Car as centre-backs.

Bordeaux played the whole game in a 4-2-3-1. The sole striker was Nicolas de Préville and Hatem Ben Arfa behind him as attacking midfielder. To Ben Arfa’s sides were Yacine Adli and Rémi Oudin. The two pivots were Toma Bašić and Otávio. Then, the back four consisted of Loris Benito, Pablo, Paul Baysse, and Youssouf Sabaly.