Although PSG had players and some fans missing, including their star forward Ousmane Dembélé who was crowned the Ballon d’Or winner on the same night, Le Classique ended up being a stunning affair.
Roberto de Zerbi’s enthusiasm paid off as Olympique de Marseille beat PSG 1-0.
After the game, De Zerbi spoke of his joy at beating the French Champions:
“One of the reasons I came to Marseille was to beat PSG, because they represent power, and I don’t like power; a team that has been winning for years, almost without a rival, it’s something that I don’t accept.”
The Italian’s usual fieriness was clear as day, culminating in a red card for the coach towards the end of the game.
However, De Zerbi’s game plan and tactics were anything but trademark.
OM hit them quickly on the counterattack, but what was really key to their game plan was making sure that Marseille and their defenders jumped on PSG’s most dangerous and effective players when they had the ball in the tight half-spaces, where they can be dangerous.
In this tactical football analysis, we will analyze Roberto De Zerbi tactics and how his Marseille side stifled Paris Saint-Germain out of possession.
Marseille Pressing Tactics Vs PSG
With PSG setting up in a back five, Luis Enrique’s men were unable to call upon the services of Ousmane Dembélé, João Neves, Bradley Barcola, and Désiré Doué, not because the players were celebrating at the Balon d’Or ceremony but because they had injuries to contend with.
By the 55th minute in the game, PSG had only entered Marseille’s penalty area twice as the tactics and game plan paid off from De Zerbi.
Of course, when you set out to stifle and defend against a team, it always helps to score early, but Marseille did this by pressing PSG when they had the ball deep in the build-up.
As you can see from above, Marseille pressed PSG in clusters of the pit, whichever side they were on.
Before Illia Zabarnyi receives the cut-off ball to switch, to the left of him, you can see five Marseille players pressing PSG in one corner of the pitch.
This meant that even with dropping deep, small, diminutive midfielders who can wriggle out of tight situations weren’t able to do so, and were doubly not available for the pass.
As the former Bournemouth defender switches the ball, a pressing Marseille forward cuts off the pass he sends.
Eventually, PSG have nowhere to turn, and it results in a corner.
Mason Greenwood sends in a cross that ricochets in the air and is made a mess of by the goalkeeper, leading to Nayef Aguerd heading into an empty net.
The advantage of playing a back five is that you can push the wing-backs up very high and have a wide three-man defence, allowing you to stretch the opposition across the pitch.
In PSG’s case, this allowed Nuno Mendes to push up into attack or midfield, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia could either drop deep or as wide as he liked.
The problem PSG ran into with this was Marseille’s press.
A forward would push up onto whichever side a PSG defender had the ball, swiftly closing them down.
When a dropping striker in Kvaratskhelia came deep for the ball, Timothy Weah would push on him.
Even with Les Parisiens dropping their three midfielders deep, Marseille matched them up with an extra defender or midfielder, thereby limiting their space in the central areas of the pitch.
Now, how could PSG combat this and find an alternative solution?
Well, the answer was actually right in front of them.
At some points in the game, perhaps because they were not receiving the space they normally get, their midfielders began to roam around.
Fabián Ruiz, Warren Zaïre-Emery, and Vitinha would drop very wide next to the defender, allowing the ball to be played deep into their own half, to the left or to the right.
But because of the way PSG play, the emphasis is always on patience and possession.
The build-up (at least in Ligue 1) tends to be slower, so even when Ruiz would find himself on the ball in spaces like the one shown, he didn’t drive forward with purpose or pace.
Instead, he would opt to keep the ball or make a safer pass, allowing PSG to move up the field a few yards and continue playing the ball from side to side.
This allowed Marseille to return to their compact defensive shape and catch a breather, while PSG failed to capitalize on the space they could rarely find in the game.
Jumping In The Half-Spaces
As PSG attacked in their 3-3 defence to midfield shape, Luis Enrique could be seen on the touchline gesticulating with his arm cast to push the ball wide where the spaces and Achraf Hakimi were.
The problem was that this was the perfect signal for Marseille to jump and press at the right time in their 5-3-2 shape.
When a full-back or winger like Kvaratskhelia received the ball wide, the Marseille full-back, depending on which side the attack was on, would immediately jump to close them down.
In this case, it’s Emerson.
As a cluster of players moves over to help, they crucially crowd the PSG attackers on the ball and ensure that, importantly, the ball inside the half-space to a PSG midfielder is very limited.
Marseille were happy not to overcommit, staying in a compact 5-3-2 shape, but when a PSG player attempted to receive in the half-spaces, Marseille sensed the danger and rightfully made a move to steal the ball from them or crowd them out.
Why they felt this was important and why they did this so much has something to do with the fact that players in the half-space are becoming increasingly important because if they can trap the ball, turn, and go, they can dribble into space.
Similarly, however, if they are able to trap and hold the ball up, other players can enter the game and make dangerous runs off them.
Marseille sensed this and shut it down by committing a defensive action when it mattered.
This also ended up being a way for Marseille to lose possession of the ball.
Because six PSG attackers were committed up the pitch trying to score, this led to counterattacking opportunities for Marseille, which they took advantage of, hitting the bar.
This example below perfectly describes how effective Marseille’s ‘selective’ jumping was.
PSG finally squirmed the ball through in the centre of the pitch through midfield, and as the ball was passed on to Kvaratskhelia, he was tightly marked by one of Marseille’s three centre-backs pushing up from defence.
Eventually, Benjamin Pavard ends up bringing the Georgian striker down for a foul, but Marseille knew where the danger lay and when they had to be tough and tight against an opponent, preventing them from finding gaps in their defense.
Conclusion
As I said earlier in the piece, PSG had absences, and Marseille scored early.
However, none of this detracts from the fact that De Zerbi quickly recognized that his team had to be compact without the ball and knew when to press, who to press, and how aggressively to press their most dangerous attackers to find space.
Each tackle, foul, and Marseille counterattack was helped by a boisterous home crowd cheering each action, making things all the sweeter and encouraging for Les Phocéens.
Perhaps with the absences, De Zerbi and his men also knew who to target.
With PSG’s best dribblers out, the focus was more on Mendes, Ruiz, Zaïre-Emery, and Vitinha.
PSG’s potent weapon is its ability to play in tight spaces while giving its players the confidence and freedom to escape challenges from defenders themselves.
Marseille chose when to step in and do this, and picked the right attackers to target.
At the same time, Marseille pushed high to press PSG’s build-up, giving them no time or room to pick out the central midfielders.
It felt as if De Zerbi knew that this was the best way to beat the Champions League holders.
While his time at Marseille has been more transformational and rigid than the way he might’ve played at Brighton and Sassuolo, it’s still admirable that a coach of his stature used tactics out of possession to beat PSG.
In a week in which we’ve seen a coach as magnificent as Pep Guardiola rip the blueprint up and opt for transition opportunities while soaking up pressure, it was fascinating to see De Zerbi combine his usually aggressive and fast football with apt tactics to stifle arguably the best team in the world.
