This summer Marseille have been quick to strengthen their squad looking to mount a serious challenge to both the league and Champions League in 2012. Playmaker Morgan Amalfitano and Left Back Jeremy Morel joined from Lorient. Nicolas N’Koulou joined from Monaco to bolster the defence and Alou Diarra became the newest member of the squad this week as he joined from Bordeaux.
Most of the signings replace players that have already moved on, Taye Taiwo and Gabriel Heinze left at the start of the window and the rumours are that Diarra and Amalfitano will be replacements for Argentine midfielder Lucho Gonzalez who is heavily rumoured to be on the move this summer.
The general consensus is that Lucho had a poor season and the quality of his play had some part to play in Marseille finishing second in Ligue 1. If all the experts are right then Lucho will not be missed; but did Lucho really have that bad a season?
In 2010 Marseille finished the season in imperious form. 10 wins in the last 12 games led to L’OM taking a six point lead over 2nd place Lyon and crowned Ligue 1 champions for the first time since 1992. Lucho Gonzalez was instrumental in Marseille’s winning season; creating an impressive 6 goals in three games during April cementing his importance to Didier Deschamps side.
He finished the season with 12 assists, more than anyone else in Ligue 1, he was named “Player of the Month” in April, a period were Marseille and Gonzalez were imperious in their assent to the title. Surprisingly he missed out on a nomination for “Player of the Year” and wasn’t named in the Ligue 1 “Team of the Year” even though his superb play was paramount to Marseille’s success.
In the season just gone Marseille’s target was to lift Le Championnat for the second successive season, but in the end they would come up short and Lille finished 8 points clear at the top of the table. Gone was 18 goal-man Mamadou Niang but Andre-Pierre Gignac and Loic Remy were brought in to adequately replace the Fenerbahce striker. In fact Marseille only scored 2 fewer goals than in the previous season, conceded one less goal and collected only four fewer points than when they won the title. In theory the 72 points won back in 2010 wouldn’t have been enough to displace Lille, although facts like that are easy to dismiss.
Time and time again Marseille’s poor form was placed firmly on the shoulders of Lucho Gonzalez. The creative force of last season wasn’t performing as the L’OM faithful had remembered from his debut season. Gignac and Remy weren’t benefiting from his excellent passing ability, the spark of 2010 had gone, or had it?
Along with his 12 assists in 2009/10 Lucho chipped in with 5 goals including the opening goal in a 4-2 win over Montpellier, the second in a 3-1 win over Nice putting his side 2-1 up and then the 2nd in Marseille’s fantastic win against PSG in the Parc des Princes.
Throughout the season his assists seemed to be more important though. Setting up Souleymane Diawara for a 90th minute winner against Lorient, providing Brandao with the pass for the only goal in a 1-0 win over RC Lens and three assists in the 4-1 win at home to Nice. It was an impressive season. Although the caveat to this is that he only managed assists in seven separate games throughout the season.
This season Lucho provided 6 assists over the season but these came in six separate games. His passes set up the winning goals against Lens and Sochaux and earned points against St-Etienne and Bordeaux. Even if his overall assist tally dropped he did increase the amount of goals. In any league 8 goals from a midfielder can be worth its weight in gold.
This season in games where Lucho scored or provided an assist Marseille gained 24 points, back in the 2009/10 season Marseille gained 30 points. When dissected it seems that he was as influential this season as he was in 2009/10. However it is easy to see why people think he had a poor season when his own manager thinks he could have done better. Didier Deschamps said this about the player in June.
"I want Lucho to stay, but I won't refuse his departure if all the conditions are gathered."
"Lucho is a very good player, very professional, even if during the last six months he was not effective enough."
On the face of it the facts are true, from January to June Lucho didn’t perform as well as he did at the start of the season. However to say he wasn’t effective enough seems a little harsh on the Argentine.
Against Sochaux in February he set up Gignac for the equaliser as Marseille went on to win 2-1 away from home. He then scored the opening goal in a 2-1 home win over St-Etienne. A goal against Rennes and then the assist for Benoit Cheyrou in the 1-0 win away at Lens kept Marseille in touch at the top. His last act of the season was to pull his team back to 2-1 away at Lyon in one of the matches of the season. In those six months Lucho was instrumental in winning his side 12 points. In fact it was only the Lyon game that saw Marseille not pick up three points when Lucho either scored or set up a goal.
Over the course of the season the stats speak for themselves, his Pass Completion only dropped by 1% from 77 to 76. He made more tackles per game over the season going from 1.9 to 2.2. His defensive duties are also highlighted by the increase in his interceptions per game up from 1.3 to 1.8 and an increase of 17% of aerial duels won.
The overall quality of his passes shouldn’t be doubted either. His turnovers dropped from 2.5 to an average of 1 per game this tied in with an increase in passes per game from 35 to 41.6 you couldn’t accuse him of shying away from the ball. There was even in increase in his Key Passes per game up to 2.1 from 1.91 in the previous season.
Although most of the criticism seems to have landed on Lucho’s shoulders maybe the analysts and fans should look elsewhere in their team for a reason they finished behind Lille. Over the season it seems the inability of Marseille’s forwards to find the back of the net is more to blame then the creativity brought to the side by Lucho Gonzalez.
If the Argentine playmaker is to move on this summer there is no doubt the team lucky enough to gain his signature will be recruiting a very talented player who on his day can dictate a game and provide not only clinical passes but a handful of goals over a season. Come September someone will have a bargain on their books.
