"He's also a very young player": Greenwood against Le Havre, the obscure before the lightning

Mason Greenwood is a funny player, sometimes annoying, who often chooses the individual solution, even if it means ignoring the insults of his teammates, also confusing, who trots while repositioning himself and who wanders on the field with his arms dangling, as if he loses interest in what is happening there when he does not have the object of all his attention - the ball - at his feet. But he is also an undeniable talent, capable with a gesture, a touch of the ball, a hook, an acceleration and a sudden strike to make us forget all this dross.

Against Le Havre (3-1) on Saturday evening , the English winger showed all these faces at once, but his goal won them all, inevitably. Because he gave the advantage back to OM, who had been struggling since Le Havre's equalizer, because he scored with a clear move that he likes by returning to his left foot (85th) and because he let his rage burst forth in front of the Marseille enclosure, he who is so often impassive. His teammates quickly ran towards him, and Quentin Merlin even grabbed his jersey that he had thrown in the air to brandish it in front of all the Marseille supporters, who celebrated this goal with glowing smoke bombs.

"He spent almost two years without playing, he had never fought until then to qualify for the Champions League, and he played a whole season as a starter."

Greenwood enjoyed this moment very briefly as he was quickly replaced by Luiz Felipe (89th) on the decision of his coach, Roberto De Zerbi, keen to strengthen his defense, which had gone back to five players for the end of the match.

But the OM coach pulled off a coup before playing it safe: as he did against Lille (1-1) last week, he chose to start the former Manchester United striker on the right flank while giving him enough freedom to remain a constant threat to the opponents. He was regularly replaced by Adrien Rabiot in the defensive folds to conserve energy and he was dangerous mainly in the first half.

With the exception of a good cross for Rabiot (10th), he often favored individual solutions (21st, 23rd, 29th) before fading as the match progressed. But on one play, Greenwood once again showed that he was a different player, the second-highest scorer in Ligue 1 (19 goals). "Yes, it's true and he's also a very young player," explained his coach at a press conference. "He spent almost two years without playing, he had never fought until then to qualify for the Champions League, and he played an entire season as a starter. It's a reflection of our season, there were too many ups and too many downs, the defeats against Auxerre (0-3), the one in Reims (1-3), but you have to look at the Championship as a whole and all the teams lost matches too." Finally, it should be added that the environment in Marseille does not necessarily help, which is why isolating ourselves, as we did in Rome, can be useful.