Marseille “lacked quality and courage” in pressing on Thursday against Brighton, who beat them 1-0 with a late goal and forced them into a future play-off in the Europa League, commented coach Gennaro Gattuso.
“We knew what type of match we were going to have, what we lacked was the quality in the pressing. We were prepared to face this team, but we lacked quality and courage, we could have done better to win,” he said at a press conference.
“We had a good spirit, but what was missing was quality. They had ultra-offensive pressing, sometimes we managed to pass it but it was difficult,” he added. “I didn’t want to do a catenaccio (defensive system invented in Italy, editor’s note), we pressed high, we took risks.”
The defeat conceded in the 88th minute caused OM to fall to second place in Group B, which forced them to play a round-trip play-off in February against a team dropped out of the Champions League.
“It would have been better to have two weeks off in February, but we will face this problem when it presents itself to us,” commented Gattuso. As for the name of the opponent, which will be known on Monday, he said he had “no preference”. In any case, “they will present us with a difficult challenge.”
The former defensive midfielder could face AC Milan, the club where he shone in the 2000s. “Do you really think I’m thinking of AC Milan or another C1 team?” he responded to a journalist who questioned him about this hypothesis. “No, I’m only thinking of Clermont and Montpellier”, the next two opponents in the championship.
