Genesio's Marseille lose 6 of 8, a start OM have not seen since 1964-65

By the Data Desk · Published 17 OCT 08:30

Santiago Hezze rose at a short corner three minutes before half-time on Thursday, and that header was enough to leave the Vélodrome whistling. Marseille lost 1-0 to Olympiacos, their sixth defeat in eight official games, and Bruno Genesio became the first OM coach with that record after eight matches since Mario Zatelli in 1964-65, according to the Stats du Foot account cited by Football Club de Marseille.

• Only two wins this season, 4-0 against Strasbourg and 2-0 at Troyes; the six defeats came with four goals scored in total.
• Two Europa League games, two defeats (4-1 at Beşiktaş, 0-1 to Olympiacos) and no points; in Ligue 1, OM are 14th with 6 points from six games.
• Next: Angers v Marseille on Sunday, 18 October, at 15:00 CEST. Angers are one place and one point above them.

The Vélodrome game followed a familiar script. Olympiacos scored from a corner played short, Chiquinho curling it in for Hezze on 42 minutes, and Marseille spent the second half pushing without finding the goal that would have changed the night. Franceinfo called it OM's sixth defeat of the season and their second straight in Europe, after the 4-1 loss in Istanbul on matchday one. The crowd whistled at the end.

Then came Friday. Jean-Pierre Papin, the Ballon d'Or winner of 1991 who coached OM's reserve team until May 2025, gave a long interview to L'Équipe, quoted by Maxifoot and Foot Mercato. He described his second season with the reserves as "le début de la catastrophe" when a new person arrived in charge of the second team: "Ce monsieur décide de tout." He added: "Il sapait complètement mon autorité" and "J'ai alerté dix fois Pablo, il m'a promis dix fois de s'en occuper, rien n'a changé", meaning Pablo Longoria, who ran the club during his time there.

The man Papin means is Ali Zarrak, who was in charge of the reserve side in 2024 and is now OM's head of scouting in Île-de-France, Foot Mercato reports. Zarrak did not name Papin, but on Friday he posted on X: "quand le mensonge prend l'ascenseur, la vérité prend l'escalier, elle met plus de temps mais finit toujours par arriver". None of this is about the first team directly. It still lands at the worst moment, in the week Genesio needed the whole building pulling the same way.

The table explains the urgency. Marseille have won two and lost four of their six Ligue 1 games, scoring nine and conceding eight, and they are one point behind Angers, who lost 5-1 at Brest last weekend. What happens next: Angers v Marseille at the Stade Raymond-Kopa on Sunday, 18 October, at 15:00 CEST, then Sturm Graz away in the Europa League on Thursday, 22 October.