New Marseille boss Jorge Sampaoli is looking to follow in the footsteps of Marcelo Bielsa after taking over at the Ligue 1 club, but warned that he is bringing his own ideas to the job.
The Argentine was officially presented as Andre Villas Boas' replacement on Tuesday after spending the last two years in Brazil's Serie A with Santos and Atletico Mineiro.
Now he is tasked with rescuing what has turned into a difficult season for OM, who have suffered turmoil on and off the pitch.
What was said?
"Bielsa is an example to a lot of people, I feel close to him in the game, but I will not try to be like him," Sampaoli told reporters in his first press conference as Marseille coach. "I will do it my way, without imitating him."
Sampaoli, who last coached in Europe at Sevilla before leaving to take the Argentina job in 2017, also revealed he intends to impose an attack-minded philosophy on his new charges.
Next Match
"We will start to look at the squad to make decision in the short and long term," he said. "Our philosophy is to push forward, not towards our own goal. The goal is to put in place a playing philosophy, we have to find the fundamentals, rhythm, will.
"We have proposed some tools to get the team out of this rough patch. We want the players to adhere to our playing philosophy. Some will be able to adapt rapidly, others will not. Our role is to convince and win over the squad."
The bigger picture
Sampaoli takes over with Marseille languishing in eighth place, five points behind Lens in the final Europa League qualifying place, albeit with a game in hand.
The club has won just one of its last 11 Ligue 1 outings, and twice since the start of 2021.
Off the pitch tensions came to a head in January when Marseille ultras stormed a training session in protest at the poor run of results, causing significant damage to facilities and causing their game against Rennes to be postponed.
