ROBERTO DE ZERBI has faced a player mutiny at Marseille, according to reports.
The Italian, 45, took charge of the Ligue 1 giants after leaving Brighton last summer.
Marseille have experienced a turbulent first season under De Zerbi, going through brilliant highs and extreme lows.
And in recent weeks, they have gone way off the boil.
Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at relegation-battling Reims made it four losses in five for Marseille.
Reports in France claim that Marseille players were subsequently made to stay the night at the club’s training ground, such was their manager’s disgust.
It then emerged that rest days scheduled for Sunday and Monday had also been cancelled.
And things reached a boiling point on Monday, when De Zerbi reportedly told the players that he would not be taking training.
According to L’Equipe, players were left feeling let down by their coach and refused to train if he was not leading the sessions.
This led director of football and former centre-back Medhi Benatia to step in.
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The 37-year-old is claimed to have told the squad to “justify the club’s financial investment in them”.
Players are said to have not bought Benatia’s reasoning – pointing to his former clubs Bayern Munich and Juventus and asking whether De Zerbi’s antics would be put up with by those European giants.
The Marseille boss is also said to have made a brutal jibe at defender Pol Lirola after last Saturday’s match.
Lirola, 27, has been at Marseille since 2021 but prior to this season had spent the last two years out on loan.
Following the defeat at Reims, during which Lirola was hooked at half-time, De Zerbi is claimed to have said to him: “Nobody wanted you at this club last summer, I was the only one to believe in you, and you thank me by defending like that?”
Having entered the season with lofty ambitions Marseille have fallen to third in the Ligue 1 table, a staggering 22 points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain.
They are now just four points above seventh and could face missing out on European football, should their recent slump continue.
Marseille will host mid-table Toulouse this Sunday, desperate for three points to get back on track.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, De Zerbi said: “I am very happy to be manager of Marseille, because I love controversy.”
Forward Neal Maupay added: “It was never a question of not training. We cleared the air.
“Sometimes it’s good to take a slap in the face and wake up.”
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