Payet had a point to prove against his former manager and did it perfectly. If only he was that motivated every week
By Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French
Football News
Dimitri Payet didn’t hold back. “They have two different visions of football. The most obvious difference is that today we have a coach who speaks with his heart and does not try to make light of subjects when the hard things need to be said.” For Payet, the difference between new Marseille coach André Villas-Boas and the man he replaced, Rudi Garcia, is stark. That difference was evident this weekend, when Garcia returned to the Vélodrome as Lyon manager and suffered a 2-1 defeat. The battle between Marseille and Lyon has become the fiercest modern rivalry in Ligue 1 over the last few years and the balance of power shifted towards Villas-Boas’s team on Sunday night.
Marseille had a terrible record against Lyon under Garcia. The two clubs met five times in the league while he was Marseille manager and Lyon won all five of those encounters. In fact, Marseille’s victory this weekend was their first against Lyon since the 2014. Even though results have looked one-sided, historic tensions between the two clubs have escalated in recent seasons. Prior to their trip to PSG last month, Marseille captain Steve Mandanda even admitted: “Today, there is less rivalry [with PSG]. It’s more with Lyon that we find that now.”