Roberto De Zerbi admits “tough week” as Marseille boss but says players “gave 100%” against Toulouse | OneFootball

Roberto De Zerbi cut a figure of relief in his post-match press conference attended by Get French Football News following Marseille’s vital 3-2 win over Toulouse to see Les Olympiens retake second spot in the Ligue 1 and boost their hopes for Champions League football by the end of the season. After a week of drama, alleged mutiny, and reports linking him to AC Milan, it was finally time to get back to the football on Sunday evening. “The first thing I’d like to say is thank you to the whole stadium. It’s been a tough week for us and it was good to see the stadium applauding. When we win, we’re all together. When we lose, there’s no one left behind. Today, I loved the fact that this big stadium applauded and greeted the players tonight.”Roberto De Zerbi reportedly cancelled players training days after a 3-1 defeat to Reims last weekend, forcing them to sleep over at the Commanderie training ground. An explosive report from L’Équipe then revealed on Thursday that the Italian coach had told his players he wasn’t going to take training on the Monday, with players then reportedly refusing to train. By the pre-match press conference on Friday, De Zerbi came out fighting, claiming that these were ‘normal’ actions to be taken in football clubs. This was all in the midst of reports from Italy suggesting he was the number 1 choice to replace Sergio Conceiao at AC Milan.“Yes, it was what I wanted this week,” replied De Zerbi when asked whether his harsh management style had worked this week. “There is nothing else than football in my life, what I wanted to see was a manner that was legitimate, and that the players 100% and that was all that counted.”GFFN | George Boxall – Reporting from Marseille