Candidate for the start at the start of the season, unsuited at first sight to the game of Igor Tudor, the Turkish Cengiz Underscorer against OL on Sunday evening and against Troyes the previous week, was able to reinvent himself as a more central player to regain a leading role at OM, who managed to keep their second place in the standings by winning on the wire in Lyon at the end of the 32nd day of Ligue 1 Uber Eats (1-2).
Two goals in eight days
Often, Alexis Sánchez glared at Cengiz Ünder. A born dribbler, the Turk often tends to play all the balls for him, favoring the strike or the extra hook over the pass, to the despair of the Chilean striker, frustrated by these bad choices. Against ESTAC on Matchday 31, however, Ünder drilled, dribbled and lifted his head. Seeing neither Sanchez nor anyone at the far post, he continued his action and scored with a nice shot from the left the second goal of Marseille’s victory (3-1). And Sunday evening, at Groupama Stadium, the Turkish international followed a strike from Alexis Sánchez well repelled by Anthony Lopes (1-2).
After having scored only two goals in the first 30 days, Cengiz Ünder has just signed two in eight days. Enough to total 4 goals and 4 assists in 31 league games and embellish dull statistics compared to those of last season (10 goals and 2 assists). For his defense, the former Roma player has really changed his role, going from a role of pure overflow player to that of a supporting striker, in the axis, just under the center forward.
Not the profile
At the beginning of March, against Rennes, we still found the time for a moment before Cengiz Ünder, launched in a sprint along the sideline on the right, for a perfect decisive pass towards Kolašinac and a goal naughty after a free kick quickly played. The Turk had then become a winger again, his natural position, one that does not exist in the Tudor system, where the sides are reserved for the two pistons and the climbs of the central defenders. This season, Ünder has also sometimes been aligned with the right piston, which forces him to do a lot of defensive and placement work. But he has therefore mainly settled in the line of two of the Marseille 3-4-2-1, where he is now Tudor’s first choice, ahead of Ruslan Malinovskyi or Mattéo Guendouzi.
Last summer, however, the former Roma and Leicester player did not have the profile of a starter, to the point that the club’s management offered him to Atalanta Bergamo as part of their proposal. for Malinovskyi, finally arrived this winter only. Performing well with Jorge Sampaoli, Ünder was then one of the few players put in difficulty by the arrival of Tudor, with a very different style. A few didn’t know or couldn’t adapt – Gerson left, Payet disappeared – but Ünder succeeded.
“I am a new Cengiz”
Even if it took him time to integrate Tudor’s demands, as a piston or as an axial offensive player, the Turk never gave up and his coach located the tipping point at the winter break, during the Global in Qatar. ” Something got stuck during preparation “, had thus told Tudor after a match of Coupe de France won at the beginning of January against the amateurs of Hyères. ” Cengiz played this game like a Champions League final. This is the right approach. He understood, he wants to play and he wants to stay a starter. It shows and I like it. He has a perfect attitude, he must continue like this “, he added.
In fact, since these words, Ünder has hardly left the starting 11, with 15 starts in 16 games played and only one absence due to suspension. ” I had some trouble getting used to what was being asked of me. But today I feel very good, for his part confirmed the player at the end of January. I run more, I work more, I am more present. For me everything is going well. I think I’m a new Cengiz. A revival still seen at Groupama Stadium on Sunday evening.
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#Ünder
