With the season officially over, it’s time to take a tour of the workforce. We offer a review of each player’s season. And, to open the ball, who other than the one you elected Olympian of the season on @peupleolympien? Steve Mandanda, key player of this great season, is the first to be honored. Decryption.
Mandanda this season, it’s 31 games for 78 stops. Here are the statistics specific to his season in Ligue 1.
Il faux-nomeno
If the season of Steve is also beautiful, it’s partly because it comes from afar. Each of us remembers our previous exercise, and the memory is not the most pleasant. His performance was not at all delightful, to the point that he had even become, for many, undesirable. He had just had his worst season as an individual. Our guardian, whom we had cherished so much in the past, was the target of mockery on the canvas where we often found images of his disgruntled face, blowing and looking up at the sky with a beaten dog air. He was also the victim of taunts about his physique. For many Marseille supporters, he had had his day and now had to leave the ship.
We are not even on a break and we can already make a Panini album by Mandanda which blows with a disappointed look after taking a goal. What a treat. pic.twitter.com/Lob5oXvctK
– Scipio (@Scipionista) November 25, 2018
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It was a pain for him of course, but for us too. Simply because it was hard to bear to see him sink, and the club with it. His poor performance had cost him the place he had held for a long time in the France team. We then imagined that this event had put a blow to his head and that his ego had taken a hit. As a result, we thought that, ultimately, this had an influence on the future. All this was only guesswork, until he officially explained that it was his difficulties on the field and his non-selection (for the international games in June 2019) that triggered his questioning.
“Compared to the matches, compared to the sequences, there are a lot of things that I could not do. After that, it was a trigger (…) and behind it was this non-selection. “
Press conference Equipe de France, November 12, 2019.
Nobody wanted to see him finish on that note, nobody, let alone the main interested party. So, no one knows exactly how he got there (some mentioned personal problems or even a decompression post world champion title) or what exactly went through his mind during this season and at the end, but we imagine that it had the effect of an electric shock.
Indeed, from the summer break, we saw it on a picture in Merano, the famous slimming cure for athletes, sharper than ever. He seemed to have wanted to take charge in a radical way. Lifted the extra pounds, the Olympian goalkeeper displayed a broad smile and a physique worthy of a professional sportsman, enough to reassure and even bluff the supporters. All that was left was to use these training efforts to bring up his level again. And OM fans would quickly get an opinion on their porter …
Il fenomeno, the come back
During the preseason, the Marseille coach had given a group of four players likely to wear the armband. Logically, the one to whom it was officially given is Steve. And that obviously didn’t surprise anyone, since he is much more than a manager. He is the locker room and also the oldest. Anyway, this strong sign from the Marseille coach would no doubt have its importance in the head and therefore necessarily in the performances of the native of Kinshasa.
August 10, 2019. The blues and whites find their lair, and their public. The latter expects a lot from his players, including his goalkeeper. If those present on the green rectangle will quickly find themselves in difficulty, they will at least allow the one who keeps the cages to put himself, him, in evidence. Indeed, from the first minute of play, the Rémois Doumbia makes a quick foray into the surface but Steve Mandanda is watching and is on parade. The tone is set, our fenomeno found.
Admittedly, it may have been a bit early to say, but he was going to stand out on other occasions in this part, as in this new parade following a strike by Boulaye Dia at the 31st minute. At the end of the match, he comes out again in front of this devil of Dia to release a very hot balloon. If the field Olympians were “reimposed” in this part, the Marseille porter on his side rather held his rank. Even if he was shot on the goal of the Champagne striker in the 58th minute and he cashed a second in the last minutes of the match, he reassured.
This match was a head to head match between two great goalkeepers. His Reims counterpart is also considered one of the great craftsmen of his team’s successful season. We cannot really say that Steve won in this distance duel, but he was by far the best player on his team that afternoon.
What reassure the Marseille supporters, unlike his teammates who themselves, were rather worried. Fortunately, we know today the final scenario of this 2019-2020 season, but it is true that on this first match of the season, Steve was the only one to have convinced. The question everyone was asking: was this a performance that would remain rare, or had he really regained all his abilities that had made him an Olympian legend and a national team goalkeeper? The continuation would bring us to know more on the subject.
The official resurrection
Twelve seasons, realize. He really didn’t want to give up and go on a failure, so he struggled and proved it. During the season, Steve has radiated many times. Let us remember these key moments, each more important than the other.
August 17, 2019. At La Beaujoire, OM were in trouble. They failed to score but could have cashed in without the presence of a great goalkeeper. The Nantes pushed to the end of the match, offering themselves three great opportunities repelled by our doorman in great shape who shone throughout the game. At that time, he had not made as many saves in almost two years, a performance allowing the Phocaeans to leave their confrontation against the canaries with a point.
September more than reassuring
September 15, 2019. It’s a crazy game that we saw Louis II. Steve Mandanda, despite the goals conceded, was one of the Marseille heroes of the evening. He notably prevented 4-4 twice, before Slimani and Baldé at the 77th minute. Saviour.
September 29, 2019. That evening, we witnessed a double PHE-NO-ME-NALE parade of our fenomeno in front Hunou in the 85th minute, when OM drew. Probably the one (s) that have (have) marked the spirits this season.
A lackluster end of the year
November 24, 2019. OM are moving to StadiOM in a match that seems largely within their reach. However, the game will not be so simple and OM will have a hard time. The team will eventually find the fault twice at the end of the match, but with the help of their captain. Indeed, the turning point of the match was the stopping of the foot of the number 30 of a reflex on its line before the two Marseille goals.
December 3, 2019. The tape at Mandanda travels to the Loire region to face Angers. Also in this match, Steve had a more than important role as he kept his team in the game. He tremendously pushed back on his line a uncrossed head of Capelle whereas two minutes later, Sanson scored the first goal for the AVB men.
During the next match, Marseille supporters will be frightened.
More fear than harm
There is no such thing as a perfect season and something had to tarnish it. On the penultimate day of the first part of the season, the captain was injured. In view of its performance, needless to say, the concern won us all. Finally, we were quickly reassured when we learned that it was only a mild sprain of the right ankle. Furthermore, Peeled perfectly ensured the interim, first against Metz while even offering the luxury of stopping a penalty, then against Nîmes where he hardly had to work.
February at the top
February 02, 2020. OM still does not win in Gironde, but OM does not lose, in any case, not this time. And Il Fenomeno is not for nothing because, as his coach at the microphones asserts that evening, the draw is largely what holds him.
“He made two impossible stops: one in the first half and the other in the second. This season, he is there for us. He held us in several games. He did it again. “
AVB, FCGB-OM post-match press conference.
The two stops the Portuguese tactician talks about are as follows. In the additional time of the first half, Steve first hijacked an attempt to Rémi Oudin, then, at the very end of the match, he relaxed admirably on the ground to corner the head of Pablo. These two precious parades at crucial moments allowed OM to return from their trip to Girondin with a point, which was, in view of the match, better than nothing.
February 16, 2020. In this summit game, the Olympians showed a lot of character, and Steve, who did not escape the Lille assaults, also showed solidity. In the 4th and 15th minutes, facing Osimhen then Remy, he perfectly prevented the ball from entering his cage before yielding once to the 51st. His teammates having managed to equalize and then drive the point home, we can consider that his pretty parades were important.
February 28, 2020. From the outset, at the Stade des Costières, he is the author of an exceptional parade at the 5th minute, rushing to bed and dismissing with an steady hand an attempt to ginger. Unfortunately, his parade will return to Ferhat which will score the first goal of the game. The Olympian doorman quickly came into view but could not prevent the first goal of the Nimes. But what a gesture once again! Later, at 2-1 for the Olympians, he distinguished himself on a majestic parade in front Landre (62nd) which would be worth gold in view of the end of the match. Two minutes later, he deflected another shot from the unbearable Ferhat again.
When the Marseillais had two goals in advance, Steve performed a parade with the end of the gloves. However, the ball was going to hit its left upright and headed towards the inside of the goal before the goalkeeper came to stop his race at the limit of crossing the line (82nd). Finally, in a not so imperial aerial outing, he came to concede a second goal, but his firm hands at key moments of the match still allowed OM to leave this derby with three points.
