Six defeats in eight matches: OM suffers worst start to season since 1964

Olympique de Marseille has not experienced such a poor start to a season in over sixty years. Beaten at home by Olympiakos in the second matchday of Ligue Europa, the Phocaean club has now accumulated six defeats in eight matches across all competitions, a record that plunges the institution into the darkest hours of its recent history.

In Ligue 1, the situation is scarcely more reassuring. Despite a victory against Troyes this weekend, Bruno Genesio’s men have only six points after six matches and sit in thirteenth place in the standings. The last time Marseille had lost six of its first eight matches of a season, the club finished nineteenth in Division 1 and was relegated.

For Genesio, the figures are equally damning on a personal level. He becomes the first manager to lose six of his first eight matches on the Marseille bench since Mario Zatelli in 1964. He who has also become the most capped French coach in Ligue Europa with 44 matches managed has just strung together four consecutive defeats in the competition, a first in his career.

Before returning to Europe against Sturm Graz, OM travels to Angers this Sunday with the imperative to move away from a relegation zone which, for now, is no longer merely a theoretical worst-case scenario but a reality of the standings.