This Sunday at 8:45 PM (CET) Paris Saint-Germain (1st) will face Olympique de Marseille (7th) at the Stade Vélodrome for the 5th matchday of the 2025-2026 Ligue 1 season. In his press conference, Marseille coach Roberto De Zerbi spoke about this match and his Parisian opponents.
De Zerbi: “We need to improve our play and mentality”
“Respecting the instructions and our game plan against Paris Saint-Germain”
“At the Santiago Bernabeu, we weren’t the same team as last year against PSG (0-3 defeat at the Vélodrome and 3-1 at the Parc des Princes, editor’s note). It’s a different team, with different players. The team is strong, with players like Emerson, Pavard, Aubameyang… They have strong and experienced players. The team needs to be on the same page, with the same game plan and the same mentality; we need to improve our play and our mentality. It’s a process, and I hope we can achieve it as quickly as possible.”
De Zerbi: “The core, the structure will remain the same”
Nayef Aguerd and Hamed Junior Traoré: fit or not for the PSG match?
“We’ll see tomorrow and the day after (for Aguerd). We’re following the necessary medical protocols for his health; that’s the priority, and we’ll see. Traoré got injured on Saturday against Lorient (4-0). Actually, he already had an issue before that. He will be out for a few weeks.”
The Real Madrid match as a starting point for Paris
“The foundations are there. If we want to accelerate our progress, we can’t always change seven or eight players every time. The core, the structure will remain the same. But for example, for Kondogbia, three matches in eight or nine days, I don’t know if that’s risky. He’s an important player.” But we have other options: Angel Gomes, Vermeeren who is young but very talented, we’ll have to see how Paixao is feeling, how Aubameyang is doing, we’ve already mentioned Aguerd, and Emerson who played his first start with us against Real Madrid…
De Zerbi: “Making sure all 11 players think and act in the same way”
How to get the players to perform at their best against PSG
It takes time for new ideas to become habits, a natural way of playing. Ultimately, no player is forced to do something they don’t want to do. With the ball, the choice is up to the player. Making sure all 11 players think and act in the same way slows down the game initially, but it becomes instinctive later. Against Aston Villa in pre-season, for example, with Rabiot, Rowe, and Medina playing in their natural positions, we looked more fluid. Right now, it’s true that we’ve taken a step back in that area.”
De Zerbi plays the card of realism. He clearly wants to build a team capable of challenging PSG, but he avoids making grand pronouncements. In his words, you can sense ambition, but also prudence: he speaks of “progress,” of “mechanisms,” as if to emphasize that everything takes time. In short, he sets a direction without making promises he can’t yet keep.
Paris remains the giant, Marseille is still under construction. And he, rather than making bold claims, prefers to focus on preparing his players to develop a true playing identity. No grand speeches to impress the fans, but a patient approach to building a team. It’s a simple message: we want to catch up with PSG, but it won’t happen overnight.
PSG remains a fascinating enigma: even with some key players missing and an incomplete pre-season, they continue to dominate. The Parisian squad is so deep that injuries or rotations don’t seem to weaken them at all. It’s almost paradoxical: while other clubs would crumble with key players missing, Paris maintains its strength, as if its system absorbs any losses.
For Marseille and De Zerbi, this poses an additional challenge. How do you prepare a specific game plan against a team that constantly reshuffles its lineup without losing any of its power? The fact that PSG’s preparation has been disrupted doesn’t reassure anyone; on the contrary, it’s precisely when people think PSG is vulnerable that they become the most dangerous.
