Marseille have been one of the surprise teams of the season and the man at the heart of their emergence is the all-action midfielder Giannelli Imbula; little wonder Europe's wealthiest teams are watching his progress very closely.
With his long legs, strong tackling and penetrative forward surges, Marseille's Giannelli Imbula bears more than a passing resemblance to a young Patrick Vieira, but as a kid the Belgian-born midfielder didn't try to model his game on the former France captain, focusing more on scoring goals than winning balls during his time at the PSG youth academy.
The new Vieira?
"When I was young I had role models, but I didn't play in the same position as now, so my model wasn't Vieira," the 22-year-old Guingamp youth academy graduate told The Ligue 1 Show on BeIN Sports. "I looked more at the attackers like Ronaldo and Henry."
Emergence
Discarded by PSG at 13, Imbula joined Racing Club and then Guingamp, before sealing a €9.5m switch to Marseille in 2013. After a difficult first season at the Stade Velodrome, Imbula has emerged as a key figure under Marcelo Bielsa. An ever-present this term, he believes he's benefitting from the Argentine coach's presence.
"Maybe I have more discipline now, a bit more of everything," explained Imbula, who has already doubled his goal tally from last season with two strikes in the current campaign. "But I'm still the same player. I was just as confident and happy last year - but I wasn't playing."
Confidence
Autumn champions after a brilliant first half of the season, Marseille have stuttered badly in 2015, losing two of their first three league matches and being displaced by Lyon at the top. Imbula, however, is confident the team will turn things around.
"We try to play good football, but it hasn't gone so well in the three games we've played. But we still know how to play football," he said. "The objective, from a team point of view, is to win as many games as possible, so hopefully we can start reproducing our early-season form."
Imbula is fast emerging as one of the most complete midfield players in Europe, but there's one area of his game in which he feels he's improved immeasurably in the past two years.
"Winning the ball back," he said without hesitation. And what does he feel he needs to work on more? "Winning the ball back!"
