Igor Tudor had big boots to fill when he replaced Jorge Sampaoli in the Olympique de Marseille dugout in the summer of 2022, and things weren't easy in the beginning. But the steely Croatian has put his stamp on the club's playing style and raked up the excellent results. With ten matches left in the league campaign, they are on track to equal last season's second-placed finish...

L'Equipe: What did you know about OM before you signed last summer?
Igor Tudor: "I knew that they were former Champions League winners. And that Alen [Boksic] had played there, that Josip Skoblar had played there. I always heard that OM, in France, was an important club for the whole country, not only in the region. And this has been confirmed, because everywhere we go, we find fans waiting for us. It's beautiful, it's stimulating, but it also gives you more weight on your shoulders."

Is that what explains your difficulties in winning at the Vélodrome sometimes (three draws and four defeats in 14 matches)?
"The great advantage of these fervent and demanding fans is that they push you. At the stadium, it's always a great party. Hari [Vukas, his assistant] and I always look at each other and say, 'Another 60,000 today!'. It's like playing in the Champions League final every game. And then, into this electric atmosphere, Strasbourg, Angers or Ajaccio arrive. And what do their players say to each other? 'My God, this is magnificent, look at this, this crowd, this stadium, we have to play out of our skins!'. So they play their best match of the year, and that costs you points."

At the Vélodrome, you were whistled at even before the first official match of the season. How did you feel about that?
"Everyone had told me: 'Coaching Marseille is difficult, you'll see it's special'. That was a protest that, yes, was difficult. But it's in the past: I put it in the bag of experiences that make you stronger as a person and as a coach. Then you have to move on."

Are you satisfied with the season so far?
"I'm happy with the work we've done so far, with a great Champions League [last in Group D, behind Tottenham, Frankfurt and Sporting], and a disappointment in the Coupe, it's true [elimination on penalties by Annecy, a Ligue 2 BKT side, in the quarter-finals]. After taking out Rennes and Paris, being eliminated is hard. But the cup match against PSG was one of the best matches I've been part of as a coach."

But do you think PSG are out of reach?
"If they want to win, they win. Then there's [Kylian] Mbappé. I have immense respect for [Lionel] Messi, who for me is the best player in the history of football, and Neymar is also very strong, but today Mbappé is the best in the world and the team is not at all the same with or without him. Moreover, when he wasn't there, we beat them [2-1, in the last 16 of the Coupe de France]. Then, with him, and with a different motivation on their part, they won. They always decide. It's a tough championship, where you have to fight for every point. We'll try to win everything and we'll see where it takes us."

Did you follow Ligue 1 Uber Eats before you came?
"Honestly, very little. In Italy, we watch Spain and England more. France is less well considered and that's a mistake. Because when you start to really watch it, you change your mind completely. It's an exciting league, with beautiful stadiums, talented players, and if I had to describe it, I would say it's super difficult."

More difficult than Serie A?
"Here you have PSG, which in Italy has no equivalent, because they are above Inter or Juve today. Then you have three or four teams who, in terms of personnel, have perhaps more qualities in Italy, compared to their French counterparts. But from sixth place to last, it's stronger here. If tomorrow there is Empoli-Strasbourg, Strasbourg win by a large margin; Reims against La Spezia, Reims win by a large margin. When you go to play in Reims, you see three or four players you'd like to take with you, same thing in Strasbourg. Whereas if I'm Inter and I play Empoli or La Spezia, I don't take anyone. There is a gap that you don't find in France."

"The other fundamental difference is that in France there is much more rhythm. Because the type of players is different; here they are younger and more physical. In Italy, the intensity has nothing to do with it. The English buy players from Lorient, not from Italy, which means that here there are players who have the qualities to integrate into the best football."

If we compare with Verona, at OM you have different players to manage, stronger egos too. Is it complicated?
"We could talk for hours, but for me, in my football, there is one particularity, which is that you have to run. And if you don't run... If I see someone not running in training, I say so once, twice, and the third time I intervene. That hour and a quarter of training, you have to give your all. I was clear from the start, and I still maintain the same line, because I think it can bring us results. Then the player adapts or not. Then the months go by, the player adapts and sometimes he drops a bit, but I stay the same, I look and I tell them: 'Hey oh, I'm still here'. I'm still fighting today. Last week, I sent one of them back to the locker room because he wasn't making the effort."

"During the hour of training, I'm demanding, they get it. But if they want days off, I can give them those too. And we can joke and laugh, but work is work. Sometimes I explain to them: a week is seven days. One day is free, one day we do volume, one day muscle strengthening, one day intensity. That's two, maximum three, really demanding training sessions. An hour and a quarter each time! What do we want? That during this hour and a quarter, we sit down and talk? What would be left for us then? When I see that these three hours a week, someone doesn't do them to the full, yes, it's too much for me. Some coaches will say: 'Oh, but it doesn't matter, on Sunday he'll score with a free-kick'. They flirt with the line, not me. Maybe I'm wrong and they're right."

Are you satisfied with your squad?
"Yes. The club's choices in recruitment are always decisive. Because a coach... If you have a team that should finish in tenth place and you are a good coach, you can take them to seventh - and if you're not good, to 15th. It's the players who play. So you have to choose them well. This season, we recruited a lot of them and I think we didn't make many mistakes. We can always do better, we can make them progress. In January, we took [Ruslan] Malinovski, an experienced player, and Azzedine [Ounahi] and Vitinha, two younger players."

What does Vitinha need to do to play more?
"This is a very different league from the Portuguese championship. He's a finisher; he finishes moves, he's in the box, he shoots. We'll try to play him in a few games with Sanchez behind him, to see how it goes."

Has Alexis Sanchez surprised you?
"I saw him at Inter, he was already very good. I've always liked him. He has a soul, he loves football and he wants to win. He arrives two hours before the others, he doesn't have an extra gram. That makes the difference."

Do you think Dimitri Payet is not suited to your football style?
"Dimitri has behaved very well, he has had an extraordinary career. I can see that he loves this club. I don't know if he's going to become a coach, but if he does, in my opinion he'll be good, because he watches the matches, he's in them, he talks to the team. You should see him motivate them before they come out of the dressing room on match nights. I'm sorry about this situation, because he played very well last season, but it was a different kind of football, at a different pace, more suited to his qualities. But I don't know how to play this kind of football, and I have to do what I know how to do and what I believe in. I have to follow my idea of the game and choose those who fit with that idea."

OM's next challenge comes when south-coast rivals Montpellier make the trip to the Vélodrome for their Round 29 clash on Friday night.