Mason Greenwood had a rough time in the last round of Ligue 1. In fact, he spent the first half of Le Classique against Paris Saint-Germain loafing around, indifferent to what was happening on the field when the ball wasn’t at his feet, and stayed on the pitch for only 45 minutes. The renowned L’Équipe criticized the Englishman harshly, saying, “His contribution bordered on disrespect. When he doesn’t have the ball at his feet, he is absolutely uninterested. A fiasco.” It seems the scathing reviews and a rating of “1” motivated Greenwood to quickly put last week’s derby behind him and secure a win for the giants from the Velodrome in their 10th-round Ligue 1 match against Nantes. The victory was decided by a perfectly accurate shot from the former Manchester United prodigy half an hour before the end of the match, ending 1-2.🚨🏴⚽ Mason Greenwood goal last night against Nantes and that Stephen Curry’s celebration🎶🏀 pic.twitter.com/NXjUOiVyYz— H❗ (@HistorNOfficial) November 4, 2024 French media justifiably placed the Englishman in the spotlight of shame a week ago, but his performance in his first season in Marseille should only be judged when it concludes. After all, the young forward from Bradford already has seven goals and two assists in ten league matches. He is the league’s second-top scorer and has evidently shown he can decide matches and bring victories to the southern French team. Critics can also argue that he vanished against the champions, PSG, while today he “solved” the match against a much weaker team fighting to stay in the league, a team that went seven matches without a win. This criticism is fair, but precisely for this reason, only late spring will reveal if his debut season in Ligue 1 was successful for the player Marseille acquired from United last summer for 26,000,000.7 – Mason Greenwood has scored seven goals in 10 Ligue 1 games, only Mario Balotelli has reached this amount of goals with less top-flight encounters played with Marseille in the 21st century (7 goals in 9 games). Flash. ⚡️ #FCNOM pic.twitter.com/vfcY3IqVDn— OptaJean (@OptaJean) November 3, 2024 Last week’s derby loss allowed PSG to pull six points clear, but tonight Marseille didn’t let them increase that lead. However, in the 67th minute, they felt a scare when Tino Kadewere found himself in a good position to beat Jérémy Rulli and equalize at 2-2. Fortunately for the visitors, the former Lyon player wasn’t as accurate as he was toward the end of the first half when he cancelled out Neal Maupay’s opening goal from the middle of the first half. Marseille’s win today came thanks to Premier League talent, with Maupay finishing at the far post after a static response from the most experienced player on the field, Nicolas Pallois. The veteran may be 38, but age is clearly catching up to him as well. By December 1, Marseille faces a series of tough games against three top-table rivals. On paper, the easiest one should be against Auxerre, followed by away matches at Lens and then hosting Monaco.
