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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang embraces Europa League pressure with OM: ‘People are crazy here, but I am also crazy’

Published

2 months ago

May 2, 2024

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang embraces Europa League pressure with OM: 'People are crazy here, but I am also crazy'

You wouldn’t move to Olympique de Marseille if you’re looking for the quiet life, a sedate last stop on the way to a relaxing retirement in the south of France. Ligue 1’s only European champions have no shortage of expectations and, as recent managers Marcelino and Gennaro Gattuso can attest, failure to deliver on them has swift consequences. The pressure cooker of the Stade Velodrome, with an atmosphere that literally takes the breath away of visitors on European evenings, makes or breaks the best.

If you had experienced the trials on and off the pitch that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has endured over the past three years, you might take one look at the ‘fire’ of the Velodrome, take ten steps back, turn on your heels turn and be able to sprint in the sprint. opposite direction. But then again, you’re not Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

“People are crazy here… but I’m crazy too,” he told CBS Sports on Thursday ahead of Marseille’s semi-final against Atalanta in the Europa League (see Europa League coverage across Biggest+, CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network). “It’s a good mix.”

It certainly is. Aubameyang beams as he reflects on a move that has revived his career and returned the light to one of European football’s most vibrant figures. It could so easily have been suppressed forever. Stripped of the Arsenal captaincy for one too many disciplinary offenses in 2021, Aubameyang at least appeared to be on the mend at Barcelona. His form returned even when there were difficult issues in his personal life, with burglars breaking his jaw when they broke into his property in August. By then, Aubameyang was also embroiled in the summer of ‘leverage’, financial machinations at the Camp Nou, pushing a player with 11 goals in 17 La Liga games out the door to make room for newcomers.

At least his old Borussia Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel was willing to bank on his talents and take him back to London. Five days after Chelsea committed $12.8 million to give their manager an experienced striker he trusted, they sacked Tuchel. His successor Graham Potter never showed the same faith in Aubameyang, as his employers tore up the strategy of building around established stars and expanded their dressing room beyond capacity with whatever young stars they could get their hands on. Aubameyang’s last two starts for Chelsea? Defeats against the rampant Arsenal he had left behind. It was all enough to throw anyone off course.

“I just missed that hunger for a while,” he says. “When I was at Chelsea I obviously didn’t play that much. You lose that a bit because you are sad about the situation.”

Yet there was a deeper reason for Aubameyang’s fall. With one league goal to his name in early November, the 34-year-old was booed from the Velodrome when Gattuso took him off in a 0-0 draw against Lille.

“When I came here, I knew that Marseille is always the extremes. That’s a very good experience for me. I had to look at myself in the mirror and work more and more to bring back that light that is inside me. That.

“When I saw people whistling at me a bit, I thought, ‘Damn, I have to change this,’ especially because my mother was in the stadium. I think I had to change something. I became more aggressive and hungrier. I I had to find rhythm and that took some time, but when we arrived in December I felt good and fit, I could be better and when they whistled me it made me more hungry to completely change the situation.

In the 29 games since the Velodrome whistled his name, Aubameyang has won their affection and then some. Those games have produced 21 goals for the experienced striker, who have sent Marseille back to the top mid-table in Ligue 1 and, crucially, earned a Europa League semi-final against Atalanta. With the caveat that he faced stiffer opposition during his spells in the Bundesliga and Premier League, Aubameyang is producing numbers that approach the scourge of defense in his heyday.

His 3.68 shots per 90 minutes in league matches are his highest average since his last full season at Borussia Dortmund in 2016/17, his 0.59 expected goals without penalties (npxG), a number comparable to his first two campaigns at Arsenal- to colour. Since he was booed, those numbers have skyrocketed even further, with more than four shots per 90, putting him in the kind of elite attacking group before anyone had even heard of Erling Haaland or Darwin Nunez. As of November 5, Aubameyang ranks 11th in the top five European leagues for npxG per 90, 13th for shots and has more goals than Haaland, Victor Osimhen or Robert Lewandowski. All that and he has equaled his season’s best number of assists of eight as a 23-year-old at Saint-Etienne.

“Because I played for Barcelona,” he jokes.

The straight-line burst may not be what it was in his 20s, but he still knows how to find his way to the goal, especially when he’s in the race. That place. You’ll know it before you watch the above clip of his equalizer against Ajax in November, when Aubameyang came forward from the left and slid clear of defenders who might as well not have been there before smashing the ball into the far post.

You’ve seen it more times than you can remember: for Arsenal against Liverpool in the Community Shield, Fulham in the Premier League or a longer-term variant when Borussia Dortmund beat Tottenham. Something takes over Aubameyang when he gets into that spot. Since the start of 2020-21, he has had shots in an inside left quadrant of the penalty area worth 17.9 xG. He has scored 23 goals, but there is nothing really streaky about that. It is exactly the zone where Aubameyang is heating up.

Just like Arjen Robben intervening, every defender must know what he is going to do. That doesn’t mean they can stop him.

“A lot of people know me because I scored that goal, from the left, from the right, from the far post,” he reflects. That’s how I would describe myself. I love scoring goals like that and I worked on this a lot when I was at Arsenal.

Shots scored by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in league and European play since the start of the 2020/21 season. Note the significant amount of green on the left side of the penalty area

TruMedia

“When I’m there, I’m just focused on, ‘Okay, I’m going to get the ball to score that goal. That’s what’s going through my mind. I’m going to take the ball. I’m just going. I know I’m have to dribble past one or two guys, but before the action starts I know I’m already going to shoot, right foot, far post.

Aubameyang was particularly repetitive in the Europa League. His top ten goals this season put him four ahead of Radamel Falcao to become the biggest goalscorer in the history of the competition. A defeated finalist in 2019, he still has unfinished business with this competition and the visit of the conquerors of Liverpool in the quarter-final does not deter him.

“It will be a tough match,” he says. “Hopefully one where we can be ready. They will come [at us] They like to apply pressure all over the field. I’ve seen their videos, the star of this team is the team. We have to face that.

“We played against Lens on Sunday, they played quite similar. For sure, Atalanta is one step ahead, so we just have to improve our game. When it’s European nights at the Velodrome, the atmosphere is different.”

“Will their intensity get the best out of us and the Velodrome? I’m sure, 100 percent. We know what to expect from them, the fans are ready to set the stadium on fire and we will need that Especially during this time. During the season you need a lot of energy and you have to get that energy from the people, the city, everywhere.”

It is that energy that seems to fuel Aubameyang, a player who once seemed caught in a vortex of wrong moves and now finds himself in an altogether more virtuous cycle: his goals bring the fire to the Marseille fans, who in turn get the best out of themselves. him, the charismatic superstar for whom so many followers have fallen over the past decade. This was not the easy road; Aubameyang is one of the few who has not dismissed the riches of the Saudi Arabian Pro League. once But twice – and that makes it all the more worth it.

“I knew it would be a tough challenge, but at the same time you can have a great experience here because of the city, the people. They live for football in the city, I missed that a bit. When I came I was sure it would be tough was going to be, I had missed playing time, but I was ready to take on this challenge, work a lot and try to bring joy to this club,” he said.

That mission could already be accomplished, especially if the season ends with Marseille lifting a European trophy. No less important, however, is that Aubameyang has also brought joy to himself. That is an achievement that should be celebrated as much as any of his many, many goals.