‘I clicked with him straight away’ – Marseille’s Adrien Rabiot on relationship with Roberto De Zerbi | OneFootball

When Adrien Rabiot signed for Olympique de Marseille last September, it was seen as a coup de force — both for the player, who turned down Champions League clubs to return to Ligue 1, and for the club, which had finished eighth and missed out on Europe altogether. For a lot of the arrivals last summer, it was the figurehead of Roberto De Zerbi that provided the pull-factor ahead of the season. For Rabiot, it was a relationship which sparked right away.“I clicked with him straight away,” Rabiot tells The Athletic. “He’s someone who talks a lot, who exchanges, who explains his ideas and who tries to find the right position for every player.”“He works a lot tactically. He spends his days at the training centre, from morning to night. He’s football crazy,” added Rabiot. “To really succeed, you have to have that passion, that determination, that desire, that ambition.”De Zerbi’s tactical adaptability meant Rabiot was deployed in a number of roles across the season. From a double pivot early on, to a right-sided midfielder in a three, and finally ending the campaign as a more attacking No.10 in a 4-2-3-1 shape, the Juventus alumnus thrived with positional freedom. The result? Ten goals and five assists across all competitions — a personal best in front of goal.“At the end, I was playing higher up, closer to the striker, and it was really good because it’s a position that suited me really well,” Rabiot explains. “He’s a coach who tries to adapt and who tries to find the best position (for you) with regard to the players around you.”“He gives you the keys (to the next game) in training. He’ll say: ‘This team will play in this way. Put yourself in this zone, do this, do that’. It’s almost like he knows how the match is going to unfold before it’s even happened.”GFFN | George Boxall