Ligue 1: Brest defeat leaves Habib Bèye seeking quick response

Habib Beye accepted responsibility after his first match in charge of Olympique de Marseille ended in defeat away to Stade Brestois 29 on Friday night.

The new Marseille coach delivered a frank assessment in his post-match press conference, pointing to a lack of intensity and key defensive mistakes as decisive factors in the result.

“We can certainly judge this first match, I’m in charge of this team, even though we only had 24 hours, we took responsibility, we were caught out by their intensity on two clearances in 30 minutes where we lost the second balls and we had identified that we absolutely mustn’t defend in our box, because Ajorque is a player who has a lot of presence and we were caught out on those two crosses,” Beye explained in the press conference.

The defeat marked a difficult introduction for Bèye, who had only a short period to prepare the squad before the fixture.

Marseille struggled to control phases of play and conceded at moments the coach had anticipated before the match.

He also referenced a missed opportunity that might have changed the momentum.

“We had that penalty which could have changed things a bit, so we haven’t had much luck. There’s a slight lack of confidence that we’ll have to address during this short training camp, which will allow us to reconnect and regain that confidence. The work will be comprehensive (in Marbella, editor’s note). We need to regain confidence, try to get over this major disappointment—we will—and focus on our work, increasing the intensity. There’s a lot of quality in this squad; this is a club that needs to get back on track, and we’ll strive to do that day after day,” the Senegalese coach lucidly analyzed.

Bèye emphasised that improvements would require collective effort, particularly in intensity and belief.

The planned training period is expected to help the players rebuild confidence following the setback.

Despite the disappointing start, the coach insisted the squad possesses sufficient quality and indicated that the priority now is restoring momentum through daily work on and off the pitch.