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Marseille boss Roberto De Zerbi delivered a rather stern complement to Mason Greenwood following his performance in the side’s 4-1 win on Sunday.
The French giants bolstered their Champions League hopes with the win over Brest, which came courtesy of a hat-trick from Amine Gouiri and a further effort from Greenwood.
The strike took the former Manchester United youngster’s tally for the season to 19 – just two behind Ousmane Dembele, who leads the golden boot race with three games to play.
Greenwood has enjoyed an impressive debut season in France when it comes to his numbers but questions have been raised about his application, while reports this season have claimed that De Zerbi has been less than pleased with his effort.
Following Sunday’s success, the former Brighton boss – who has taken his players to Italy for a late-season training camp, made a point of praising Greenwood’s efforts off the ball and asked reporters if they’d ever seen him try as hard.
‘Italy? Tuesday. We’re going to work, be together,’ he told DAZN. ‘It’s not a punishment. The players are happy… have you ever seen Mason Greenwood work like today?
Mason Greenwood was on the scoresheet for Marseille in their win over Brest on Sunday
Robert De Zerbi offered a rather stern complement to the former Manchester United youngsters
Marseille supporters unfurled a banner earlier this month demanding the forward ‘get moving’
It was the first time. You have to give the players credit. Sometimes you lose points because of bad attitudes, but not because they’re not good guys.’
Earlier this month, De Zerbi revealed some of the secrets behind Greenwood’s recent revival in form. Following reports of his lack of effort, fuming Marseille fans then unfurled a banner in the north end of the Orange Velodrome, which called out Greenwood and team-mate Luis Henrique.
The banner read: ‘Greenwood, Henrique, get moving!!!’
De Zerbi also revealed he has been working alongside Greenwood’s father to aid his development – but insisted the forward still ‘wastes a little of his potential’.
‘He is an introverted person, a little closed, but he has a wonderful family around him, an extraordinary father with whom I worked a lot, he helped me a lot to manage him , with the help also of Mehdi Benatia.
‘It is true that sometimes he gives us the impression that he can score three or four goals per game, and sometimes also that he wastes a little of his potential and his value.
‘So how can we help him? Well sometimes by cuddling him, by taking care of him and sometimes also by being harder so that he continues his progression.
‘This is the main objective that I have with all my players, beyond all those that we can have with the club, because if I make my players progress we can achieve the club’s objectives faster.’
After emerging as one of Man United’s brightest young talents, Greenwood left the club officially last summer after he was arrested in January 2022 before being charged with attempted rape, assault and controlling and coercive behaviour.
Charges against Greenwood were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service following the ‘withdrawal of key witnesses and new material coming to light’.
He has since formally applied to switch his international allegiance from England, for whom he made one outing, to Steve McClaren’s Jamaica.
