De Zerbi is improving fortunes at Marseille two months after he considered quitting the club

PARIS (AP) — Marseille coach Roberto De Zerbi was so confounded by his team's bad form that he considered quitting just months after arriving.

That was back in November when, following home defeats to Paris Saint-Germain and Auxerre, he said he was ready to leave. The 45-year-old Italian soon backtracked and affirmed his commitment to stay and turn things around.

Whatever he told the players at that time clearly worked, as did an arduous four-day camp. There were daily 5 a.m. wake-up calls for jogs on an empty stomach, followed by twice-daily training sessions.

Marseille is looking much sharper and fitter as a result.

The 1993 Champions League winner has won five of its six matches since the Auxerre loss and drawn the other against Lille — a decent result considering Lille is undefeated in all competitions since mid-September.

Marseille has rediscovered its touch, too, scoring 17 goals during that period, and has moved into second place in Ligue 1 behind leader Paris Saint-Germain, which is seven points ahead after 16 rounds.

Marseille travels to play Rennes on Saturday and PSG hosts lowly Saint-Etienne on Sunday.

De Zerbi has tightened things up tactically and is starting to work Marseille into a more streamlined side.

During his time with Brighton in the English Premier League, he earned a reputation as a shrewd tactician capable of beating bigger teams. He left Brighton after two seasons, having raised the team to its highest ever top-flight finish of sixth, and into the last 16 of the Europa League.

De Zerbi's decision to join Marseille, which has passionate but impatient fans, surprised many observers. Even before his time at Brighton, De Zerbi had earned good reviews in Italy with Benevento and Sassuolo. He was widely praised for guiding Sassuolo to back-to-back eighth-place finishes in Serie A and touted as one of the best young coaches in Europe.

He had bigger clubs than Marseille calling for him last summer, but perhaps he saw the depth of Marseille's potential — which is the only French club to win the Champions League and has a 67,000-capacity stadium.

De Zerbi has instilled a healthy competition for places within his squad and strengthened it further on Tuesday by signing central defender Luiz Felipe, who made over 100 appearances for Lazio in Serie A from 2017-22.

Felipe's arrival comes after De Zerbi reproached his players for conceding too many goals — 19 in the league so far, compared with 14 for PSG and 16 for third-place Monaco and fourth-place Lille.

“We need so start thinking that 5-0 and 5-1 are not the same thing,” he said after Sunday's 5-1 home rout of Le Havre at Stade Velodrome. “We need to make other teams understand that scoring a goal against us is difficult.”

Felipe said the possibility of playing under De Zerbi was “fundamental” in his decision to join.

“I have known De Zerbi since he was Sassuolo, it was always difficult to play against him,” Felipe said.

Key players have emerged into leadership roles, such as Argentina goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli and France midfielder Adrien Rabiot.

Playing in a role higher up the field allows Rabiot to make more dangerous use of his excellent passing range and eye for long-distance shooting.

Signing the 29-year-old Rabiot was seen as something of a coup of Marseille, considering that he is entering his prime years and his wealth of experience with Italian giant Juventus (212 matches overall) and France (50 caps).

“We need two, three, four or five Rabiots,” De Zerbi said recently.

Then he added, jokingly: “I asked him if he has any brothers, but unfortunately they don’t play football.”

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FILE - France's Adrien Rabiot, right, and Italy's Nicolo Barella challenge for the ball during the Nations League soccer match between Italy and France, at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

FILE - Brighton's head coach Roberto De Zerbi applauds after the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham and Brighton, at the London stadium in London, on Jan. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s parliament was set Thursday to make yet another effort to elect a president, filling a vacuum that's lasted for more than two years.

While 12 previous attempts have failed to choose a successor to former President Michel Aoun, whose term ended in October 2022, there are indications that Thursday's vote may produce a head of state.

The leading candidate is Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun, no relation to the former president. He is widely seen as the preferred candidate of the United States and Saudi Arabia, whose assistance Lebanon will need as it seeks to rebuild after a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah previously backed another candidate, Suleiman Frangieh, the leader of a small Christian party in northern Lebanon with close ties to former Syrian President Bashar Assad.

However, on Wednesday, Frangieh announced he had withdrawn from the race and endorsed Aoun, apparently clearing the way for the army chief.

Lebanon’s fractious sectarian power-sharing system is prone to deadlock, both for political and procedural reasons. The small, crisis-battered Mediterranean country has been through several extended presidential vacancies, with the longest lasting nearly 2 1/2 years between May 2014 and October 2016. It ended when former President Michel Aoun was elected.

As a sitting army commander, Joseph Aoun is technically barred from becoming president by Lebanon's consitution. The ban has been waived before, but it means that Aoun faces additional procedural hurdles.

Under normal circumstances, a presidential candidate in Lebanon can be elected by a two-thirds majority of the 128-member house in the first round of voting, or by a simple majority in a subsequent round.

But because of the constitutional issues surrounding his election, Aoun would need a two-thirds majority even in the second round.

Other contenders include Jihad Azour, a former finance minister who is now the director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund; and Elias al-Baysari, the acting head of Lebanon’s General Security agency.

A president is needed to appoint a permanent prime minister and cabinet. The caretaker government that has run Lebanon for the last two years has reduced powers because it was not appointed by a sitting president.

The next government will face daunting challenges apart from implementing the ceasefire agreement that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war and seeking funds for reconstruction.

Lebanon is six years into an economic and financial crisis that decimated the country's currency and wiped out the savings of many Lebanese. The cash-strapped state electricity company provides only a few hours of power a day.

The country's leaders reached a preliminary agreement with the IMF for a bail-out package in 2022 but have made limited progress on reforms required to clinch the deal.

FILE - Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun arrives for a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

FILE - In this photo released by the Lebanese Parliament media office, Lebanese lawmakers attending a parliament session, in Beirut, Lebanon, April 18, 2023. (Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament media office via AP, File)