GOAL

Marcelo Bielsa has admitted that the attacking system he set Olympique de Marseille out with was to blame for their 3-2 defeat at home to Caen in Ligue 1 on Friday night, but added that he will never change his footballing philosophy.

The Argentine coach took responsibility for his side blowing a two-goal lead against Caen - but insisted afterwards that he will not alter his approach to the game

L'OM led 2-0 just after the hour mark at Stade Velodrome thanks to goals from Andre Ayew and Andre-Pierre Gignac but then conceded three times in 20 minutes to slump to a shock loss, which has left them four points behind Ligue 1 leaders Olympique Lyonnais and two adrift of Paris Saint-Germain having played one game more than both of their title rivals.

The 59-year-old admitted that selecting four attacking midfielders behind striker Michy Batshuayi was not a good decision, but that it will not stop him from playing attacking football.

"There is undoubtedly a balance that is needed that I am not able to get across to my team. But these ideas will not be abandoned because I think they are good," Bielsa said. "My way of playing is about attacking but that does not necessarily mean defending badly.

"We were not secure defensively in either half. We were vulnerable to their attacks in both halves.

"The very attacking system that I put in place created an imbalance that made it harder for us to win the ball back. Caen counterattacked us a lot.

"The number of players we had in the opposition half during attacks did not help us improve our recovery of the ball and weakened us defensively.

"I take responsibility for the fact that the team was not balanced. I can't make the players responsible for the situation that I am describing."