Will the Mbappé tree be able to hide the forest indefinitely? Decisive scorer, in stoppage time, against Rennes on Friday, the PSG striker once again kept the boat afloat. But he will not always be able to prevent it from pitching. Or worse, sink.
We often talk about the force of inertia in physics. In football, the latter is certainly not a strength. The PSG is rather immersed, for too long months, in a centrifuge in which it turns desperately in circles. The results are, for now, relatively consistent with predictions but the way is reminiscent of those laboratory rats pedaling while treading water.
Facing Rennes, the Parisian dynamo has again turned in a vacuum. As the reception of Real Madrid looms on Tuesday for the real first test of the Parisian season, the spark is still waiting and the alchemist Pochettino must absolutely find the formula or the lab will implode.
The excuse, if indeed there is one, is all found to explain the draft written against the Rennais: the PSG players had their heads at Real. But it is not with this kind of collective performance that they will recover.
Again, Lionel Messi seemed to wander the pitch at times and his apparent lack of involvement is cause for concern, even though he finished the game with the only assist. But it would be too easy to stigmatize the Argentinian. It is certainly, for the moment, the symbol of a terrifying PSG on paper but often unremarkable on the ground, but the problem is above all collective.
Apart from the flashes of Verratti and Mbappé, once again the only two to float against the Bretons, Paris showed no cohesion, finding themselves each time outnumbered when attacking. “Rennes played with a low block, very disciplined tactically with Laborde 30 meters from his goals. Over time, if you don’t score, this discipline increases”, justified Mauricio Pochettino in a press conference at the end of the match. This lack of lag considerably weakened PSG against Rennes. What about against Real Madrid?
Fortunately, the capital club has within it a player insensitive to pressure, to the face of a match, a metronome, almost a robot. Kylian Mbappé, after a deflected first shot on the post in the first half, waited until the 93rd minute to frame the first shot of the match. And score of course. Clinical. Classic.
Asked by Amazon Prime, at the end of the match, captain Marquinhos confessed that his team “did not succeed in unblocking the situation”but that she could count on Mbappé “a player who knows how to make the difference” before concluding without blinking that “Paris arrived launched in the right way” to face Real Madrid. “We did a very good job, with good commitment from the players. We will arrive in the best possible condition on Tuesday.”, then abounded his coach at a press conference. The Coué method still has a bright future ahead of it. In any case at least three before Tuesday.