“He is ready.PSG captain Marquinhos assured him in a pre-match press conference. Unlike Sergio Ramos, Neymar should be available with Paris to face Real Madrid in the Champions League Round of 16 first leg on Tuesday. February 15 (9 p.m.) The Brazilian was no longer seen on a pitch since November 28 because of a malleolus injury contracted against Saint-Etienne.
However, his coach, Mauricio Pochettino, did not wish to formalize the news, although his number ten participated normally in training on Monday. The situation will remain unclear until the announcement of the team composition. Three questions are outstanding.
Does he have a chance of starting?
Logic would dictate that the Brazilian is an option off the bench. He will not be able, in any case, to cash 90 minutes of play. If Mauricio Pochettino has not spoken on the case of Neymar, the Argentine technician has drawn the outlines of his logic as to his management of players coming out of a long downtime.
Thus, he mentioned the cases of Idrissa Gueye and Abdou Diallo, returning from the African Cup of Nations they won with Senegal on February 6. “They have not been with the team for almost two months and they come out of a week without training. They’ll be in the band but they won’t start“, decided the coach, far from his usual lukewarmness and reserve.
step by step pic.twitter.com/rBVyFENSzc
— Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) February 8, 2022
Is this really good news for PSG?
The start of the Paris Saint-Germain season was marked by the disappointment of seeing the attacking trio Neymar-Mbappé-Messi not find chemistry. In eight associations on the front of the Parisian attack, they have only very rarely convinced. The debate over their agreement on the pitch coincided with a period of wandering for the capital club, as fragile defensively as it was not flamboyant in front.
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Since Neymar is unavailable, Paris has regained defensive stability, conceding only five goals in 13 games, or 0.4 per game. This average was 1.1 goals conceded per game (22 in 20 games) during the first part of the season, until November 28. Above all, Paris has not lost since the injury of the Brazilian, the elimination in the Coupe de France against Nice having been recorded on penalties. Therefore, would Pochettino not take the risk of jeopardizing the progress of recent weeks by incorporating Neymar?
What is Neymar’s impact with Paris in the knockout stages?
Neymar and the knockout matches with Paris in the Champions League is a big story. Since his arrival in the capital in 2017-2018, not a season has passed without there being suspense around his availability. He was absent in the eighth return which ratified the elimination against Real in the spring of 2018. He missed the first leg and the return against Manchester United in 2019 with an elimination at the same stage.
But without him, Paris would never have played the final in Lisbon in 2019-2020. Just back from a chest contusion and clearly out of form, it was he who scored the precious goal in the first leg loss to Borussia Dortmund before qualifying PSG on the return leg. He then shone before dying in the final against Bayern Munich.
Absent last season from the double confrontation with Barça, the capital club did not need him to win 4-1 at Camp Nou. He had shone in the next round against Bayern, in his ability to find the fault by verticalizing the game of his team. If Neymar has not always ensured his role as conductor with Paris, he only shone when he started. The Brazilian has only come into play eight times with PSG since August 2017, for a single goal (from a penalty), during the Champions Trophy against Marseille in January 2021.