Paris Saint-Germain, winner against Dortmund for its entry into the C1 on Tuesday evening (2-0), seems to have turned the page on the era of stars and glitter to display a more coherent and combative face.
Against Dortmund, Tuesday September 19 (2-0), the Parisian squad, which has twelve new faces after the summer transfer window, showed a new face to Europe, accustomed to seeing a nonchalant PSG and relying on the talent of certain individualities. A combative attitude and an impression of union were observed, like the solidarity around Ousmane Dembélé, defended by all his teammates after a strong tackle from Nico Schlotterbeck (66th), or the efforts made on the meadow. Enough to contrast with previous seasons, where the ego of certain stars always cast a shadow over the picture.
Luis Enrique already gave his players “10/10” in attitude, and the Spanish technician is not going to lower his rating after their performance on Tuesday evening. While in recent years the three stars of the attack, Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar, participated very little in defensive tasks, PSG knew how to put pressure on the BVB rearguard. Ousmane Dembélé, Randal Kolo Muani and to a lesser extent Kylian Mbappé participated in the hunt for the second ball.
A new sense of collective…
This change of attitude is a deliberate choice caused by the succession of disillusionments in the Champions League and is not just a prerequisite of Luis Enrique’s game plan. Neymar and Messi are gone. Criticized for his lifestyle, Marco Verratti followed them. The capital club then set its sights on a “warrior” like midfielder Manuel Ugarte, whose arrival brought impact to a sector that sorely needed it.
His grinta, like that of the young Warren Zaire-Emery, pleases the public at the Parc des Princes, who cheer them every time they have the opportunity. A public which, often disappointed, had sometimes turned its back on its club in recent seasons, but whose communion with the players on Tuesday evening seems to show that it adheres to the new face of its team. He had also encouraged her rather than whistled, after her defeat against Nice on Friday (2-3).
In the locker room, no tension on the horizon. The specter of splits in a locker room overloaded with ego (whether it is a reality or an invention) is no longer there to undermine Parisian progress. The last of the stars, Kylian Mbappé, takes the spotlight and leads the team in the right direction according to his coach. “What surprised me the most was his human quality. It’s a pleasure to have him in the locker room, he always has a smile, he’s a leader who has a positive mentality.”underlined Luis Enrique after the match against Dortmund.
…but less genius
But the transformation towards this new PSG, less individualistic and less obsessive, does not happen without compensation. The departures of geniuses Neymar, Messi and Verratti have left a void that will be extremely difficult to fill in terms of creativity. This failing led the club to drop points in three of its first five Ligue 1 matches (2 draws, 1 defeat).
Manuel Ugarte and Warren Zaire-Emery are very valuable in recovery, and Vitinha tries more to combine, sometimes with success like on Achraf Hakimi’s goal Tuesday evening, but offensively, Ousmane Dembélé still shows too much waste to enliven the meetings. Kylian Mbappé is still getting into shape with his teammates at the forefront of the attack, whether Gonçalo Ramos or Randal Kolo Muani, each of whom has not really had the opportunity to settle in. The solution could then come from Kang-In Lee, who returned from a muscle injury on Tuesday evening and who made an interesting entry at the end of the match against Dortmund. Paris has two weeks before its next European evening, in Newcastle, on October 4.