2023-08-19 23:51:09
The impression that without him, PSG could have played three days in a row without scoring. And then he entered in the 51st of a Toulouse – PSG dull enough to score ten minutes later the first official goal of the season for his team, a penalty celebrated with demonstration in front of the Ultras Parisiens massed in a quarter turn of the Stadium. The symbolism remains strong: no salvation without Mbappé, even in Ligue 1, no orgasm possible in a game with long preparation but without real offensive passion.
It was therefore after 142 minutes in this 2023-2024 French championship that Paris finally scored and in a football with endless additional time, we can even add a few leaden minutes.
By changing two players compared to Lorient (exit Danilo Pereira and Marco Asensio for Marquinhos and Fabian Ruiz), and two other positions (Kang-In Lee on the left and Vitinha on the right in attack), Luis Enrique preferred the management of the locker room and egos to automatisms, with to finish a second penalty, just as logical, for another draw in two days. It is the duration that will give him reason or not even if he will undoubtedly end up releasing a typical team.
But with Gonçalo Ramos in front in fixation and two wingers who like the ball in the foot, his formation has long stumbled unimaginatively on Toulouse. A first shot on target from Achraf Hakimi after 20 minutes, another in stoppage time in the first period and then nothing. Curtain.
Before the coach’s changes, crack Mbappé entering at the same time as crack bis Ousmane Dembélé and a few first tango hooks that made the Toulouse people dance. The Spanish technician then chose to modify his system, switching to a three-man defense and Hakimi piston on the side of Mbappé when Dembélé stuck to the sideline on the right. For now, the leaping Luis Enrique in his technical zone is trying a lot of things, reviewing the players and throwing off because the direction indicated does not seem so clear. But it is characteristic of a great coach to seek, to try before finding – it is to be wished for him. Thomas Tuchel had started his Parisian mandate on exactly the same bases, with incessant tactical experimentation.
During his multiple turns, he will also have maintained an astonishing confidence in Vitinha, who almost doubled the bet (77th) with a dive, without however the Portuguese splashing the game against the Hakes and the Violets. It’s never completely bad, but it’s never outright good, either. Perhaps he is a balance player, a fad of coaches with an offensive reputation. This is after all a new era, without Leo Messi and Neymar, two genius passers. It is life without them that begins, in the construction and questioning of a second void.
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