"We talk about it every day ..." This is how someone close to an international player from PSG evokes the Marquinhos-Danilo file, whose respective positioning in the Parisian tactical system is the main point of tension at the start of the season .
“Almost nobody really understood the coach's choices with these two players,” he still slips.
Confirmed by other echoes coming from the very heart of the locker room, the persistent incomprehension between Thomas Tuchel and his group about this decision - to place Marquinhos in the middle and to bring down the Danilo sentry in the axis of the defense - has taken off. importance in recent weeks.
The difficulty is to determine how much this choice considered doubtful and bad for the balance of the eleven by some weighs in the confidence between the two parties.
"Tuchel remains respected but in the current conditions, with all the injured, his obstinacy in wanting to install Marquinhos in the middle and Danilo in defense worries a little", details a close to the locker room, breaking in passing one of the arguments of the coach German: “Yes, this summer Marquinhos was good in the midfield but there was Thiago Silva and Kimpembe behind!
"
More than the positioning of the Brazilian defender in sentry, integrated for months - Marquinhos started more than 40 games in this position under Tuchel -, it is the new position of Danilo Pereira that questions.
“He's not a defender!
», Bristles a Parisian setting with his entourage.
Aged 29, the Portuguese international who arrived from FC Porto at the very end of the transfer window had only played a dozen games as a central defender in his former club against more than 190 as a defensive midfielder.
"I do not understand the discussions around Marquinhos"
But Thomas Tuchel does not budge.
“Danilo is more of a defender than a midfielder,” said the German after the victory in Istanbul (2-0) last Wednesday.
According to RMC Sport, the Portuguese's agent also “sold” him to Leonardo as a versatile player, who can juggle between the two positions.
Quite annoyed by the questions around this theme, the Parisian technician publicly asks those who criticize to "pass a license to be a trainer and prove" ... "I do not understand the discussions around Marquinhos, he added to RMC Sport in mixed zone.
Last year he played like that and we had the best season in club history.
"
At first glance unstoppable argument for Thomas Tuchel: four trophies and the first Champions League final of the red and blue club.
But it's time for the next season.
The latter's luck is to be able to count on an exemplary captain, who limits the expression of his doubts to the private sphere.
“Before, I had a little preference for defense, it's true.
I like to play more and more in the middle ”, confided Marquinhos to our newspaper at the end of September.
One big novelty, however, seems to make the difference compared to last season: with the arrival of Danilo at the beginning of October, and the return to form of Diallo and now Kehrer, Tuchel wants to permanently install Marquinhos in the middle.
A crucial stability for the Parisian defensive balance.
For the moment, the results prove Thomas Tuchel right.
Over the last three games, with Danilo in central defense, PSG have signed three wins for 9 goals scored and especially none conceded (thanks, also, to the many parades of Keylor Navas).
For the German, the debate is therefore closed: Danilo and Marquinhos will start again this Wednesday evening against RB Leipzig in defense and in the middle.
A decisive meeting for the rest of the season, in which it is better not to be wrong.