Should we still be surprised? Marco Verratti showed indiscipline Tuesday night on the lawn of Dortmund at the very end of a match lost by PSG (2-1). As (too) often, the Italian midfielder got carried away before the referee of the meeting, the Spaniard Antonio Mateu Lahoz, and got a yellow card for dispute (89th). A warning with serious consequences since Verratti will miss the return match of the knockout stages of the Champions League on March 11.
"I didn't understand the referee's decision," he said after the setback. I didn't say anything, just that it was our fault, laughing. He thought it deserved yellow. It’s his choice. I trust the team. Whoever plays for me will make a big match. ” Thomas Tuchel will therefore have a choice to make, especially since Verratti was one of the best Parisians on the lawn of Signal Iduna Park.
This season, Verratti has already received eleven warnings, all competitions combined, in 31 games. This is an average of one box every 200 minutes: a total equivalent to its two worst seasons on this level, in 2012-2013 and in 2014-2015. Over the whole of the past season, the Italian international has been sanctioned with 13 boxes in 38 games (one every 223 minutes).
"He can't control himself"
Verratti is not a mean player. He never took a single direct red card, for example, over his entire career at PSG (five reds received for two yellows in the same match). But it has the annoying tendency to be punished for boxes described as "beasts", "avoidable", like that of Tuesday evening.
A subject on which Laurent Blanc, Parisian coach from 2013 to 2016, regularly exchanged with Verratti. "I talked about it a lot with him," said the French world champion in December. It has matured, it will improve but it will remain characteristic. The bloodstrokes, the heatstrokes, he will have them all his career. I know people who have never changed in their lives. He's like that! It is difficult to change a nature! He cannot control himself. But you mustn't hold that from him. He is the game. " A game which he will be deprived of next March 11.