PSG: what is Tiémoué Bakayoko really worth?

While the possibility of seeing Tiémoué Bakayoko landing at PSG is no longer a fantasy, the question now is what Bakayoko we are talking about.

The one beaming with AS Monaco during the title of champion of France in 2017?

Or his overdue negative with Chelsea a season later?

Is the Bakayoko who could sign for PSG just one more player?

Or a real plus in this defensive midfielder's position that Paris Saint-Germain has coveted since the end of Thiago Motta's career in 2018?

To find out, you have to look at the 26-year-old's last two seasons.

Loaned successively to AC Milan and then to Monaco by the Blues, Bakayoko was able to perform well, highlighting his qualities: athletic volume, recovery, impact and forward projection.

But he never regained the regularity that was his strength within the principality's team and which had allowed him to be called up with the France team in March 2017 (1 selection).

"A loan would allow PSG to have a year to think"

“When we remember this player, we think especially of the year of the title with Monaco, four years ago, says Rolland Courbis, consultant at RMC Sport.

I found him formidable with Fabinho

.

But when one or the other was associated with Moutinho, it was already less solid.

I could only have good feedback on his professional seriousness.

A loan would allow PSG to have a year to reflect.

Afterwards, when we see Liverpool recover Thiago Alcantara, we are not in the same category.

If PSG were to hire Tiémoué Bakayoko, whom Leonardo had already brought in from AC Milan when he was sporting director, it would clearly look like a choice dictated by a constrained financial context.

However, the player born in Paris and trained in Montrouge in the Paris suburb has above average physical qualities.

"It's a very interesting profile because he is slender

, athletic and he has an interesting ball output quality, analyzes Mathieu Bodmer, the former midfielder today consultant of the Téléfoot channel.

Bakayoko collects a lot of balls, and that's something that PSG sometimes lacks.

I believe in his association with Marco Verratti.

"

Not sure, however, that with the former Monegasque, the club of the capital finally holds the sentinel that has been lacking for two years now.

Even if Bodmer appreciates “his defensive qualities”, many observers consider that the Chelsea midfielder (in contract until 2022) is above all a torchbearer capable of playing box-to-box as the English say.

“He can evolve as a runner or defensive midfielder, but I find him less defensive than Fabinho for example, notes Courbis.

After that, it would be necessary to have clairvoyance skills to know if he could win in Paris.

But Bakayoko, at PSG, in his home region, it can be a winning shot.

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