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PSG: physically, Paris has found a second wind

2020-12-11T23:26:21.369Z


First in its group in the Champions League, Paris is trying to make up for the accumulated delay in the preparation of the season. Between progression no


Premier in the Champions League, leading in Ligue 1, PSG is finding color after a sluggish start to the season.

The best in the game, river scores (11 goals in the last three games), sometimes top stars… Thomas Tuchel's team is becoming consistent again.

One piece of data accompanies this clarification: physically, Paris is progressing and finding a second wind.

Even if this balance remains, in places, fragile.

Fewer downturns

By focusing its summer athletic preparation on the Lisbon Final 8 (August 12 to 23) for the Champions League, PSG could not dose it for the rest of the season.

Faced with this prestigious objective, the Parisian technical staff favored the freshness in August rather than the land work to play a season supposed to end with the Euro or the Copa America between June and July 2021. What he won immediately - legs and envy - he then lost it with injuries and mental fatigue, born of the disappointment of a final lost to Bayern (1-0) with the only consolation L1 which restarted.

Now it's better.

The last disappearance of PSG in the middle of a match dates back to December 2 at Old Trafford (1-3) with a big physical hollow between the 25th and the 60th minute compensated by solidarity and combativeness.

These pump strokes tend to be reduced, as in Montpellier (1-3) then against Istanbul (5-1) thanks to the rotation operated by Tuchel, to the return of injuries (Verratti, Kehrer) as to the recruits at the end of transfer window well prepared by other clubs absent from Final 8. Alessandro Florenzi, Rafinha, Danilo Pereira and Moise Kean seem to connect more easily than the others.

The end of the international truces (3 since September), and now the group stage of the Champions League, allows you to find a little oxygen.

"I'm feeling better and better and going after matches will allow me to be even better physically," announced Kylian Mbappé after his 100th goal in Montpellier.

If he has not recovered all his means, the world champion regains his acceleration and speed, one of the strengths of his game. Injured to the adductors, he had strangely lived the last truce in the company of the Blues, not disputing finally only thirty minutes of the last of the three games with an assist for Olivier Giroud during France-Sweden.

Neymar wears them

There is undoubtedly this comfort around him who plays, between a team where he feels good with relatives (Mbappé, Verratti, Rafinha, Paredes in particular), desires for mutual extension.

But the Brazilian's return to the forefront, as a unique player in the world and decisive in big matches, is primarily on the physical level.

He weighs, carries the ball (sometimes too much), goes down, accelerates, organizes the game but also concludes actions.

This omnipotence allows PSG to dominate their opponents more easily.

“He was going through a difficult patch after the Final 8 in Portugal.

He gave everything there.

Then he had the Covid-19.

He struggled to recover well and gain physical capacity.

He feels better, he is getting back on track, ”his trainer said, happy with this excellent news.

Even if his selection did not spare him an unnecessary round trip the last time when he was injured, this cut "at home" served him to regenerate.

Caution as a rule

This better does not solve everything.

Some players stick their tongues out, like Angel Di Maria, victim of his four games of suspension and a return to the selection where he left a lot of energy, he who dreamed so much of finding the Albiceleste.

This is undoubtedly what partly explains these three matches on the bench at kickoff (Bordeaux, Manchester, Istanbul) for a single tenure in Montpellier.

It may have changed dimension, with solid performances that go with it, Presnel Kimpembe is sometimes spared as in Montpellier last week.

The PSG - selection sequences have logically exhausted him while he has never really cut since the first confinement in March, focusing on the resumption of competitions.

For example, he did not take a vacation after the Final 8 in Lisbon.

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These disparate states invite the technical staff to weigh, weigh and reflect constantly with the data provided to them by the medical sector or the performance manager.

If today, only Mauro Icardi, Juan Bernat and Pablo Sarabia (Julian Draxler should return to the group for Lyon) are missing, continuing their treatment protocols, the injury is still feared internally, like a boomerang of a summer without land preparation.

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2020-12-11

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