PSG: for Pochettino, "it's normal to be in love with Mbappé"

In an interview broadcast on Monday, but carried out on Friday, so before the defeat in Lorient (3-2), Mauricio Pochettino spoke at length to the microphone of RMC as part of the program "Top of the foot".

As in his interviews already granted to the Spanish media (Cadena Ser, Marca, As), the Argentine coach swept the news of PSG.

He thus, once again, expressed his optimism for Neymar and Kylian Mbappé to extend their contracts beyond June 2022. "I believe that the two will stay a lot of time at PSG," he assured. .

I have no doubt.

It's a feeling, but it's also what I see: both Ney and Kylian are happy here.

"

Asked about recent statements by the French striker about his hesitation, Pochettino replies that he is "not here to comment on Kylian's sentences".

Before adding: "But it was a good thing that he spoke".

He praises the world champion.

“Yesterday I was talking to one of his teammates about him,” he says, “and we were

like

:

but who doesn't like Kylian?

With his talent, it's normal to be in love with him.

He is very mature even though he is only 22 years old.

Looks like a 35 year old man.

He is very intelligent, very intuitive and he understands that there are sometimes ups and downs in football.

"

🗣 "I think they will stay at PSG for a long time. I have no doubts about that."

🔵🔴 Mauricio Pochettino gave, at the microphone of Top of the foot, his feeling for the future of his two stars, Neymar and Mbappé.

#rmclive pic.twitter.com/jnCF7Y0Vm3

- Top of the Foot (@topofthefoot) February 1, 2021

On the tactical level, Pochettino also mentioned the possibility of regularly aligning his fantastic 4 (Di Maria, Neymar, Mbappé, Icardi).

“We would like to play with our best players,” he explains.

But it is the balance between the offensive and defensive phases that is most important.

I try to create habits, but not just offensively.

When we don't have the ball we have to react together.

It takes a lot of work to find that balance.

"

"If I have the opportunity to train Messi, it will be great"

Stressing that "football is movement", Pochettino would like the PSG team to be "also recognized for its aggressiveness".

He says he has "no doubt" that his players "are the first to want to give everyone this European Cup".

But for that, "we must raise the level of requirement."

On the possibility of recruiting his compatriot Lionel Messi, Pochettino remains cautious.

"A club like PSG must be attentive to all the options that there are on the world market," he said.

PSG have a strategy to be better every day.

It is certain that Leonardo, with his work, as well as all the people who work on the sporting part, we are defining the strategy to have each season a better team and to be able to get closer to the objectives.

If I have the opportunity to train him, it will be great.

Otherwise it does not matter.

We share our love for Newell's Old Boys.

We have this link ... We'll see.

"

In the meantime, he is preparing to find Messi in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

An appointment for which, in his eyes, "PSG will always be a favorite".

"We have to believe in the fact that we can beat a team like Barcelona", he said, adding in passing that his name and his face being linked to Espanyol, it would be "impossible" for him to train Barça.

Despite the scope of his mission and the Covid that has come to disrupt his daily life, Pochettino confides his pleasure in finding a club where he played 20 years ago.

"The smells, the thoughts come back to me," he confides.

It's something that makes me feel very good.

Mentally it's a rebirth, it revitalized me.

"