Under the eyes of Mauricio Pochettino, Leonardo and Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, who came, as on every day before the Champions League match, to attend the last training session, Messi, Mbappé and Neymar frankly laughed during the early games of the session. At this moment, on Monday morning, the meeting against Leipzig was presented under the best auspices. The success, admittedly painfully acquired, against Angers (2-1) on Friday, had more or less made us forget the defeat in Rennes (2-0), two weeks earlier. The German club, already beaten twice in two games, by Manchester City (6-3) and Bruges (1-2), had been hooked in Freiburg (1-1) on Saturday and remained stuck in 8th place in the Bundesliga. Even the new absence of Mauro Icardi, retained in Milan for his relationship problems with his wife and agent Wanda Nara,didn't seem like much of a problem.
Paris was preparing to evolve again with his trio Messi-Mbappé-Neymar, and Jesse Marsch, the coach of Leipzig, even mentioned, smiling, "a line of 7 defenders" to face them.
Everything changed in the privacy of an end of training behind closed doors that the medical bulletin came to bring to light: affected adductors, Neymar must give up.
The surprise absence of the one who remained on a brilliant performance with Brazil against Uruguay upsets the contours of this European meeting.
Before thinking of the trip to Marseille on Sunday, it suddenly gives a whole new dimension to the personal setbacks of Mauro Icardi.
In the absence of Di Maria, suspended, Pochettino's task becomes more complicated.
Pochettino in the footsteps of Alex Ferguson
One thing is certain, this episode will not facilitate the progression of the automatisms of the Parisian team. This does not seem to worry Mauricio Pochettino, however. Asked moreover to know if he had the feeling of having established a real style of play since his arrival in January 2020, he replied: “There is an idea, a methodology, a very clear way of working. It may seem invisible, but we can see it and we are very happy with the evolution of the team. "After a small reference to Alex Ferguson" who remained for twenty-six years at Manchester United and who won nothing for the first six years ", he found a smile to assure:" Overall, we are satisfied and we hope that over time we can put in place even more things that you can see more easily. "