Home stretch.
By the end of the year, Paris Saint-Germain will play eight matches.
A last blow of necklace before the holidays and the truce of the confectioners.
A tunnel that begins this Saturday (5 p.m.), during the 14th day of Ligue 1, four days before a trip in the form of shock of the titans in Manchester, against City, next Wednesday (9 p.m., the program of the 5th day here) .
The opportunity for Lionel Messi to show his true face.
Of course, the "Pulga" is no longer 20 years old, neither 25 nor 30.
To discover
Ligue 1 fixtures and results
League 1 standings
But the former Barcelonan is obviously better than what he has shown so far in Paris. Especially in Ligue 1, where we are still waiting for him to unlock his goals counter. “
I have just landed in Paris with the immense joy of having reached the goal of qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar,
” he said on his return from South America on Friday on
.
And to continue: “
It is without a doubt the icing on the cake of a very special year that we are living with our selection! Thank you again for all the love you always give us, in January God willing we will meet again.
January is the next window for the South American selections. All while the European teams will take a break, until March. A new round trip to the other side of the Atlantic for Leo Messi, who has only played one more match for PSG than in favor of Albiceleste since September! Eight against seven.
Add to that a period of adaptation on a football and personal level after 21 years on the Barcelona side and you will understand why the Paris Messi is not yet the great Messi.
“
Now it's time to change focus, because I still want to keep fighting to achieve the goals we have set here, PSG and I want to stay focused and work to achieve it.
There is barely a month and a half left before 2022 and I would like to end this year in the best possible way and with as many good times as possible in France,
”he added on social networks.
Five matches, zero goals in Ligue 1
Obviously, not everything is to be thrown away.
With a little more success, Lionel Messi, triple scorer in C1, would already have six or seven goals with Paris-SG.
However, that would not change the basic problem and the quest for the magic formula of Mauricio Pochettino.
“
It's normal that we are in a hurry with PSG, we are ourselves, we are all in a hurry.
We don't want to wait six years to see how we're going to play with a team like that.
We want to win this year, for sure,
”Leonardo proclaimed a few weeks ago, after Lille (2-1).
“No one has the secret of the way to manage, the training method or the philosophy of play for such a workforce. "
Mauricio Pochettino
Except that it is not that simple and that it is not enough to accumulate talents to make a team. Pochettino knows this better than anyone. “
Generally speaking, when you look at the talents, the names in this club, it has never existed in history, or maybe once. From there, nobody has the experience, we are the first to live it. No one has the secret of how to manage, the training method or the philosophy of play for such a workforce. We must therefore adapt, in harmony with what the players feel,
”explained the Argentinian technician in an interview with
L'Équipe
.
A speech that concerns, we imagine, Lionel Messi. Not only. One thing is certain: the former manager of Espanyol, Southampton and Tottenham no longer wants to hide. He declares in substance that he must adapt to the wishes of the club, without really having the possibility of applying his plan, his methods, everything which allowed him to establish himself as a "
World Top 5
" dixit Leonardo and to seduce its employers.
Example with the potential replacements of PSG superstars, including Messi.
“
We're talking about the best players in the world.
If they don't have a problem, why do you want to take them out?
Even if they don't play the way one expects, with their talent, they can be decisive at any point in a meeting.
This is why the club made the economic effort to recruit them.
You cannot evaluate this type of player like any other player.
That's why they are what they are.
"Unquestionable.
Except ... when players of this level are legion within a squad that looks like an All Star selection.
Messi, seven extra?
And the most prestigious star is named Leo Messi, who will now be able to focus on PSG in the coming weeks, starting with this match against the Canaries, eight months after the success of Antoine Kombouaré's players at the Parc des Princes (1-2). A star that will perhaps be even brighter on November 29, the day of the 2021 Golden Ball award. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) and Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) will not be far from the account, even Jorginho (Chelsea) ), but the "Chip", between its statistics, the victory at the Copa America and a Copa del Rey, is posed as a serious customer. The most serious?
It would be his seventh Ballon d'Or, need I remind you.
And the second from the capital club, after the one that George Weah had raised as an AC Milan player in 1995 for his performances at Paris Saint-Germain.
It would be the opposite for Messi.
In the meantime, make way for PSG-FC Nantes.
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