From this Saturday, Christophe Galtier will have to do without Kylian Mbappé against Toulouse.
Absent for about three weeks according to the club, the French striker will miss PSG in the preparation for the shock against Bayern Munich and, most likely, in this round of 16 first leg against the Bavarians on February 14.
Facing the press this Friday, the Parisian coach gives an update on his group and on this preparation to come.
Saying goodbye to the flat 4-4-2 system.
In the absence of Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi has the keys to the game. What does that change for him in his role on the pitch?
CHRISTOPHER GALTIER.
There were connections between Leo and Kylian, Kylian and Ney.
There is a combined absence of Kylian and Ney for Saturday.
There will be players around Leo as we did in Montpellier.
It will be in its register, always placed in the zone in which it likes to evolve.
It is also up to the players around Leo to raise their level of play, to be very available and to seize opportunities to play.
You have tried different game systems since the start of the season.
Did you think it would take so long to find the right formula?
It didn't take long.
From the start of the season, my vision of the team's game with a full squad was very clear.
We chained the matches, we were sometimes readable.
We suffered in certain areas of the game. After Benfica, we made the environment denser and found a different animation.
There are suspensions, fatigue, injuries... The organization put in place against Reims (4-4-2 flat), we had worked on it in Riyadh and in the Coupe de France, but I saw that in Ligue 1 with these players it couldn't do it.
We went back to 4-4-2 diamond.
Am I fumbling?
No.
I try to find other animations.
Tomorrow, we will not play in 4-4-2 flat.
We paid to see (smile).
I must be in constant reflection.
My players need benchmarks.
Among the systems that give you satisfaction, what determines your choice?
One did not give me satisfaction.
My choice is based on the players available and their state of form.
According to the adversary?
No.
It's first of all a question of physics for us.
What is certain is that the third system tried is set aside.
Did Kylian Mbappé play too much?
Was it a preventable injury?
He will be absent, according to the exams and the balance sheet, about three weeks.
We are in a unique season.
There's a World Cup right in the middle.
We see that fatigue and injuries occur at all clubs.
It's part of the job.
We are unhappy for him.
But you can't go through a season without having a physical problem.
All the more so when the players are solicited all the time, in club or selection.
We took a lot of precautions when Kylian returned.
Behind the two games on the return from the World Cup, he had 10 or 12 days off and regained his bearings on matches with a lower intensity.
I don't think Kylian played too much.
Avoidable?
There is a risk when we gamble.
Was the end of the transfer window difficult to digest?
I don't have a digestion problem (smile).
The transfer window is always difficult.
We will do with the quality workforce that I have, quality young people.
I'm not bitter at all.
We knew the constraints.
The club did their best to bring in a player.
We must rely on the current workforce, the young people will exist in this sequence.
Absences are significant.
Kylian, Sergio, Marco, Ney, Nordi, Kimpembe… That's a lot of people.
But we are PSG.
We have a quality workforce.
Those who are not there are often replaced by international level players.
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The public highlights your fighting spirit.
How do you explain that your team does not look like you?
It's not a lack of fighting spirit.
I have players of a different register from those I have known.
I have players focused on the offensive animation, the last pass, the goal.
It's up to me to organize a team capable of both defending well and maintaining this offensive animation.
Don't think the players aren't making the effort.
There is Léo who knew how to take the game in hand in Montpellier.
He was a natural leader and the players put themselves at the service of Leo.
I congratulated my players in this sense.
Do you regret not having inflated the workforce at the start of the season?
I have no regrets.
There was the desire to reduce the workforce, to release players who had been there for some time.
There is also the reality of the constraints, we experienced it during the winter transfer window.
We were very close to having an additional player.
We didn't get it.
It's like that.
