Ahead of Wednesday night’s meeting at the Parc des Princes, La Gazzetta dello Sport have provided an update on how Paris Saint-Germain’s season is going so far.
The paper (seen below) report how PSG are only third in the league, two points behind leaders Monaco and one behind OGC Nice. Things are not going well domestically by their very high standards, while Europe has been a mixed bag too.
In the Champions League Luis Enrique’s side must put the 4-1 defeat against Newcastle United (which followed a 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the first game) behind them.
A 3-0 win against Strasbourg at the weekend helped, with goals from Kylian Mbappé from a penalty, Carlos Soler and Fabian Ruiz. The percentage of ball possession was striking, but not new: 78 percent.
Enrique’s football never changes, not even at Mbappé’s PSG. First hold the ball, then break the opposition down. Against Strasbourg he used a 3-4-3 that looked more like a 3-3-4 at times, but there were even moments were there were five across the forward line.
With a high defensive line – close to midfield in fact – PSG have an ambitious, ultra-attacking style. In Newcastle the strategy did not pay off as they had 72% of the ball but were dominated on the counter-attack.
We are not talking about a slow tiki-taka style though, rather a rapid circulation of the ball, and the high centre of gravity exposes PSG to the risk of deadly counters.
Milan have the right man to exploit the space in behind granted by PSG: Rafael Leao. However, Mbappe is very dangerous too and the Rossoneri must guard him as closely as they can.
thiaw vs kean. fail.
i dread thiaw vs mbappe
Yeah I dread Pioli putting Thiaw – a centre HALF who defends space as well as anyone I can think of and glides forward with the ball but isn’t the quickest, in a foot race with one of the fastest players in the world as well.
Thiaw is going to be one of the best centre halves in the world in 3-4 years. Pioli will be back on the provincial merry-go-round by then.
I’m sure krunic isn’t ready for the clash