Since the beginning of August, PSG has been on all fronts and continues to meet despite an overwhelming schedule! Between the end of the America Cup, which saw five Parisian players reach the final, including three undisputed starters (Marquinhos, Neymar, Messi, Di Maria, Leandro Paredes) and the‘Euro where two Red & Blue players (Donnarumma and Verratti with Italy) were crowned, repeated international truces that require many trips to the other side of the world to play two or three games in ten days … The club in the capital lacks the time and preparation to form a collective. While Mauricio Pochettino is heavily criticized for his play over the past three months, Just remember that PSG played 14 official matches in 77 days, that is to say, one match every 5 days… Not counting the international truces!
In his press conferences, the Argentine coach usually remembers that the fittest players are those who have trained since the first day of recovery (Hakimi, Gueye, Herrera) or those who have returned quickly (Mbappé).. The busy schedule, linked to the COVID crisis, and the injuries that can occur from constantly moving and playing, have pushed Mauricio Pochettino has lined up fourteen different teams at kick-off… And they have at least two substitutions each time. For instance, the defense has seen six different faces in fourteen outings. The midfielder has varied thirteen times, between multiple systems, new players and experiments … Difficult to have continuity in the game while the heart of your training systematically changes. Finally, the attack was also modified eleven times during this same period. The famous triplet Messi, Neymar, Mbappé only played four games together, and the quartet with Di Maria only two.
PSG has also experienced many diverse and varied game systems, ranging from 433, 4231, 442, 424 and even three-way defense during the last Champions League match against Leipzig. This text is not a plea to defend Mauricio Pochettino and his game, which (also) often lacks relief, but simply to put into perspective the complexity of setting up a coherent collective, without continuity in the teams that can be aligned. Will the time, which the Parisian coach usually demands, make a difference? Only the future will tell us …
For your part, do you agree with this observation? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments.
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