The football universe watched with hushed anticipation, bated breath and mouths agape on Sunday evening as Paris Saint-Germain took to the pitch to engage with Stade de Reims in the north of France.
A comfortable and delightful brace from Kylian Mbappé gave the Parisians the three points at the Stade Auguste Delaune, on a night that will definitely be remembered less for the scoreline than for the particular personality who finally graced the pitch to the surreal delight of the spectators in the stadium from both sides of the divide.
Not only did Lionel Messi take the bow in his debut for the Parisian club after signing from Barcelona earlier this summer, but it felt also felt more than a tad odd like a farewell party of sorts for Mbappé, who was widely rumored to be off to join the Los Blancos anytime in the coming days. The buzz that ensued as both their names were announced before kick-off was bordering on acute fever pitch, as match tickets had earlier been frantically sought from across the world.
Thankfully, the giddying, head-spinning excitement took most of the attention away from what was in harsh reality a totally lackluster performance from a team who gave the unmistakable impression that they have yet to be shown how to play football together by their celebrated chief-coach-cum-manager.
The main hurrah and hullabaloo were all about Messi the GOAT finally featuring for the Parisian giants in this auspicious debut of the ‘other-worldly’ Argentine, as he was never on trial as he had long transcended the secular need to prove himself on the pitch in any way. That was more a prerequisite for more mortal exponents of the sport.
The highly-anticipated debut for Messi was actually more to gauge how well the PSG team would geld with Messi although it is still way too early to see anything cast in concrete so soon. After all, it was already common knowledge from last season after the new coach was parachuted in at the last minute as a surprise replacement for the hastily-departing Thomas Tuchel that the team demonstrated they already had problems playing together collectively instead of kicking butt together as a well-coordinated, integrated unit with a single-mindedness of purpose. This time at the Stade Auguste Delaune, it was the other Argentine on trial and certainly not the other one who had long won every conceivable laurel besides the acclaim of almost the entire football universe.
One of the biggest and most openly-acknowledged criticisms of the current Parc des Princes capital club in recent seasons is how they play football as a collective of individuals as opposed to a fully-integrated and unified squad. It is clearly evident that, at the last count, they do have individual stars a-plenty that many a Premier League, Serie A and Bundesliga top-flight club’s manager would gladly shoot themselves in the foot for. Not to mention having the GOAT on their team!
In Mauricio Pochettino’s aggressive 4-3-3 on Sunday evening, the dilemma was all too clearly enunciated as the Parisians struggled to break through in their many attempts to kill the game off quicker than it actually took.
After the Parisians quickly going 1-0 up, Ilan Kebbal managed to get forward and pull off an excellent shot at the PSG goal, which Keylor Navas had to get a quick hand to. In the second half, Marshall Munetsi thought he had leveled it 1-1 but his strike was ruled out for offside. Reading in between the lines, the northern team were not all that far away from the Parc des Princes outfit, Messi excluded only by virtue of this being his first official competition representing the Parisians, and also due mainly to his lack of match fitness after having laid off for more than a month, sipping exotic cocktails poolside in sunny Miami and enchanting Ibiza on holiday after his triumphant victory for Argentina over traditional rivals Brazil at the recent Copa America.
The match against a feisty Stade de Reims provided just glimpses of an evening dampened by rampant individuality as the team struggled to play in a set system – something commonly witnessed in PSG’s early-season games where they have conceded sloppy goals to lowly Brest, Strasbourg and Troyes.
Georginio Wijnaldum, for example, looked frustratingly hampered in central midfield, as opposed to being his usual slick self in his advanced role in the space between the striker and the middle of the pitch. He started on the right side of the trio, and looked decidedly awkward and unsettled when he got the ball, as if unsure of what he had to do.
Then midway through the first half, his natural instincts finally surfaced and he broke position a number of times. Unfortunately when he did so, the usually well-composed midfielder was coming from an area totally unnatural and unfamiliar to him and he ended up firing well wide. Meanwhile, other times elsewhere on the pitch, highly-touted Marco Verratti was repeatedly caught out with the ball and lost possession for the Parisians.
Surprisingly too, up front, even the the flamboyant maverick, Neymar, seemed to be in a bit of a daze as to what his position was. While he did create problems for their rivals and won the team a number of set pieces, the world-class winger was often found stranded in the area where a number nine would normally operate, in midfield where a ten should play, or back where a deep-lying playmaker might be justifiably encamped.
If this was supposed to be a demonstration of the fluidity of ‘total football’, either Pochettino’s manual of ‘to-dos’ must have been misinterpreted or lacking cogency and no one bothered to read it. Of course it is still early days – but only insofar as the chemistry between Messi and the other two key component members of the new MNM triumvirate are concerned, in relation to the rest of the team.
It has to be borne into serious consideration that these are not fresh criticisms leveled at this side, and a number of accomplished managers have already been given the boot for failing to rectify these issues that even now seem to be persisting.
When the Champions League knockout stages roll out in February, Mauricio Pochettino will have been ensconced in this role for over 12 months. At that stage, his charges will have had more than ample time to fully grasp his high-press philosophy. By then too they should be a finely-lubricated killing machine with Neymar out wide cutting in, Verratti busy directing the traffic, Wijnaldum comfortably camped behind the illustrious front three, and Mssrs Messi, Neymar, and hopefully Mbappe, if he is still around, running riot over all opposition sides as they menacingly dominate Ligue 1 and actually look like real favorites to wrest that coveted European crown for the elitist Parisian capital club.
If that isn’t the case and Pochettino fails to iron out the same persistent issues with the unparalled quality of player he has at his disposal, the next debut would then be one at another club elsewhere with him and his management nous again put on trial.