Kylian Mbappe and Leo Messi must step up to avoid PSG’s biggest embarrasment ever. Analysing the major problems at PSG
The defending champions’ lead at the top has been cut to just six points, and with crucial matches coming up, a domestic title isn’t yet secure
It was all too easy for Lyon. Thiago Mendes had time to ping a ball to the far post, which Sael Kumbedi dinked across the face of goal. Substitute Bradley Barcola sauntered to meet his pass, unmarked, and couldn’t miss from six-yards out.
Three passes, and Paris Saint-Germain were beaten.
PSG would muster something resembling a fightback, but never found an equaliser. Lionel Messi was jeered every time he touched the ball. Kylian Mbappe tried to do far too much, spurning open passes and instead running into chunks of Lyon defenders. By the end of it all, Messi was making a swift beeline for the tunnel as the visitors celebrated a famous 1-0 win at Parc des Princes.
The loss was another disappointing result in a long line of poor performances from PSG this calendar year. They have lost five times in Ligue 1 since the turn of the year, as well as going out of the Champions League and the Coupe de France.
As such, they have gone from sure-fire league winners, up by 11 points over Marseille as recently as March 5, to nursing an increasingly precarious six-point lead, with some tricky fixtures still to come.
This has not been a bottling — not yet. But it very easily could become one. And for a side so superior in individual quality and spending power than the teams around them, a failure to win Ligue 1 would be PSG’s biggest embarrassment yet.
Ironically, it might be PSG’s biggest flaw as a side that will save them. Indeed, the Parisians have a poorly assembled squad, reliant on star power and hopeful that the pieces in between can keep everything intact.
That poor construction has hurt them repeatedly, with their front three’s insistence on operating on a separate plane of responsibility seeing them suffer high-profile losses.
This time, though, the big hitters will need to show exactly why they were brought on. It is Messi and Mbappe, and not the nine poor souls who surround them, that are now required to respond.
A two-man team
Ask manager Christophe Galtier, football advisor Luis Campos and club chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and they will all insist that PSG are more than a two-man team. But look at the way PSG play, and that notion will be quashed.
Still, that two-man dynamic has served the Parisians well so far. Messi and Mbappe are both having fine seasons — albeit with some inconsistencies. Messi has 13 goals and 13 assists in Ligue 1, while Mbappe has done his bit, too, with 19 goals to his name, recently breaking PSG’s all-time goalscoring record without appearing to try.
And in years past, that has been enough. Before Messi, it was Neymar strutting his stuff, the Brazilian and Mbappe leading the Parisians to an almost-inevitabile league title. Granted, there was a blip in 2021, but PSG were bested by Galtier’s excellent Lille side, and only lost out on the final day.
This season, though, there is no obvious challenger. Lens, who were only promoted back to the top-flight three years ago, have emerged as their closest rivals in 2022-23, but in reality the chasm should be much larger given PSG’s power.
An often ineffective duo
And Messi and Mbappe, theoretically the duo that would ease PSG across the line, have seen their impact wane.
Across PSG’s five Ligue 1 losses in 2023, the pair have not mustered a goal or assist between them. Neymar, when fit, was far from impactful, either, scoring once, adding an assist from a corner, and getting sent off for diving — all before suffering a season-ending ankle injury.
Mbappe and Messi are allowed to have poorer games; contrary to popular belief, they don’t necessarily need to be on the scoresheet for their side to win.
But they should be able to impact play. If Messi doesn’t score, he should pull the strings from deep. If Mbappe doesn’t assist, he should make the runs that free up space for others.
In recent weeks, though, their influence has dropped. PSG have become inherently predictable, with the opposition quite comfortably marking both Messi and Mbappe out of the game. Messi, in particular, is going through something of a drop in form — while noise around his current refusal to sign a new contract to stay in Paris hasn’t helped, either.
The players around them
Every time Messi and Mbappe put in a poor performance, the blame always seems to fall somewhere else. So often attention turns towards the lack of legs from Vitinha or a defensive error from Danilo Pereira.These are fair criticisms, and, of course, can contribute to a result, but placing the blame on the pseudo-spectators around Messi and Mbappe is increasingly harsh. Indeed, they are not players there to be critiqued so much as accepted. They are connective tissue, there for support — an occasional spurt of attacking quality is a bonus.It is a failure of PSG’s recruitment around Messi and Mbappe that has truly damaged the side.And they have tried to amend things in recent years.
Some of the signings this summer were admittedly shrewd. Renato Sanches, Fabian Ruiz and Vitinha were all the sort of high-energy midfielder with a bit of attacking flair that new manager Galtier needed.And with super-recruiter Campos making the sporting decisions, it figured that those newcomers would make an impact — or at the very least avoid the mistakes of their predecessors. But it’s sort of fallen into the same cycle.
Galtier ripped into his players back in January for not running enough to support Messi. Danilo slammed the team following the Lyon loss. And then there have been the standard looks of puzzlement after every ball that ends up in the PSG net.PSG, though they have a freakish amount of spending power, blew their budget to keep their front three paid. What can the €30 million mercenaries around them do?
Accountability from the big names
The responsibility, then, falls on Mbappe and Messi — those it was always supposed to. The PSG system, whatever it was supposed to resemble, is starting to collapse.And it can all go very wrong from here. PSG aren’t just supposed to win the league every year, they’re predestined to win it. This is of no discredit to the other 19 teams in Ligue 1.
There are, indeed, some good sides in the division.Marseille, with their fine collection of Arsenal veterans and young stars, knocked PSG out of the French Cup. Lyon have developed some exciting talents and showed that they were capable of competing with the best with their win last weekend. The perception, then, that PSG should smash every team, is wide of the mark.But that the Parisians are regarded as ordained to win the competition isn’t unreasonable. Ligue 1 is not a farmer’s league; PSG are just far better than the other 19 teams in it. So, it comes down to the players leading the line that chairman Al-Khelaifi threw hundreds of millions at. Messi and Mbappe simply have to turn up.This is no new concept for either player. Messi dragged some poor Barcelona sides to cup wins toward the end of his tenure there. A 19-year-old Mbappe was instrumental in winning France a World Cup in 2018 — and almost did it again four months ago.
These two are, inherently, big-game players. And now there are nine big games to go. With a six-point lead this should all be rather comfortable. Even an out-of-form PSG are capable of beating anyone in the league. But something that used to be a certainty is now looking under threat.They travel to Nice on Saturday, before hosting second-placed Lens seven days later. Given current form, it would now not be a shock were PSG’s lead at the top to have evaporated in the coming week or so.Last month, PSG were knocked out of the Champions League. That was a disappointment. If PSG throw away Ligue 1, it will be an outright embarrassment.
