In the UEFA Champions League group stage, European powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain, with Messi, Neymar and Mbappé, encountered Bruges from the Belgian First Division, but the final result was an unexpected draw.
You know that Paris Saint-Germain's worth and personal strength of the players are far above Bruges, but the team is controlled by the opponent in the away game. For Paris Saint-Germain, who is ambition to win the Champions League, It really shouldn't. In this game, Paris Saint-Germain’s starting lineup can be described as super luxurious, with Neymar, Messi and Mbappé on the front line, and there are no shortage of world-class players in the middle and back. However, Paris Saint-Germain's performance in the entire game was sluggish. Judging from this, Paris Saint-Germain is indeed worthy of reflection.
Paris Saint-Germain and Bruges tied the game, the result of this game is not surprising! The Paris match exposed many problems, but because this is a group stage, in fact, the performance in the first match may not be a bad thing. Although Manchester City in the Paris group seems to perform very well, Paris should not be unable to get out of the line, but it is against the cloth. Some of the problems exposed by Rouge, indeed Pochettino needs to reflect and find a way to solve it!
The first one is the defensive problem. The team's defense is still not good!
Paris's lineup flaw is really defensive! Ashraf can actually solve some of the problems of the team's full-backs, but the team's center-backs still have not improved in defense. However, the team's center-back level may be good, but it is basically the style of offensive than defensive. It's not a big problem, after all, Navas can still play when the defender's performance is average! But that's it for the back line! Everyone knows that this team's defensive line is unstable!
Second, the midfield problem is troublesome
In fact, Paris lacks a real defensive midfielder, that is, a midfielder who participates in the defensive game. There really is no such player! Paredes, Herrera and Wijnaldum are indeed not good defensive players! They are not the kind of players who do dirty work on the football field! So the team's midfield performance is too unstable! And one question is, if Messi and Neymar both play, the series of midfields is not so important, but defense is important, but these midfielders, who is the defensive midfielder? No one, this is very realistic, but why Paris is rumored to want Pogba, in fact, for this reason, Pogba still looks like a good offensive and defensive midfielder! If this problem is not resolved, there will be problems in this year's Champions League in Paris!
The striker problem! Although the stars have all played, their performance may not meet expectations. Why?
The combination of Messi, Neymar and Mbappé came out, but a problem emerged. None of the three seem to like defensive players very much, so Paris’s forward defense seems to be a bit problematic! But as I said before, midfield defense is not good, so this is a problem! You can't expect Messi and Neymar to defend, right? It's not realistic at all! So, this requires Pochettino to think about how to arrange some dedicated defensive players around these three people, let these three people concentrate on attacking, or let Messi become a midfielder? This is also an idea to consider!
As for tactics, Paris’s current problem is not a tactical problem. Everyone may not be able to achieve the expected results. The striker can't defend, the midfielder can't defend, and the back line is actually not a defensive specialty. In such a team, Can only play offense! But Pochettino's offensive tactics are really not ideal.
캡포탈 actually seems to like the taller Central Forward.
Pochettino was asked in an interview whether Bruges dominated the Champions League group stage. Pochettino did not think so. In his opinion, Paris has a higher ball possession rate. It's just that the team's defense is not satisfactory, giving Bruges too many offensive opportunities, allowing them to score goals.
Of course, Pochettino also admitted that his opponent did better than Paris in some respects. It has to be said that Paris Saint-Germain did not dominate the game in this game. For Paris with such a luxurious lineup, the team should not only talk about possession rate, but also control the rhythm of the game and limit the opponent’s offense. In this regard, Pochettino's help for Paris Saint-Germain is not enough.
At the same time, Pochettino explained why there was a substantial rotation of the midfielders after halftime. On the one hand, Paredes had a yellow card, and Pochettino did not dare to take risks, so he made a substitution. On the other hand, Wijnaldum played with the Dutch team during the national team match day. He had a certain ankle injury, so he was replaced. Generally speaking, Pochettino's adjustment in the midfield is no problem, and he also hopes that the team's offensive and defensive changes can be made through substitution adjustments.
For Pochettino, coaching such a team with a luxurious lineup is not a good thing, because the lineup in Paris seems to have a strong strength, but in fact how to operate and arrange the troops is the most critical issue .
Pochettino's coaching ability still needs to be tested under such a background. Whether he can pair up the most ideal lineup with the stars he has in Paris may determine his future in the team.
In any case, this game failed to take all three points, Pochettino needs to find out the reasons with his disciples.
