A rain of crosses, volleys and spectacular gestures. The exercise, inevitably, amused the gallery, regaled the 2000 or so supporters installed in the grandstand of the Green Sankaï Stadium in Osaka, their eyes enamored. He also delighted Marco Asensio, Achraf Hakimi, Neymar and all those who took pleasure, during this training session open to the public, in shooting the great Gianluigi Donnarumma and the young Louis Mouquet by putting style, power and sometimes even both. But if he also reassured Luis Enrique on the jovial atmosphere – and normal at this time of the year – which reigns in his group, the moment did not however make the successor of Christophe Galtier forget what, in the absence of Kylian Mbappé, is more obvious to everyone.
While his PSG appears more than provided in defenders and midfielders, it still seems light, very light even in the attacking sector. Sunday, on the occasion of his first – and probably only scheduled speech in Japan in front of the French media – the newcomer certainly expressed his “excellent impression” on “the greatness” of PSG, “its facilities and the quality of the players”. But he did not fail to recall, during his three short minutes of intervention, that “the workforce must be further reinforced and departures must still be made”.
A way of saying, without offending the talent or goodwill of Neymar, Lee Kang-In, Marco Asensio, Hugo Ekitiké and young Ilyes Housni, Ismaël Gharbi and Noah Lemina that a club of the standing of PSG is not, in the current state of things, sufficiently armed to hold its rank and its ambitions.
“A lot of possession to create chances”
This offensive imbalance is a problem, at the very least, for a coach who has almost arrived in the panoply of savior from the front, haloed in any case with a reputation as a game maker, a spectacle and resolutely turned towards the attack. As proof, at the dawn of his first real test, this Tuesday at 12:20 p.m. (BeIn Sport), against the Al-Nassr team, the solutions available to the ex-Barça coach are not legion to challenge the team of Cristiano Ronaldo and Seko Fofana. If he is in good shape and closer and closer to a return, Neymar could still wait a few days before returning to competition. Hit in the thigh – like Navas – against Le Havre on Friday before flying to Japan, Lee-Kang-In could also be spared. Under these conditions and if he renews the 4-3-3 of the opposition on Friday, the three seats in attack would be played between Ismaël Gharbi, Marco Asensio, Hugo Ekitike, Ilyes Housni and Noah Lemina.
Asked at the end of training to find out if Kylian Mbappé was already missing in Paris on the eve of this first Japanese test, Vitinha, like the whole club in recent days, kicked into touch, replying that he would not “talk about that”. “We will try to do the best possible, explained the Portuguese when discussing the clash against the Saudi club. It’s a first game, there will probably be a lot of things to improve. But the most important thing is to have real game ideas, to be offensively oriented and to have a lot of ball possession, to create chances and then score. The coach passed on this idea to us. “In Paris to apply it, even without Mbappé!
