Along his sideline, waving his arms with his face often closed, Luis Enrique will perhaps soon swap his mid-length gray down jacket for a white coat. As was to be expected, the end of the season in Ligue 1 turned into a life-size laboratory for the Spaniard, who made six changes this Sunday against Reims compared to the midweek match against the Real Sociedad.
The comfortable lead that the Parisians have in the ranking allows it to learn to use its workforce and its qualities in great width to prepare for the long term, without Kylian Mbappé therefore, once again left on the bench.
An assumed and repeated choice to use French much more sparingly. And if it will always be commented on, for the moment it has not done too much harm to either PSG or the Asturian. All you had to do was see every close-up of his face on television or hear the Park electrify as soon as he left to warm up: the shadow of No. 7 will inevitably hover until his departure this summer.
But Paris, since the big announcement of Mbappé’s departure in mid-February and, more generally, since November, has continued to move forward with its schedule without losing anything and without getting too carried away.
Paris without sparkles, but with resources
Luis Enrique has said it several times over the past month: his team must “learn” to play without Mbappé. Learn not to rely on your goals, like Tuesday evening in San Sebastian, on your genius and to let that of others blossom. A long learning process, the process of which we saw this Sunday: a PSG without sparks certainly, put on the wrong track by a double coordinated blunder from Navas and Hakimi (0-1, 7th), but not devoid of ideas and which found other solutions, notably via a very good Gonçalo Ramos (17th, 19th), to return the score.
Ultimately, it is perhaps not so much its attack which posed a problem for PSG as its defense, sometimes to the four winds this season – evidenced by the excellent exercise carried out by Gianluigi Donnarumma, left on the bench in anticipation of the reception of Nice in the Coupe de France next Wednesday.
There was also success on the Rémois side, who converted their first two shots on target of the match, the second following a gem of a pass from Agbadou which pierced the entire length of the Parisian block (2- 2, 45th).
No worries for the championship
Without this third goal which never seemed to want to come, and it’s not for lack of trying (10 shots, 4 on target in the second half) even during the last 20 minutes with Mbappé and Dembélé on the pitch, the Parisians are certainly missing the opportunity to take a 12-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 but that should not stop them from sleeping.
PSG did not win, for the third consecutive time in Ligue 1, but Luis Enrique is at the helm of a ship which resists the movement of the waves and whose crew can continue, very calmly, to learn.
