Between Kylian Mbappé, the undeniable spearhead of the new Parisian project, and Neymar, back at the top of his game at the start of the season, PSG have to contend with two powerful egos that he hopes will end on Sunday in Lille in the Ligue 1 to be placated.
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When coach Christophe Galtier took control of the Paris workforce in early July, he knew he was stepping foot in a star dressing room. “I’ve known groups where there was ego,” he then clarified, affirming that he “wanted to make sure that this team is very unified, challenging and determined.”
Had he imagined having to deal with the first adventures in the dressing room from the second day of Ligue 1 after a 5-2 win against Montpellier and a new attacking festival?
Mbappé’s dour attitude during that encounter, his first of the season, as well as disagreements between the two attackers over the identity of the taker of the second penalty, certainly challenged observers at the French champions club.
“There’s no discomfort, it’s an epiphenomenon,” the new coach downplayed at a press conference on Friday.
The misunderstanding about the penalty taker after the French’s first missed shot? “It was an exchange, a discussion. There was a specific order: Kylian in N.1, + Ney + in N.2, and then there is the interpretation of the order in case of a second penalty,” he hammered. “Neymar felt like taking it, Kylian let him shoot. »
smile found
The coach nonetheless took the issue seriously, as he was quick to “flatten” the issue with the two men who met the day after the meeting “to say to each other what we had to say”.
It is true that meanwhile Neymar had reignited the debate on Twitter by affixing the ‘like’ mention to two messages surprised by the choice of Mbappé as N.1 shooter… Atmosphere.
But “this epiphenomenon disappeared very quickly”, stressed Galtier, satisfied to have had “a very pleasant week at work”.
In any case, during the only quarter of an hour of training open to the media that week, the smile had actually returned to “Kyky”‘s face, instead of the cold expression that accompanied his first appearance at the Parc des Princes.
Extended until 2025 with great fanfare at the end of May, the 23-year-old striker actually became the heart of the new project, the end of the “bling-bling”, according to President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi himself.
Gold Neymar, a time expected at the start of the transfer window, precisely symbolizes the era of tinsel, he who has often been pinned down by the press for his lifestyle, sometimes linked to his repeated injuries.
But “I haven’t heard ‘Ney’ ask to leave and seeing him train every day doesn’t give me the feeling of a player on ‘stand-by’,” Galtier said.
couple or trio?
On the contrary, Neymar is in the midst of a renaissance: with five goals and three assists in three competitive games, the 30-year-old Brazilian is the Parisian club’s No. 1 attack this summer.
A situation that clearly differs from last season, marked by an extreme dominance of the Bondynois over “the ney” in all statistical lines, goals (39 against 13) as assists (26 against 8), all competitions combined.
Another source of tension for Mbappé is the perfect understanding between the Brazilian and Lionel Messi, who constantly seek each other out on the field and offer the crowd combinations worthy of their prime at Barcelona. Automatisms are less visible with Mbappé for the time being.
“Due to Kylian’s absence (suspended for the Champions Trophy and injured on day one) it was a pair for two games. But it was already a trio last season and they look for each other a lot in training,” emphasized Galtier.
“In my eyes it’s a real trio,” concludes the former Lille coach. He hopes his soloists will tune their violins at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium on Sunday night.