In San Siro,
It is in big matches that we recognize great players. This may just be a stupid cliché, but it is not completely unfounded. However, if this Milan-PSG on Tuesday evening was not the track to the stars either, the fault of a Milanese team which no longer has its former luster, the challenge it took on in this mythical lair of San Siro still had enough to put it in the above-mentioned category.
It should therefore have, at least on paper, offered a formidable playing field to Kylian Mbappé. Especially since a victory would have almost assured qualification for Paris Saint-Germain. And what did we see instead from the Parisian number 7? Nothing, or very little. A few snatches of acceleration on the left side at the very start of the match, a too soft shot placed in the arms of Mike Maignan (8th) and a sadly crunched face-off like a Daunat sandwich on a motorway rest area, despite a bright opening signed Dembélé (25th).
Like a sense of deja vu
The observation may seem harsh and the judgment severe, but when we have loudly demanded responsibilities and power in this team, as he has done on numerous occasions in recent years, we must expect this that the ears heat up the day we pass by. Especially since it’s not the first time. In Newcastle, already, the King of Panama had displayed a sheepish face in attack and a sometimes hateful attitude when it came to helping the friends who were taking the tide in defense at Saint James Park.
Except that, since then, PSG has recovered well and Mbappé has gained momentum, he who logically needed to find an athletic level in line with his game and his qualities, after a truncated preparation due to his being put on the shelf in July. His last outings, against Milan and Strasbourg, not to mention those with the France team, nevertheless suggested that the boy was indeed back. In the attitude, we even found him in his role, in Brest, when it was a question of defending his friend Achraf Hakimi, insulted by the Breton public, even if it meant overplaying the dirty kid side when he left the field .
At least Paris had a player there ready to show his fangs to defend the group and the badge. This is precisely what should have been done again on Tuesday evening when his team was subjected to the tempo of the Rossoneri. But apart from a few solitary attempts to force the Milanese lock at the end of the match, Mbappé did not live up to his status as PSG superstar. Ultra-demanding of himself, the Parisian scorer does not need us to know that his match on Tuesday was a failure, but we would still have liked to have his personal opinion on this performance.
Discreet on the ground, expeditious in mixed zones
Unfortunately, if he pointed the tip of his snout into the mixed zone after the match, something rare enough in recent months to make it clear, it was only an express passage, three shower questions included, to rattle off elements uninteresting language. Since it doesn’t take long, we’ll put them here in their entirety so you can get an idea.
“ – What did PSG miss this evening?
It’s a second away defeat, it’s never easy to lose, we’re disappointed. He missed a lot of things. We will try to react at home against Newcastle.
– How can we explain that Paris travels so difficult?
I do not know. We are disappointed. It didn’t happen this evening and we will try to react against Newcastle at home.
– We have the impression that you slowed down in the second half…
We tried to score this second goal. They scored before us and then we tried to react but it was too late. We go home with this defeat. »
There you go… Orphaned by his two ball providers who were Neymar and Messi in previous years, Mbappé has seen his role evolve this season, without us really knowing how to define it precisely at the moment. In his defense, he is not really helped by the lack of creativity of the players in the middle of the field, nor by his attacking friend in the France team Randal Kolo Muani, ghostly at the forefront since his last minute signing this summer. But it is precisely in these moments, when the vile people do not respond, that we expect the guide to show the way.