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Messi-Mbappé, a more promising duo than the trio?
One was not fit to start the game. The other had gone through, not helped by the more than measured offensive ambition of Christophe Galtier. But, this Wednesday, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi largely hold the keys to a potential Parisian feat in Munich. The absence of Neymar has paradoxically strengthened Paris and made the thing even more readable: the Argentinian will be the quarterback, Mbappé the magnificent sprinter.
The best Parisian sequences interviewed in Marseille (0-3) came from this relationship. Where Messi struggled to find Neymar on his feet in the first leg, he should rely quite heavily on the very vertical runs of the Frenchman, completely liberated on the front of the attack in this 3-5-2 configuration. Intrinsically, Mbappé has once again become the terror of the World Cup, potentially the best player in the world, or in any case the most decisive, no offense to Carlo Ancelotti.
“Unlike Mbappé, Vinicius does not always have this relentless side”
Another virtue of the system: bring the circles closer to Messi. The Argentine is never more influential than when he facilitates ball outings by connecting with Verratti, Vitinha and Ruiz. The flat 4-4-2 in the first leg had deprived him of this role, too cut off from a globally dominated environment. The presence of Achraf Hakimi, limited by a glitch on the way out, will therefore offer him an ideal playground: vertical races on both sides with Mbappé and the two Parisian pistons as well as technically clean relays in the middle to get out of the potential opposing pressure. Better still, the Bavarian pattern could further strengthen the trend.
Stanisic, defensive option but too limited?
Julian Nagelsmann will not want to admit it but he seems to be bothered by the absence of Benjamin Pavard, rather solid in the first leg before being expelled. So here is the German coach looking for such a versatile and tactically skilled player to occupy the position to the right of his three-man defense, but also switch as a right-back on certain sequences. These last hours, it is the option Josip Stanišić who held the rope.
The 22-year-old Croatian has valuable versatility for Nagelsmann, but was mostly destined for supporting roles as he started the season as the third-choice right-back behind Benjamin Pavard and Noussair Mazraoui. The surprise arrival of Joao Cancelo last winter seemed to have relegated him a little further in the hierarchy but it is ultimately he who should play this Wednesday, unlike the Portuguese, who left to be a substitute.
Josip Stanisic
Credit: Getty Images
Stanisic will therefore be the right axis and subject to the constraints of increased surveillance by Kylian Mbappé. When we see the ordeal experienced by Eric Bailly, a proven international and former Manchester United player, we say to ourselves that the young Stanisic, although quick and solid defensively, looks like prey within the reach of the French monster. Especially since the right piston should be Kingsley Coman, a training winger with a sometimes precious withdrawal but probably insufficient to avoid repeated one-on-ones for Mbappé against Stanisic.
Vitinha and Ruiz finally viable?
These are perhaps the two biggest winners of the switch to 5-3-2. In great difficulty since the return of the World Cup, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz have found their colors in the new Parisian system. Already glimpsed during the brief passage in 4-3-1-2 during the Parisian autumn, the trio they form with Marco Verratti has brought a lot of balance to the Parisian block, races, technical precision during outings balls and better axial blocking of the opponent.
The Portuguese is perhaps the best symbol of this return to business. So seductive and so intelligent during his first outings in Paris, Vitinha had ended up losing his canes and therefore his influence. On the rim, he went through his year 2023 like a ghost until the match at the Velodrome. That evening, at the heart of the trio, as a right torchbearer, he multiplied the useful races, the precise discounts and launched many offensives by his ability to play simple and in rhythm. His duet with Verratti was insufficient on the way? The incorporation of Ruiz frees him a little more.
Vitinha against Rongier during OM-PSG, 2023
Credit: Getty Images
Because the Spaniard has become the ideal counterpart of the Portuguese. Aligned on the right in the fall, as a false foot torchbearer, he is finally the launching pad on the left side, with Nuno Mendes and Kylian Mbappé to serve. False slow, Ruiz brings an interesting technical and tactical management in the middle. Against Nantes (4-2), he was even very lively offensively, offering additional races to manage for the Canaries. More surprisingly, his impact in duels, which has long been seen as a real deficiency, allowed him to score a lot of balls at the Vélodrome and at the Parc.
In short, Paris is doing better because its midfield is better, undoubtedly helped by a much less neutral Marco Verratti at the Vélodrome than at the start of 2023. All is not perfect and the cursor will still have to be raised this Wednesday at the Allianz Arena. But to the equation almost impossible to go, Christophe Galtier seems to have found some answers. Enough to create the exploit?
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