The absence of boss Kylian Mbappé hurts PSG

The timing does not go unnoticed. Just days after being knocked out in the Champions League semi-finals by Manchester City and before tackling another crucial weekend in the Ligue 1 title fight, Paris Saint-Germain have chosen to announce extra time. of Neymar until 2025. To armor the best player of his squad, a nice move. Except that at the end of the season, the captain is not Neymar.

Harmless against City, the Auriverde was expected at the turn against Rennes. But again, he disappointed. Physically not at the level, the Brazilian made very few differences in one against one. Too slow and not really “ready to die” on the field as he had announced just before the duel against the Citizens, the former Blaugrana may be the victim of a season with a more than busy schedule, but in the game of balance sheet comparisons with Kylian Mbappé, it is the day and the night.

Neymar does not run like Mbappé

Since the return of the international break, the native of Bondy is quite simply the boss of PSG. Author of 7 goals and 1 assist, the 2018 world champion is the number one asset of a PSG forced to whip behind Lille in the league. A desire to tear everything off which had also been very noticed on the occasion of the end of the crazy match against Saint-Étienne at the Parc des Princes (3-2).

And Neymar? Entering during the match against OL after an adductor injury, the Brazilian was sent off against Lille, before missing two matches and signing 2 goals and 1 assists against Lens and Rennes. At a time when Auriver is struggling to make differences in money time, the parallel with Mbappé is glaring. However, there is no question of talking about Mbappé-dependence for Mauricio Pochettino.

“We weren’t better than Rennes. It is reality, beyond attitude or quality. Today (Sunday), on what we saw for 90 minutes, we did not deserve the three points. It must be said clearly. Rennes was a team that played well in football, which had a very high pace. This is one of the explanations for our defeat. We’re not going to start thinking about whether or not we missed Kylian (Mbappé). We all know its importance. If you want to be champion, you have to win this kind of match. But today (Sunday), we did nothing to win it. This is the key “. Still, Paris hopes more than ever to be able to count on its striker for the last two meetings of L1 and the end of the course in the Coupe de France.