Ney's bodyguard, is Paredes the rogue that PSG was missing?

From our special correspondent in Lisbon,

Will play, will not play? A few hours before the quarter-final against Atalanta, Thomas Tuchel still hesitated between Leandro Paredes and Ander Herrera for his mid-four, supposed to give pride of place to Neymar in the (probable) absence of Mbappé in front. Warm on the bench or coal on the pitch, the Final 8 will start anyway better than the final phase of the Champions League had started for the Argentinian. Not very hard in itself: Paredes had not been selected in the first leg against Borussia Dortmund for a history of tactical insubordination combined with a cracking at half-time of the match against Amiens in Ligue 1 (4-4). Rumor has it that the midfielder tasted very little of a negative remark from Tuchel in the locker room, before pulling the pin. Nothing like that in the official archives, at most a microphone said from the German. If Paredes did not make the trip to the Ruhr, he swears, it is pure sporting choice, and the relationship between the two men is the best.

The story will be anyway quickly forgotten after the beautiful performance of the international albiceleste against Borussia, on the return. A service that Tuchel decided to reward after the post-Covid truce by establishing the Argentinian rather than Verratti in the final of the Coupe de France. “It's a super complicated decision to leave Marco on the bench but I felt it deserved to let Gana and Leo play together after Dortmund. "

Neymar's Guardian Angel

It is not so much his contribution to the game that evening - decreasing over time after an interesting first half - as the role of bastard essential to the collective which deserves to be highlighted. A rare commodity at the Parc des Princes since Thiago Motta hung up his crampons which we have often been tempted to say was the cause of the incredible eliminations of PSG, too "nice" to keep a result, including a 4-0 at home or a 2-0 away (reasoning which has its limits since he returned against Manchester 20 minutes before Dalot struck on Kimpembe's hand with the consequences we know).

Ney vs TS fight? Paredes appreciates🤪 pic.twitter.com/ObC8lQ47vq

Small sly faults or big asserted cleats, Leo Paredes does not refrain from anything if it is for the good of the team, and too bad if he passes for a demon. “I'm not afraid for my reputation, he confided, at the start of 2020. What I try to do every time is to defend the team and my teammates. And more particularly Neymar, of which he is the unofficial bodyguard. Protecting his number 10 and therefore preserving him from injuries, he who is so fragile, is to optimize the chances of Parisian victories, and that, the double of Stromae understood it well. Against Dortmund at the Park, it translated into "that":

1st minute  : Muscular charge from Emre Can on Neymar.

3 rd  : Immediate revenge of Paredes which turns Can. Hands off Ney.

Riquelme saw him as his successor

In short, you get the idea. The adage "it is better to have it on your team than against yourself" was cut out for him as a suit. With all that that implies, namely being hated by your opponents. The Argentinian is "it" to be inadmissible on the side of Montpellier since last December. His fault? Interposed to protect a Neymar lodger, taken to task by Andy Delort on the way to the locker room. That evening, Damien Le Tallec had not been kind to Paredes in the mixed zone. “I said a few words to him in Russian since he played in Russia (at the Zenith). For me, he's not a good guy, he has to respect the players a little. It shows in his head, with his smirk every time he makes a mistake. He makes small mistakes, he hits for nothing. "

Andy Delort: “Neymar? We'll see how he looks at me. As you know, I am not afraid of anyone. The one I expect the most? It's more Paredes than Neymar. It's amazing how he talks. »
(France Bleu Hérault) pic.twitter.com/w242Hc1pdf

Beware of caricature. To reduce him to a Cerberus would be too quickly to forget that he started his career as a pure 10 ("enganche") at Boca Juniors alongside Juan Roman Riquelme, who had then appointed him as his natural successor (as what we can all crash) It is only later, in Italy, that he will be seduced by the dark side of the ball. Johan Roca, who faced him in the Coupe de France with Linas-Monthléry (0-6 defeat), nevertheless said he had not felt the rough side of Leo Paredes at all. “We could see his technical side more than the aggressive side we saw against Dortmund. He wasn't in there at all. He mostly played sideways, so we didn't really feel the old number 10 side either. He's a good conservation player, he doesn't lose a lot of balls even under pressure. It's part of his style, which is more about security. Another precious facet - but still too intermittent - of his game on high tension matches that we are more used to seeing in Marco Verratti. In the absence of the Italian, and if Tuchel does not prefer Herrera to him, he will have an opportunity to put himself in the spotlight and show that he is not just a useful butcher. Very useful.

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