- PSG will have to do without Kylian Mbappé in the Coupe de la Ligue final against Lyon.
- Paris played less than half of its matches with the Ney-Mbappé pair in 2019-20.
When it's not one, it's the other. We don't say that Neymar and Kylian Mbappé are the same person, but has someone ever seen them together on the same lawn? The Frenchman's exit from injury in the Coupe de France final against AS Saint-Etienne revived the legendary Parisian bad luck with the approach of international deadlines and highlighted, a few hours before the Coupe de la Ligue final , all the trouble that PSG has to align its two best players this season.
Out of 45 possible matches, Neymar and Mbappé have 21 in common in 2020-21, in all competitions. It's less than one in two. The one against OL, Friday at the Stade de France, will tarnish a little more a stat maintained by the many injuries of Ney and the rarest of Kyky, but also by tactico-political choices such as putting the Brazilian under the bell before the round of 16 of C1, early 2020.
We spare you the judgments on the lifestyle of the first or the physical requirement of the style of play of the second and we will prefer two questions: how the absence of Neymar or Mbappé affects PSG and which of the two is more detrimental for Thomas Tuchel?
View this post on Instagram
My bro ... 👊🏽❤️ @ k.mbappe
A post shared by ene10ta Érre 🇧🇷 👻 neymarjr (@neymarjr) on Jul 25, 2020 at 5:33 am PDT
Paris scores more with Mbappé alone
Bad news for absolute fans of data football and statistics of all kinds, the numbers are not really able to enlighten us of the masses. With one variable. Taking Ligue 1 2019-20 * as a laboratory - 27 matches for PSG - we see that Paris scores more when Mbappé is there, but not when Neymar is present. The number of victories, the possession rate, the number of chances and the goals conceded, however, remain appreciably similar.
- Without Mbappé: 5 matches - 4v and 1d - 8 bp (1.6 / match) and 2 bc **
- Without Neymar: 9 matches - 7v and 2d - 27 bp (3 / match) and 6bc **
Not illogical in itself, given that Mbappé is the top scorer in Paris (18 pawns in L1). But the explanation is not only statistical. For the former of the house, Pierre Ducrocq, it is also a question of profile.
“The absence of Mbappé is more detrimental because the profile of Neymar can be filled in the midfield, not in terms of talent obviously, because he is apart. But with a Sarabia and a Di Maria, occasionally, over two or three games, you can mitigate her absence and make her feel less. A Mbappé is much more complicated, because you don't have a duplicate profile, even with much less talent. Mbappé in verticality and depth, he is incredible, but he is the only one in this register. You are not going to ask Choupo-Moting to do Mbappé… ”
This is all the more true now that Cavani is no longer there. In the absence of the French, Tuchel is obliged to deal with an attacking midfielder or two wingers alongside Icardi depending on the chosen tactic (4-4-2 or 4-3-3). Friday night and according to the probable lines put forward by L'Equipe , the Argentinian will be either closely accompanied by Pablo Sarabia or supported in attack by the duo of free electrons Ney-Di Maria. In other words, excellent ball handlers able to make the difference with the ball on the foot and collectively but much less in depth.
Paris therefore loses a game option in the opposing camp. Without forgetting that Mbappé is a real machine to wring out defenders. Alain Roche, consultant for Canal +: “When I was a defender I feared players who went fast. Mbappé, it must be hell. If he goes deep, you don't see him again, there is nothing to do. And if it overflows, even with a two-man grip, it pushes the ball 10 meters to you and you're done. Neymar I know that if I stay in touch I can have him on impact or by making a small mistake. On the other hand, with the ball in my feet I have to worry about. "
Thomas Tuchel gives a big rant after Mbappé's injury via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/PKuSNSqwGg
- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) July 25, 2020Di Maria takes over
That the Neymarists be reassured, that does not mean that KM9 is intrinsically nor necessarily better. Just that, in the current tactical configuration, Thomas Tuchel has found certain answers to the absence of Neymar that he did not find when Mbappé is missing. After all, hasn't the team had more opportunities to work without the Brazilian?
Small stat again. In 2017-18, Neymar played 20 Ligue 1 games. He has never done better. 20 is also the number of days we saw Mbappé on a meadow in 2019-20, which, let us remember, was amputated by the Covid-19. Otherwise, he has never made less than 27 out of 38 games in L1. It makes you think.
Finally, to come back to the theory of Ducrocq's profiles, if Mbappé is unique, Paris has in his team a player who is never as good as when the big star is in the shelters: Angel Di Maria, 11 goals and 21 assists dice since the start of the season in all competitions. A monster. “When Neymar was not there, it was he who took over. It was really Di Maria's year before the season was interrupted. He was even almost superior to the other two. »No wonder Kyky, fed on the outside 'left foot pure Rosario juice, does not always have the Ney saudade.
In Neymar, the low blocks and the experience of major deadlines
One last detail anyway: Ligue 1, which serves as our yardstick, is an ideal field of expression for the world champion. But there are obviously circumstances where, even if it means choosing, it is better to have a Neymar on you. “There, it falls really badly because Atalanta was more suited to Mbappé, laughs Ducrocq. But typically, if things go well in the quarterfinals and PSG falls on Atletico in the half, it is the kind of team more difficult to handle for Mbappé and where Neymar can make the difference through his ability to play in small perimeters. "
Moreover, we cannot have mourned the absence of the Prince of Santos every time Paris has wallowed in the eighth of C1 and not admit today that he is often the best when the road really rises. . The reconquest of Dortmund bears its seal. “He boasts about this kind of meeting,” Roche said. And he has more experience. “He is 28 years old, he has played in the selection where there has been the most pressure in the world for 10 years, he has known Barça, La Liga. I know Mbappé does not like to talk about experience, but it matters. "Even more in this summer when, according to the Brazilian," PSG has four finals to play. "
* In the Champions League, the two men only missed one match, against Real Madrid. It was therefore not relevant to include this competition in the calculation
** The matches where Neymar AND Mbappé are absent (Brest-PSG and Amiens-PSG) are not taken into account.
Sport
OL-PSG: For Tuchel, the final against Lyon is "a Champions League match"
- Kylian Mbappé
- Neymar
- Sport
- PSG