• Neymar, returned from the international break, will not be available for the C1 match against Leipzig on Wednesday.

  • The Brazilian, who confided a certain discomfort in a documentary filmed recently, no longer makes the same differences as before.

  • What to wonder about its performance, while the PSG has just extended it until 2026.

A word about the other big affair that occupies the Parisian locker room, being more understood than the first, the circus of the extension of Mbappé, may constrain us for a little while longer.

Finally, a medical press release, rather: "Neymar Jr has had adductor pain since his return from selection and will have to extend a period of care for a few days before a normal return to the group".

Pain that woke up during the session on Monday, took care to clarify in conf Pochettino, with an eye for detail rare at home.

We had however seen the Brazilian all perky with his cap during the small warm-up toros at Camp des Loges, at the end of the morning.

Feedback on the session the day before #PSGRBL 💪🏆 pic.twitter.com/8LugP1l3Gs

- Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_inside) October 18, 2021

Uncertain for the "classic"

An unforeseen absence which has the merit of being connected with its fragility of the moment, stated by the star herself in an extract from a documentary published these days on the DAZN platform, Neymar's privileged commercial partner.

The athlete, in the middle of the blues, evokes a phenomenon of "mental wear and tear", clearly implying that after the 2022 World Cup, it will be in the direction of the team, at least in the national team.

Note that the said declaration smells a little of mothballs, which makes our colleague Isabelle Pagliari, close to the Brazilian clan in Paris, say that there is more wind than a wind farm in Cornwall.

“The documentary was shot in April.

Neymar had not extended and Lionel Messi was not there.

We have to put ourselves back in the context of six months ago ”.

For anyone familiar with the changing moods of the “Ney”, capable of forcing his departure for Barcelona one day and prolonging the next day, or vice versa, moods six months old, it is not worth tripette, indeed.

This does not prevent the Parisian leaders from making the chickweed in high places, until coming to the news during the truce according to the Brazilian press to inquire about the part of truth of the said documentary.

Parisian leaders worried?

Neymar has just been extended until 2026 for a small fortune, even on a Qatari scale, and if everyone got used to the idea that the genius was only partially working, Neymar charging barely 20 / 25 L1 games per year since his arrival, it was still agreed that the former prodigy of Barça flies on the lawn, the rest of the time.

However, it is not an inspired evening facing the corpse of Uruguay which is likely to change a profound dynamic, and its perception. Neymar, three goals in 2021 if we remove the penalties and the gifts of the VAR, is no longer moving forward. Even better L1 dribbler with two trains ahead of the confinement season, the Brazilian now regularly falls below 50% of success in the league, where his chronic athletic deficit makes him more and more powerless in one on one, compared to the young people who arrive, Doku and Suljneimana style.

Speaking of comparison, at this point in the article, what is the parallel often invoked with the downfall of Ronaldinho, the last great Brazilian “malandro”? We went back out of curiosity in a brilliant episode of the Spanish program Informe Robinson, which unraveled the end of the love affair between "Ronnie" and the Camp Nou. A testimony deeper than the others, that of the former technical director of Barça, Txeki Begiristain:

“Everything started to get complicated after the 2006 World Cup. It was small details every time: he took more hits and took more time to come back each time, he managed less and less dribbling, and only scored on a set piece ”.

The famous boost that evaporates casually, allowing the lambda defender to redo the icing on ten meters.

Damien Da Silva last year, for example, in a very commented sequence.

"He's already about to lose his speed"

Neymar would be there, he whose night hygiene certainly questionable can in no way be compared to orgiastic lupanars organized for his elder in the mid-2000s. A magician undressed by his opponents at not even 30 years old, far from this Balloon d'Or which was to consecrate it after Messi and CR7. Not many people spare it, exactly. Samir Nasri, at the beginning of September, after a tasteless draw in Bruges. “We feel that he is not yet well physically. You can feel it in his shopping. Usually, it is someone who has an ease to eliminate. And even in speed. At one point, Paredes gave him a ball in the depth, we had the impression that he was not advancing too much ”.

Everything is in the "not yet well physically": does it still happen to him, when every glitch condemns him to run behind optimal physical condition, and each long-lasting injury renders the hope of success illusory? to catch up with her, a vicious circle that can bring him closer to the maheurs of Eden Hazard, in Madrid? And even so, what would the 29-year-old Neymar be worth at 100% of his abilities, after hundreds of matches to have his ankles mastered since he was 16?

"He is already on the way to losing his speed, his agility," said the former Bordeaux player Jussié, among our colleagues in the

Team

.

He feels the thing coming, he is like the animal that senses the presence of the hunter.

He is a provocateur, a creator, who is losing all that.

He feels the seesaw coming, so he's going to change something ”.

A greater defensive investment in the evenings that matter, like against City, a refocusing closer to the goal, perhaps, like all great attackers who age.

So much for the outside look.

Remembering Bayern (and Atalanta)

And his? The regulars tell of a flourished player in his Parisian daily life, overjoyed to be reunited with Lionel Messi, and entirely concerned by the conquest of the Champions League. The review of the functioning of the club, in particular the better collaboration between medical staff and performance, these improvements "invisible to you journalists but which are proof that things are being done correctly", according to Pochettino, is also likely to reassure the Brazilian on his physical dispositions, he who does not hesitate to appear in a hyped up room on his social networks, when he is not using pressotherapy boots, to help drainage and promote blood ciculation.

And concerning us, we will avoid any final judgment.

The last time we had played the mandolin on its expiration date at the very high level, Neymar had stunned the great Bayern on the outward and return leg.

Without doubt his best performance since this unreal quarter-final against Atalanta Bergamo in the summer of 2020, a dribbling record exploded in a Champions League match.

Maybe a little early to put it away in the junk closet, right?

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