Ligue 1 20/21

futbol_bill wrote:I’m looking forward to PSG signing Ronaldo! The retirement home reputation takes on all the more validity and I want to see Harmonica’s reactions!

Nobody is going to sign him anymore after what has happened with Dumpnited.

Truly catastrophic in his last season at Barca? The guy had 23 goals and 8 assists in his last 22 league games. Wtf am I reading?

I think DoC means catastrophic when compared to Messi’s other seasons. Messi’s trajectory, at least as a goal scorer, was declining. He scored plenty of free kicks and penalties, but the Messi of old would’ve banged in 50+ goals a season.

Honestly, I see this being Ronaldo and Messi’s last seasons. This one and the next one. Then they retire. Both still have their key traits but their body is failing them. Father Time is undefeated.

He had a slow start to the season, but he was pretty much goal per game after January which was in line with his scoring ratio in La Liga since 2016. Messi’s La Liga goal tally ranges from 36-26 for the last 6 years and he scored 30 last season. It was more or less a bit lower than his average amount.

Though a lot of his goals were from the edge of the box. Doesn’t really get too many of those shooting situations at PSG. The struggle to dribble past the second man and PSG having no cutback patterns seem the major problem. No surprise most of his goals have come from counters.

Honestly think with Messi the bigger issue is defensively.  Offensively he still creates 3 clear cut chances a game. His underlying chance creation numbers are the highest they’ve been. His shooting has been unlucky/bad relative to his XG and previous years.

The underlying dribbling numbers are what is worrying. Those have truly taken a nose dive when they were his main way to create danger. I mean he stopped running off the ball a long time ago, but now he’s stopped running on the ball. His overall workrate now is truly awful.

Either way the biggest issue is defensively. Messi and Ronaldo aren’t going to drop back into the midfield to defend. PSG could get away with it when Di Maria was there because he’d drop back to form a midfield 4, but Neymar isn’t as diligent about doing so despite having a higher defensive work rate than both Messi and Mbappe. So what ends up happening is defending with 7 which is unacceptable in 2022.

I thought Poch learned his lesson against Madrid. When Neymar came on, Mbappe moved to the RW with Messi as a false 9. They defended in a 4-5-1/5-4-1 and not a 4-3-0-3. Poch plays his wingers in the channels so it’s not like Mbappe was hugging the touch line. PSG looked dangerous on the counters with Messi in the middle having Neymar and Mbappe on either side of him. It makes more sense to play like that than have Mbappe in the middle when Messi will move there regardless if he plays on the right or not.

I think that’s their only way of competing with defensive balance. Mbappe has the legs to track back which would encourage Neymar to do so more. Poch is spineless though. If you can’t convince your star players to defend then you shouldn’t be managing stars.

You can somewhat justify poor defensive workrate if you contributed offensively in a big way. Especially if you’re the only player who doesn’t defend. Messi and Ronaldo dominated the CL from 2008-2018. They weren’t defending like Firmino or Griezmann.

But when the offensive contribution declines and you can only attack in a front two then you really can’t justify the lack of defensive workrate. Especially if the players around you can’t compensate for it. It’s not like players in their mid 30s are suddenly going to adapt to that. The cons end up outweighing the pros.

Maybe @harmonica has a peronalized Whoscored? That would explain a lot

The Demon of Carthage wrote:Still, when he signed for PSG, I expected him to tear the league open. So the fact that he only has two goals speaks volume on his rapid decline.

I didnt. Too many aspects of this are against him
1. Leaves his comfort zone after 20 years at one club.
2. Even still at barca he started showing clear signs of slowing down
3. PSG was never that good to begin with, no heritage, dont play like a team, more individualistic.
4. Poch is a poor coach


I maintain that he'd have been better off under Pep at City. But the modern game requires 11 players to run and Pep knows Messi doesnt bother with that

Messi - Mbappe is such a good passer - runner dynamic

If Messi and Mbappe can link up like they're doing now against St Etienne... woah. Just some beautiful play by Messi and Mbappe.

you read my mind casci lol... it's really great football.

Not watching the game, but I'm assuming Messi should've had at least 7 assists and that Mbappé is letting him down by only scoring a brace so far

Nah Mbappe’s been surprisingly clinical today lol

what a pass by Mbappe... wow

sportsczy wrote:you read my mind casci lol... it's really great football.

See how PSG plays when they play 3 at the back? The moment Di Maria came on for Kehrer and Danilo dropped to RCB. They looked 10x better.

Well i mean Kehrer is basically a corpse out there. Almost better off playing with 10

But I totally agree. No idea why this isn't their base tactical setup.

sportsczy wrote:Well i mean Kehrer is basically a corpse out there. Almost better off playing with 10

But I totally agree. No idea why this isn't their base tactical setup.

The only times I’ve seen them play good is when they play that 3-5-2/3-4-3. The Madrid game should’ve been the blue print moving forward but he keeps starting with that awful 4-3-3. How has no French interviewer called him out in it?

Another game where I completely forgot Wijnaldum was on the pitch

I despise Ligue 1 refereeing... it's awful.

Second game in row Di Maria misses a complete breakaway, trying the same chip that won Copa.

This might be the worst Neymar I've ever seen in that half. Wtf happened to his dribbling.

What a boring game I was just going to say, Nice playing 0-0 and PSG resting for Uefadrid. And then Nice gets the goal.

Icardi doing the famous Anelka's there. Red then, no foul now.