The holidays are over, back to the turbine. Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse FC returned from vacation, a little earlier than their Ligue 1 colleagues. Indeed, the two teams crossed swords this Wednesday evening on the pitch – officially neutral – of the Parc des Princes in the framework of of the Champions Trophy, pitting the last winners of the championship and the cup against each other. For this first poster of the year 2024, Luis Enrique decided to renew a fairly classic 4-3-3 composition with a four-man defense made up of Lucas Hernandez, Marquinhos, Milan Skriniar and Achraf Hakimi to come to the aid of Gianluigi Donnarumma . In the middle, the Spanish coach opted for the trident Warren Zaire-Emery, Vitinha and Lee Kang-in. But the most interesting was the confirmation of Kylian Mbappé as number 9, with Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola as offensive supports: “He came back very motivated, as usual. He is hungry, he knows that the second part of the season is very important,” rejoiced Ousmane Dembélé in the mixed zone.
In a stadium committed to the Parisian cause, the captain of the Blues guided his team to victory (2-0), well accompanied by his offensive companions. However, Kylian Mbappé was only a shadow of himself before the Christmas holidays in this leading scorer position and had logically received a lot of criticism. But Luis Enrique did not want to change his mind and continued to return the nugget of Bondy to this position by justifying his repeated choice in these terms: “Kylian plays where he decides. He has complete freedom to play inside, more on the side. If he is further outside, it is up to us to balance our positions. The difference is who will follow Kylian”, declared the tactician native of Gijon before the last meeting of 2023, against FC Metz. Against Toulouse, Kylian Mbappé was simply impeccable in his play and attitude.
Mbappé puts on a show!
While his contract will end in 6 months, Kylian Mbappé took advantage of this first meeting of a year, once again decisive for the rest of his career, to send a message. Regardless of his position, on the field, the French international is ready to have an impact on his team’s collective. The former Monaco nugget finished with 90% successful passes, also winning seven out of ten duels: “When I talk to him about it, he tells me that a good player can play several positions. I think I’m a good player. Today I play in the center but what is good is that whatever position I play in, it adapts to the functions of the player’s qualities, which means that we are never out of place. Whether I play in the middle, whether I play on the left or on the right, I will play and I don’t think I will have any problems performing.”, explained Kyk’s in the mixed zone. Performing is good, adapting to the system is even better…
Author of the second Parisian goal, which sealed the fate of the match, Mbappé also reassured everyone by asking the Parc des Princes to stand up, smiling at each great opportunity for his team. Better yet, he made very solid and useful technical gestures to play quickly and cleanly forward with his teammates like Ousmane Dembélé. An impeccable attitude for the one who was accused of sulking before Christmas: “It’s normal. He is a coach who arrived with clear ideas, but also a lot of ideas. It takes time but I think we’re starting to see interesting things. I don’t know what it looks like outside. It’s more structured, we see it in terms of offensive animation and schemes. There are things that are emerging”, then clarified the Parisian number 7 in the mixed zone after the match. In any case, with Mbappé at the forefront, it was a success that observers expected!
