It is an understatement to say that the affair caused a lot of noise and shocked more than one informed observer of PSG. This Monday morning and against all expectations, Ousmane Dembélé was left out of the squad for the match against Arsenal in the Champions League. A real explosion which shook the club internally and which did not fail to surprise all of footballing Europe, starting with Arsenal who could only rejoice at this decision.
Lucho assumes his choice
An assumed choice from Luis Enrique who did not want to say more about the reasons for this sidelining at a press conference a few hours after the announcement of the Parisian group… without the 2018 world champion, scorer on 5 occasions in Ligue 1 and author of 4 assists in 6 matches. “I’m very sincere, but I’m not going to make a telenovela out of it. There was no argument between the coach and the player, that is completely false. There is just a problem of commitment from the player to the team and not between the player and the coach.
The rest, we know it with a starting eleven and an inexperienced offensive animation. Following the defeat against the Gunners, Luis Enrique still refused to comment on the absence of Ousmane Dembélé.
A delay in training that does not go away at all
As a reminder, it all came from a lively tactical discussion between PSG number 10 and Luis Enrique after the 3-1 victory against Stade Rennais. The Spanish coach criticizing his attacker for his clumsiness in front of goal and his bad choices. Reproaches not at all appreciated by the main person concerned, especially with the statistics displayed by Dembélé since the start of the season. An exchange between a coach and his player like there are dozens every weekend in the biggest European clubs.
But what did not please the former FC Barcelona coach was the more than late arrival at training of Ousmane Dembélé in the hours following the match against Rennes. According to our information, the international tricolor arrived very late for training without justification, which provoked the anger and ire of Luis Enrique. Obviously enough to push Ousmane Dembélé out of the Parisian group for this meeting against Arsenal, even if it means seriously handicapping his team…
