“An insufficient performance for a player of his caliber”. This is how we judged Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s performance against Strasbourg on Saturday afternoon, with an ugly 3 as a score. The Team for his part mentioned “a ghost”while The Parisian judged him “insignificant”. Where has the twirling Georgian, voted best player of the last Champions League, gone? We do not find it in this start to the season which is at best unsuccessful, at worst worrying. However, deprived of the World Cup, he had time to cut back and should have been one of the driving forces at the start of the season.
However, the opposite is happening, and Luis Enrique has already pulled out the stick, by not starting him in the first two Champions League matches, against Slovan Bratislava (where he remained glued to the bench the entire match) and especially at Manchester City (where his entry was not very convincing). His poor performance against Strasbourg, where his loss of the ball was the cause of the goal conceded, does not seem to speak in his favor, especially since his new main competitor on the left wing is called Désiré Doué. The latter also experienced the match against Bratislava on the bench, but he has since given a completely different answer to his coach.
Still the stick or the carrot?
Present at a press conference this Monday, before the clash between PSG and Barça in the Champions League, Vitinha nevertheless wanted to defend the bad patch experienced by his teammate. “You can’t find an explanation, we all have ups and downs, we try to be consistent as much as possible, it’s never for the whole season, we have ups and downs that happen in a career. We hope that he and the others will be at their best tomorrow”thus launched the Portuguese midfielder. So, what should PSG do with Kvaratskhelia for the prestigious match against FC Barcelona on Tuesday evening? Two versions oppose each other.
There are those who absolutely want to see the starting trio Kvaratskhelia-Dembélé-Doué reform against Barça, with a new additional argument born from the absence of Nuno Mendes: the defensive slaughter of Kvara will not be too much to help the established left side against Lamine Yamal. And there are those who want to continue to punish the Georgian for his timid start to the season, letting Doué shine on the left side. Let us remember, however, that last season, Kvaratskhelia was just as timid during the first weeks of competition, only unlocking his counter in L1 during the 12th day, in November.
In the Champions League, he scored in the first match, against Atalanta, before missing the trip to Barcelona due to injury, and shining in the 3rd match against Bayer Leverkusen. But the offensive competition was less tough then, while players like Ferran Torres and Akliouche applied for a starting place against Barça. After using the stick, will Luis Enrique pull out the carrot for his Georgian?
