Winter break over, farewell to Marco Verratti completed, Paris Saint-Germain hosted OGC Nice on the occasion of the 5th day of Ligue 1, with the firm ambition of confirming its great success (4-1) gleaned against the ‘Olympique Lyonnais on September 3. Yes, but now, at the end of a collective performance well below the first Ile-de-France outings this season and numerous individual failures – Milan Skriniar, Warren Zaire-Emery, Ousmane Dembélé to name but a few – the capital club does not was not reassured just four days before a shock against Borussia Dortmund on the first day of Group F of the Champions League. Symbol of this first real hiccup in the Luis Enrique era, the new very disappointing performance of Gonçalo Ramos.
Back in the Parisian eleven, the Portuguese international (8 caps, 6 goals) – who scored a double during the Seleção’s victory (9-0) against Luxembourg last Monday – did not really experience the same success against the Aiglons. Lonely at the forefront of the Rouge et Bleu’s attack and ultimately very little found by his teammates, the former Benfica player experienced many difficulties in standing out. Well surrounded by the central hinge of the Riviera composed of Jean-Clair Todibo and Dante (7th, 12th, 43rd), the native of Olhão only took his chance on one small occasion. A header off target and a record far too meager for a player supposed to bring this finish to the reigning French champions. If he is clearly not the only one responsible for this apathy – PSG was generally disappointing – his connection with Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé however raises questions.
The Ramos-Dembélé-Mbappé trio lacks guidance!
Except for a clever transmission to the former Barça winger (38th), Ramos still does not seem to have found this long-awaited complicity with the French duo. Certainly interesting in his defensive tasks, the one who once again showed himself generous in the effort when pressing has, on the other hand, rarely had the opportunity to exploit interesting balls (17 balls hit in total ). Replaced by Randal Kolo Muani shortly after the hour mark, he observed his direct competitor for the number 9 position perform more than promising first minutes. Stirring and impactful from the start, the former Eintracht Frankfurt scorer offered himself, as such, his first assist on the sublime reduction of Kylian Mbappé’s score at the end of the match (87th). Credited with a 4 by the FM editorial team, the Portuguese then tried to explain his team’s defeat against Gym.
“They scored three goals and we only scored two so we lost that game. They have a good team, they applied good pressure, they had a very good match. We could have won because we had our chances but it is what it is and we have to move on to the next game. I think we tried to play our game, our football. But sometimes it’s more complicated. We can’t always play as well as the previous match and like I said, we faced a very good team tonight.. Relaunched on his lack of connection with the Mbappé-Dembélé duo, the 22-year-old attacker preferred, moreover, to evoke a time of adaptation necessary to justify his contrasting debut in the French capital. “I feel good, I think we need more time to know each other better, we need to know our moves and communicate better to be better in every game. I think I have to stay the player I am, keep working every day and my chances of scoring will come.”. Still silent after 259 minutes played in his new colors, Gonçalo Ramos will, in any case, have to quickly find the net, at the risk of seeing his teammate Randal Kolo Muani move ahead in the hierarchy…
