In addition to competition from Gonçalo Ramos, Randal Kolo Muani may fear the return from injury of Marco Asensio, who had shone as false No. 9 at the end of the summer.
It’s a statistic that is striking: 31 shots for Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night against Newcastle, and none for Randal Kolo Muani. If he stood out with some interesting discounts, the former Nantes player still had too little influence in the game against the Magpies, before giving way to Bradley Barcola in the 61st minute.
If it is not catastrophic, Kolo Muani’s start to the season is clearly insufficient for a player recruited for more than 90 million euros this summer. The native of Bondy was everywhere on the attacking front with Frankfurt last season, and he has clearly had more difficulty finding his place since he joined PSG, where he is asked to occupy the point, while the differences are on the sides with Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé.
Watch out for Asensio
The Parisian ensures that Kolo Muani has not lost the confidence of Luis Enrique, who continues to start him in every Champions League match, and who appreciates his investment without the ball and his versatility. But there will come a time when “RKM” will have to show more things, if he wants to keep his place in the eleven. Because there is competition from Gonçalo Ramos, the other center forward recruited by PSG this summer, but also that from Marco Asensio.
At the end of the summer, before getting injured, the former Real Madrid player had two good matches up front, as false number 9, against Lens (3-1) and Lyon (4- 1). Asensio was decisive (2 goals and 1 assist), and he displayed a great bond with Mbappé and Dembélé, the two detonators. The Spain international returned to action this week after a two-and-a-half month absence, and it would be surprising if Luis Enrique did not try to line him up at the front of the Paris attack again.
