My 3 Thoughts: PSG 2, Manchester City 0
Messi's first big Paris moment, City's Lack of A Scary Center Forward and the Continued Importance of The Makélélé Role in the Modern Game
Welcome to Fútbol with Grant Wahl — a newsletter about soccer. You can read what this is about here. If you like what you see, consider forwarding it to some friends. You can also click the button below to subscribe. And if you do like it, consider going to the paid version.
Here are my three thoughts on PSG 2, Manchester City 0 in Champions League, our Game of the Week:
• Lionel Messi had his first big PSG moment. You can say all you want about Messi having an off night otherwise, or the Messi-Neymar-Kylian Mbappé trident still being less than the sum of its parts, and that would all be true. But Messi produced one piece of absolute magic on Tuesday, and that will be the moment that everyone remembers about this first clash in the Nation-States Petrodollars Derby of this season’s UEFA Champions League. As expected, City outpossessed PSG 54-46 percent and created more shots (16-6) and shots on target (7-3), but when you have Messi, he can create something in the blink of an eye. At a time in the game when City seemed more likely to equalize than PSG to add another goal—PSG’s front three had basically stopped defending entirely—Messi got on the ball, dribbled centrally into space the way only he can and exchanged a deft wall pass at speed with Mbappé, whose simple touch teed up Messi (who’d evaded Aymeric Laporte) for a gorgeous finish. 2-0 PSG, and that was that.
• What’s Man City missing? A center forward that other teams find dangerous. I always ask myself what’s missing while watching a game, and it’s painfully clear by now that for all the tens of millions that City has spent on stockpiling the world’s top talent, the club’s inability to land a center forward that scares opposing teams is a shocking omission. Why was Harry Kane their only serious option there in the transfer market this summer? Why do we keep seeing a procession of false nines, from Phil Foden to Raheem Sterling? Why won’t Pep Guardiola play the best center forward on his roster, Gabriel Jesus, at that position? I just don’t get it. Yes, Sterling should have finished his first-half header that hit the crossbar, and City probably didn’t deserve to be down at halftime.(But let’s pipe down—including you, TV commentators—about Bernardo Silva’s miss after Sterling hit the bar. Bernardo was clearly offside anyway.) City’s dominance in possessing the ball in its opponent’s third needs the added danger of a Kane or an Erling Haaland to further unbalance those defenses, who just aren’t scared of what City’s bringing to the table there right now.
• The Makélélé Role still matters. The closest comparison to today’s PSG with Messi, Mbappé and Neymar is Real Madrid’s Galácticos with Zinédine Zidane, OG Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Raúl, Roberto Carlos and David Beckham. One of the greatest lessons of the Galácticos Era was the outsized importance of Claude Makélélé, the imperious French defensive midfielder who was so good at his job that they ended up calling it “The Makélélé Role.” Makélélé shipped out from Real Madrid after the 2001-02 season (when they won the Champions League), and his absence was cited as the main reason the Galácticos didn’t win nearly as many trophies as expected. The Makélélé Role still matters in the modern game, and Idrissa Gueye did a terrific job in that spot on Tuesday. It wasn’t necessarily because he scored PSG’s opener, though that was a really nice finish, but rather that he did his job, covering ground defensively and linking well in the build-up. Gueye might have played a bit more advanced than a classic Makélélé Role, but he was close enough. Messi, Neymar and Mbappé still aren’t connecting nearly as well or as often as they should, and they’re a defensive liability, especially for the way coach Mauricio Pochettino wants to play, but if players like Gueye and Ander Herrera and Marco Verratti play this well in the midfield, PSG has a chance to win more trophies than the Galácticos did.
Other scribbles in my notebook for this game: I’ll never like PSG’s basketball shorts … Man, Verratti can be a magician on the ball … City pressed a lot less in this game than it did on the weekend against Chelsea … The Gigi Donnarumma vs. Keylor Navas debate is kind of silly. Navas is a really good goalkeeper, but Donnarumma deserves to start the biggest games in my opinion … Mbappé played some devastating simple balls in dangerous spots today … Did you really put Messi horizontal on the ground in the free-kick wall, PSG? What, did he lose a bet?
What are your thoughts on the game? You can share them in the comments below.
If you read this newsletter and value it, consider going to the paid version. Doing quality soccer journalism and becoming sustainable requires people being willing to pay for it. If you’re reading this in your inbox, you can find a shareable version online here. You can follow me on Twitter here and Instagram here. Feel free to comment below, and thanks for reading.
Great observations. I compare Messi to a billiards wizard who was setting things up all game for that killer 8 ball shot.
Remember how Gabriel Jesus specifically chose Man City years ago to play for Guardiola when he has other offers? Now Guardiola is his worst enemy.