Ihe PSG was waiting for its Messi and it was paradoxically granted: it did not have that of Barcelona. Six months after a resounding recruitment, the Argentinian is more a shadow of himself than he does to his teammates – if indeed that was to be feared.
After the match (finally) won by the Parisians against Real Madrid, Tuesday, February 15, the interpretations of the performance of the number 30 diverged. In progress according to some, with some nice passes; still just as insipid according to the others, with a missed penalty for the highlight of his match.
The disappointment is measured by his total of two goals scored in Ligue 1, to be weighed with his eight assists. The more in-depth report drawn up by The Team shows a spectacular drop in performance compared to previous seasons: successful dribbling, quality of shots, passes to the surface, almost all indicators are at half mast.
The Decline Hypothesis
The visual experience is no better. Messi no longer passes the defenders, seeks his place, bogs down the game in the axis. Saturday February 19 against Nantes, he made his longest run by going for a ball to take a free kick (finally left to Neymar).
With 18 seasons of top-flight football under his belt, Messi’s decline at 34 wouldn’t come as a surprise
Some, seeing him come back down in the midfield, hope that he will put some binder there, endorsing the panoply of his former teammates Iniesta or Xavi. Without their volume of play, it is very unlikely. Is it going backwards, or is it regressing? Messi having eighteen seasons of high-level, high-intensity football under his belt, his decline at 34 would not come as a surprise – although such a conclusion should still be guarded against.
Other factors weigh indeed. Exile, far from FC Barcelona – both a cocoon and a whole club organized around him. The rigors of Ligue 1, which we mistakenly take for a bad championship, when it is difficult. The mismatch with a PSG team that didn’t need him, that didn’t progress with him and whose problems he even increased.
To achieve neither the development of the player nor a better quality of the Parisian game is an embarrassing record. Putting this in the liabilities of yet another failed coach in Paris no longer holds. Between the management of egos and the team compositions with imposed figures, we no longer know if a Neymar-Messi-Mbappé attack is still a chance when it is an obligation.
Aligned against the Nantes, the trio played well, but did not stave off defeat, and it once again illustrated the expression “a team cut in two”. The defensive inactivity and the very intermittent participation of Messi can only accentuate the imbalances in Paris.
The club that makes Messi play badly
Cristiano Ronaldo’s disputed contribution to Manchester United is a reminder that superstars can cannibalize both attention and the game plan. The last three Champions League winners – Liverpool, Bayern, Chelsea – have relied more on their collective qualities than on providential men.
On the media and commercial level, Messi’s arrival at PSG was a total success. From a sporting point of view, it has no tangible benefit.
PSG has been burdened with a status player, one more, and not the least: the “best in the world”, a living legend. Not establishing or replacing him during the match would not only constitute a crime of lèse-majesté, but also a disavowal for the club and its casting policy.
The tendency of Parisian leaders to line up stars like trophies in their shop windows compromises their ability to win them. By attracting Sergio Ramos (four games this season) at the same time as Messi, the club has eight Champions Leagues in its workforce, without seeming to increase its chances of registering one on its list.
The sporting interest of the arrival of Messi remains untraceable for the time being. Kylian Mbappé may do it, we are far from the “best team in the world” prematurely celebrated in the summer of 2021. From a media and commercial point of view, the operation was a total success. From a sporting point of view, it offers no tangible benefit. Image-wise, PSG must now avoid making history as the club that made Lionel Messi play badly.
To see him doing extras most of the time, we must bet on his return to the forefront during the last acts. Paris playing its season in the Champions League over a handful of matches, two or three brilliant strokes from Messi in the last four of the competition will be enough to save the storytelling of this adventurous union.