AP, Paris :
Neymar’s latest foot injury comes at a particularly inconvenient time for Paris Saint-Germain, with its biggest game of the season fast approaching.
PSG travels to face Manchester United on Feb. 12 without the Brazil forward, who faces about 10 weeks out. With Neymar so influential to the way PSG plays, it means coach Thomas Tuchel must have a tactical re-think. He has three matches in which to do so, two in the league and another in the French Cup.
Since he joined PSG last season, Neymar’s preferred teammate on the field, in terms of understanding, has always been Kylian Mbappe. While they constantly sought each other out on the field, with sometimes intricate passing moves, this often excluded Edinson Cavani from PSG’s approach play. It also exasperated Cavani, the club’s all-time leading scorer. He let his frustration show a couple of times after being substituted.
But things have improved for him in recent weeks, and Cavani is the league’s second highest scorer with 16 goals – two behind Mbappe. There have been encouraging signs that the Cavani-Mbappe partnership, often described as non-functional by the French media, is actually working.
This is good news for Tuchel.
Mbappe set up Cavani for the fourth goal in a 4-1 win over Rennes last weekend. Prior to that, Cavani set up two of Mbappe’s three goals in a 9-0 rout of Guingamp, and he also assisted on his goal in a 3-0 win at Amiens.
Neymar’s latest foot injury comes at a particularly inconvenient time for Paris Saint-Germain, with its biggest game of the season fast approaching.
PSG travels to face Manchester United on Feb. 12 without the Brazil forward, who faces about 10 weeks out. With Neymar so influential to the way PSG plays, it means coach Thomas Tuchel must have a tactical re-think. He has three matches in which to do so, two in the league and another in the French Cup.
Since he joined PSG last season, Neymar’s preferred teammate on the field, in terms of understanding, has always been Kylian Mbappe. While they constantly sought each other out on the field, with sometimes intricate passing moves, this often excluded Edinson Cavani from PSG’s approach play. It also exasperated Cavani, the club’s all-time leading scorer. He let his frustration show a couple of times after being substituted.
But things have improved for him in recent weeks, and Cavani is the league’s second highest scorer with 16 goals – two behind Mbappe. There have been encouraging signs that the Cavani-Mbappe partnership, often described as non-functional by the French media, is actually working.
This is good news for Tuchel.
Mbappe set up Cavani for the fourth goal in a 4-1 win over Rennes last weekend. Prior to that, Cavani set up two of Mbappe’s three goals in a 9-0 rout of Guingamp, and he also assisted on his goal in a 3-0 win at Amiens.
