Mauricio Pochettino already had a roster full of talents and brilliant names to be the French League favorite and one of the top contenders for the Champions League, and now Lionel Messi has joined him. The Argentine coach’s challenge is to merge a team that works on the playing field, with stars who will vegetate on the bench and other important players who won’t even see minutes for several games.
The names of Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Ángel Di María steal the spotlight, but Paris Saint Germain has stars in all its lines. To the main cast he had last season, he added numbers like Moroccan Achraf Hakimi, signed by Inter, or Georginio Wijnaldum, Sergio Ramos or Gianluigi Donnarumma, all signed for free, like Messi. So Pochettino has to choose between two or three international football players in each position, a luxury few coaches in the world can afford.
For the guarantee I gave Keylor Navas in goal, PSG now joins Donnarumma, the new European champion with the Italian national team, who came free from Milan. The Spaniard Sergio Rico, two-time champion of the Europa League with Sevilla, was the third goalkeeper, while Alexandre Letellier, who had the 30 shirt until the arrival of Messi, will be the fourth goalkeeper.
The centre-backs who played Saturday in the 2-1 victory over Troyes were Thilo Kehrer, alternative player in the German national team, and Presnel Kimpembe, world champion with France in Russia 2018. On the contrary, they were not available. captain marquinhos, with a few additional vacation days after the Copa America, neither Sergio Ramos, the Real Madrid star who arrived in Paris to give personality to this defense, although still with physical problems. It remains to be seen whether Pochettino chooses to play with line four or prefers three centers when he has them all available.
from the sides, The Moroccan Hakimi is the biggest bet of the club, which paid 60 million to Inter and he has already started to pay back his investment with a goal against Troyes. Senegalese Abdou Diallo and Spaniard Juan Bernat are the alternatives on the left, while Layvin Kurzawa is a wildcard that can cover different gaps.
In the middle of the court, the big reinforcement is the Dutch Wijnaldum, who was going to Barcelona, but finally opted to move from Liverpool to Paris. He already debuted on Saturday against Troyes along with the Spanish Ander Herrera, the Portuguese Danilo and the German Julian Draxler, a difficult midfield to repeat when figures like Di María, Leandro Paredes and the Italian Marco Verratti. the brazilian Rafinha, Messi’s former teammate in Barcelona, the Spaniard Pablo Sarabia and the Senegalese Idrissa Gueye, now wounded are other variants that Pochettino will be able to deal with.
Go ahead, Neymar and Mbappé are the partners everyone expects to shine alongside Messi, with Mauro Icardi as the first alternative from the bench of substitutes. The former Inter center forward has already started to press with the winning goal over Troyes, but it has been fixed that it will exit when the entire array is available.
Although it is not a priority for the project and when all figures are available they will certainly not be part of the replacement bank, one fact to bear in mind is that the PSG quarry is one of the best in France, with players from the different French teams. Thus, youngsters like Junior Dina Ebimbe, Bandiougou Fadiga, Edouard Michut, El Chadaille Bitshiabu or Arnaud Kalimuendo are already alternating with the stars and will seek to convince Pochettino to add minutes within a constellation of stars with Messi as the main beacon of attention. The fact is that The Argentine star will have luxury companions in all his lines, as if he wanted to aspire to all the titles that lie ahead of him.