At least in the Champions League, the situation for Paris Saint-Germain is precarious: only four points after four of eight games, 25th place in the table and a remaining program with games against Manchester City, away at VfB Stuttgart and next Tuesday (9 p.m.) at FC Bayern. The self-proclaimed all-time favorite is even threatened with direct elimination in the new league mode.
There is a huge gap between the performances of the team, which is still prominent in the league and on the international stage even after the departures of Neymar, Messi and most recently Kylian Mbappé: PSG leads Ligue 1 with a six point lead over Monaco after eleven games. But there are problems, especially in the offensive, especially in the premier class. There, PSG have recorded 81 shots in the four games so far, but have only managed three goals, including an own goal in their only win (1-0) against Girona, plus goals from defender Achraf Hakimi and midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery. “We lack efficiency and we play below our level, that’s true,” says coach Luis Enrique, using the strong word “blockade”.
The storm crisis facing the twelve-time French champions has a face that is well known in Germany: Randal Kolo Muani. The once celebrated goalscorer from Eintracht Frankfurt no longer scores.
This was also the case in the league game before the international break, PSG were visiting newly promoted Angers, who had surprisingly tripped up second-placed Monaco the week before. When Kolo Muani came into the game in the 66th minute, the favorites were already leading 4-0, but the Joker was still under pressure: the 25-year-old hadn’t played a single minute in the three previous league games, with the 1:2 in between -Home defeat in the Champions League against Atlético Madrid, he was allowed to play for at least a quarter of an hour, but only the Spaniards scored a goal during this time. In Angers, in stoppage time, the ball falls to Kolo Muani’s feet in the opponent’s five-meter area, he lets an opponent get out – and puts the ball on the post. He stands there as if petrified, while Luis Enrique claps his hands together in horror outside. In the end there is at least a 4-2 win for Paris.
In the case of the national player, who was once transferred from Nantes to Frankfurt, the chicken-and-egg question arises: Is he unsuccessful because he doesn’t feel the coach’s encouragement, or does the coach have no trust because the striker misses? “I have to keep the mentality, it’s up to me to keep working so that the coach trusts me,” said Kolo Muani in an interview with the French television magazine Téléfoot last weekend. “It’s part of my story. I always worked, it was never easy for me.”
The center forward had already failed to meet expectations in the previous season: Signed for around 95 million euros, Kolo Muani scored nine goals and six assists in 40 competitive games for PSG – after he had recorded 23 goals and 17 assists at Eintracht in 2022/23. In the current season he has only scored two goals, both as a joker and in stoppage time. The starting place is gone, even though Gonçalo Ramos seriously injured his ankle in the first game. After Mbappé left for Real Madrid, the Portuguese was considered Kolo Muani’s biggest competitor for a position in the first team.
Luis Enrique usually plays a false nine, but he doesn’t want expensive access in winter
Luis Enrique currently trusts the Spaniard Marco Asensio or the South Korean Kang-in Lee, and he usually places one of them as a false nine between the two wingers Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola. And so speculation recently arose that PSG would want to sell the hapless Kolo Muani in the winter – at a discount price of 40 to 50 million. Arsenal, Juventus and Manchester United were considered interested, but Luis Enrique rejected a transfer: “He can change the situation at any time in training.”
Accordingly, no other top striker should be signed, neither Sporting Lisbon’s Swedish goal machine Viktor Gyökeres nor Victor Osimhen, who is currently on loan from Napoli to Galatasaray – both names have been publicly traded from time to time in recent weeks. According to the newspaper Le Parisien But the coach wants to keep Kolo Muani and not frustrate him further with another 100 million addition. “We want to get out of the problem in the Champions League with our own resources,” says Luis Enrique.
Recently, not even a trip to the French national team, where Kolo Muani was able to boost his self-confidence, helped the problem child. After his brace in the 2-1 win against Belgium in October, he was even ahead of Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry in the effectiveness statistics – he needed fewer minutes to score a goal with the Bleus than the two legends. However, the 25-year-old failed to score against Israel (0-0) and Italy (3-1) – even though he was the only Frenchman to play alongside goalkeeper Maignan and defender Konaté. Israel’s keeper Daniel Peretz could, at least theoretically, stand in his way again as he deals with his crisis on Tuesday – as Manuel Neuer’s potential deputy in the Bayern goal.
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