This Friday, as part of the 21st day of Ligue 1 2024-2025, Paris Saint-Germain faced AS Monaco at the Parc des Princes. The Red and Blue dominated the match, winning 3-1 (PSG/Monaco video highlights). Here are our notes on the Parisians.
Goalkeeper –
Gianluigi Donnarumma (6) – Needs to do better on Monaco’s first-half goal, but otherwise did the job. A good game from him.
Defenders –
Joao Neves (8) – What activity! Positioned on the right in a “Hakimi”-style role, he clearly showed off his talent and enthusiasm. Great first half. He continued his efforts and showed his technique in the second half.
Marquinhos (6) – Gradually losing his sharpness. Clearly not his best first half, he’s there, he’s fighting, but he looked “borrowed”. Much better in the second half, he raised the level.
Willian Pacho (6) – Very solid, but has real problems with the ball. He struggles with the restart and perhaps that’s where the basis of his progress lies.
Nuno Mendes (5.5) – His first half was a crescendo. He showed that his attacking passes could be very valuable. Overall, though, he was guilty of a lot of waste and needs to do better.
Midfielders –
Désiré Doué (7.5) – He manages almost every dribble. He’s ready to go. Now, if he’s going to use fantasy in his game, he needs to succeed in scoring or scoring himself. His Neymar-style antics are interesting, but they need to become more “effective” soon. Of course, he has genius in his feet. Replaced in the 63rd minute by Lee Kang-in.
Vitinha (8) – A boss’s first half. He’s always there for the second ball, he never loses one, he steers, he scores, he plays forward. With more inspired partners, his first half would have been more rewarding. Another great game from him.
Fabian Ruiz (6) – Neither good, nor bad, neutral… As so often, he missed the opportunity to show that he can bring danger with his fine technique. His first half was rather banal in this respect. He needs to take more risks.
Forwards –
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (7) – Kvara’s first half was hard to rate. He did some very interesting things, but at other times, he played too much on his own, or wasn’t very “lively”. He got off the mark with a goal, but there were also some fine second-half displays. Replaced by Gonçalo Ramos in the 67th minute.
Ousmane Dembélé (7.5) – An average first half. Scored two goals in the second half. His performance was less impressive in the game, but in terms of goals, he’s starting to look scary.
Bradley Barcola (6) – Hasn’t been able to do what he’s been doing in recent outings. Fairly predictable, he needs to find his scoring/passing instinct by being sharper, particularly in his dribbling choices. Replaced by Lucas Hernandez in the 63rd minute.
Coach –
Luis Enrique (7) – Not the most impressive PSG of the season. The first half gave us a glimpse of a lot of their principles: control of the game, splitting the ball, mobility and pressing when you lose, but besides that, we felt that sometimes the Parisian players wanted to make the perfect move before scoring. Sometimes, you have to break the monotony of 10-man passing. As is often the case, PSG were better in the second half. That’s the result of constant undermining, and Luis Enrique is the main man behind it.
