Is PSG dependent on Barcola?

Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Friday November 1, 2024 at 4:05 p.m.

The Lensois have been warned: if the twirling Paris Saint-Germain winger scores on Saturday, it will be a bad sign for them.

Bradley Barcola has been the undisputed offensive leader of Paris Saint-Germain since the departure of Kylian Mbappé, https://sports.orange.fr/football/ligue-1/psg/article/psg-barcola-la-nouvelle-dimension- exclu-CNT000002eOEvQ.htmland even before for a good part of the end of last season. From there to making Luis Enrique say that his team is dependent on him, very little for him: “I don't know how far he will go and where I can take him, but that doesn't matter to me. If he ever passes three days without scoring, you will say something else. It's an endurance race, we're progressing little by little.”

Luis Enrique: “Others will score when he doesn’t score”

Words which echo those of Kylian Mbappé who, in September, said almost exactly the same thing about his ex-club teammate: “Don't come back and tell me he's worthless as soon as he doesn't score .” Luis Enrique, almost two months later, resumes his argument: “There will be ups and downs, others will score when he doesn't score. That's how it works. No player should wear a extra burden Everyone has to protect everyone, the pressure is put on a player but what counts is the number of goals scored by the team.

But it's a fact, Paris Saint-Germain scores a lot more when Bradley Barcola is on the pitch. Above all, and this is what interests his coach to the greatest extent, he wins: when the former Lyonnais has been involved in at least one goal during a match, that is to say on 19 occasions since upon arrival in the capital, PSG won 17 times for two draws (and therefore zero defeats). And in the 21st century, with his eight units, he is the third French scorer in the history of Ligue 1 in the first nine matches of a season, behind the nine goals of Karim Benzema (2007) and André-Pierre Gignac ( 2014).