PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe will probably be better suited playing out on the left rather than through the middle, according to TNT Sports expert Julien Laurens.
One of the debates throughout Mbappe’s career has been whether he can transition inside to play as a striker, having made his name on the left.
“I prefer him on the left simply because this is where he prefers to play,” said Laurens.
“I think he’s outstanding in the two positions and I understand why he’d prefer the left-hand side because he can receive the ball facing the goal and his defender instead of as a nine.
“Very often, you have to hold up the ball and the defenders are behind you and the goal is behind you, all of that, but I can see why because he doesn’t defend much.
“A manager would be thinking, ‘okay, I need you centrally because otherwise I lose a lot of what I want to do defensively’.
“He’s had some really good performances as a nine and some more somewhat average ones, but the same can be said on the left-hand side to be fair, so I don’t know.”
On PSG’s other striker options, Laurens added: “I like Goncalo Ramos maybe just more a little bit more than Randal Kolo Muani, who I think is still finding his feet and that’s fair really because he arrived so late. I just think he needs a bit of time and he will come good.
“But I think if you’re Luis Enrique against Barcelona, what do you do really? If you play Kylian centrally and you go Bradley Barcola on the left-hand side, if he’s fit, then he will face someone like Jules Kounde at right-back and there’s a good match-up there for Barcola and PSG to exploit.
“If you play Kylian left, maybe they’ll move Ronald Araujo to right-back and then Kounde goes to centre-back next to Pau Cubarsi and then see what happens. I think it’ll be Kylian on the left with Ramos through the middle.”
On Barca’s rising star Cubarsi, Laurens is impressed, calling him a “generational talent” and saying that he likes the balance of passing he can provide from that centre-back position.
He also pointed out that, whilst the midfield injuries have hurt Barca in some ways, it has helped bring the best out of Ilkay Gundogan.
“I do think that they have found with Pau Cubarsi that they’ve got a generational talent at the back. This guy is just incredible.
“This will only be his second Champions League game in his life, which is remarkable really. And I think he’s brought a lot to them, his distribution and his passing are great because Araujo can’t play long like Cubarsi can, so they’ve got an outlet now to get behind the opposition defensive line.
“So if they play against the team that plays quite high, Cubarsi can find that pass for the runs of whoever is making the run, especially if he’s farming from midfield.
“Christensen as the six I’m not too convinced about, but for now, he’s doing the job that he has to do and then Gundogan is just maybe playing with a little bit more freedom and confidence.
“I think he has found his feet in the team compared to before when he was having to share the ball with Gavi, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong when they were all fit.
“But now Christensen is not someone who’s going to be keeping the ball, and Fermin is not a keeper of the ball either – he is a guy with a lot of energy that makes great runs that will have that kind of intensity in his game.
“So really, who is handling the ball now? It’s Gundogan. If he has a free role, dropping between the lines playing as a 10, as an eight, sometimes even deeper, as the six to come and help Christensen, that works really well for him.”
In terms of PSG as a whole, Laurens is optimistic about what manager Luis Enrique is trying to achieve but he does think that sometimes the Spaniard has a tendency to overcomplicate things.
“It’s interesting because I’m a bit in between in the sense that you have seen some really good moments, some plans from Luis Enrique in recent weeks paid off really, really well. I’ve seen loads of patterns of play on the right-hand side with Hakimi and Dembele for example, I’ve seen a lot of really good things.
“And then at times, I still find them too easily exploited defensively especially as they commit a lot of people forward and they try to press high because counter pressing is very important to Luis Enrique and obviously if you counter press but then you don’t get the ball back after a few seconds and if you’re beaten in your first line of counter pressing, then you’re left 4v3, 3v3 or 3v2, so it’s more difficult defensively.
“Luis Enrique said in December that the team will be better come February and March. Are they? I’m not too sure. I think you can see individually someone like Vitinha has really stepped up and he’s going to become a really lovely player.
“Kylian obviously is at a level where he arguably is the best guy in the world. That’s fine and others individually as well have stepped up.
“Look at Lucas Beraldo who arrived in January from Brazil and has done really well as a centre-back. He has quality in his distribution, breaking the lines with the passes and he has worked well even if he’s a little bit slow. If he was a bit quicker, he will be the perfect player.
“I still feel more positive than maybe November, December when they were struggling away from home especially at Dortmund, AC Milan and Newcastle and I don’t think that they are that far away from being able to be far more consistent.
“However Luis Enrique for me is sometimes trying to find clever ways for the sake of it. I don’t think you need sometimes to be too imaginative or too creative tactically.
“The plan against Real Sociedad, it worked amazing and I was there and I was like ‘okay, this is a masterclass’ but there are other times where he tries things that didn’t actually work out so maybe even from himself. more consistency would help but I think it’s going the right way.”
How does Laurens think the tie will go? “I still think it’s 55-45 or 60-40 in PSG’s favour.”
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