PSG’s Pochettino looks happy in the middle of the Man United link, but the loss to the City points to difficulties in Paris

MANCHESTER, England – At least in public, Mauricio Pochettino is happy in Paris Saint-Germain and isn’t bothered by the chance to dominate Manchester United, but you would never have guessed it from his painful look during his team’s 2-1 Champions. League loss to Manchester City.

Goals from the second half Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, to follow Kylian MbappePSG’s opening was enough to win the match and A-block for City, who could have won even more. At times, Pochettino seemed to be the manager of a struggling team rather than the coach in charge of one of this season’s Champions League favorites to avoid relegation.

This loss does not affect PSG’s chances of surviving Group A, as RB Leipzig’s 5-0 victory over Club Bruges confirms the French club’s place in the 16-semifinals, but the loss condemns Pochettino to second place and a chance to get away. a tough draw against a block winner like Liverpool or Bayern Munich in February.

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As such, PSG’s demanding owners see it as a failure, and Pochettino’s job safety won’t help if the club drops in the first playoff round, but at least for now he’s happy to be the team’s coach and the owners aren’t ready to release him from the last 18 months to join United. The results dictate how long Pochettino and PSG will remain in their current positions, but the way the team performed against the City did little to quell speculation that not everything is well in the Parc des Princes.

PSG is as rich as any club in world football, with an 11-point difference at the top of Ligue 1 and having the most dazzling striker in a game with Mbappe. Lionel Messi and Neymar. But something is clearly not quite right between Pochettino and his star team, and that’s why friends of the 49-year-old man tell everyone who listens that the Argentine is open to the possibility of replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with Old Trafford. .

Sources have told ESPN that Pochettino has not settled in Paris – he still lives in a hotel far from his family in London 11 months after replacing Thomas Tuchel in a PSG hotspot – and that he is increasingly frustrated by his absence. collective unity in the club from top to bottom. Soccer players and coaches are usually willing to ignore things outside the field if everything goes smoothly on the field, but that doesn’t happen at PSG.

Pochettino has always been a coach who has demanded certain principles from his players. They have to work incredibly hard without a ball and be prepared to work as a whole, helping in unfamiliar areas of the field when needed.

And therein lies Pochettino’s problem in Paris: His players simply aren’t working hard enough, alone or collectively, and his superstar trio Messi, Neymar and Mbappe seem to believe that follow-up is just what ordinary players do. Pep Guardiola City players ran a total of 111.7 kilometers in 90 minutes. The PSG only managed 105.3 miles, so opponents literally overtook them.

Mess, Neymar and Mbappe had moments when their quality made City unstable, no more than when Mess’s bent feed lifted Mbappe’s opening goal at 50 minutes. But there were also times when the PSG had to defend with eight players as the three stayed away from the defensive zone, sometimes with their hands on their hips, waiting for the foot soldiers to win the ball back and release them. counterattack.

More than once, Pochettino showed boiling anger, arms tightly crossed, in the technical area as his defenders left his attackers bare. For a coach who had Harry Kane, Son Heung-Min and Lucas Moura ready to chase lost things and land deep in Tottenham Hotspur, it is deeply painful to see his PSG attackers leave it to everyone else.

In the spurs, however, Pochettino had a bunch of young, ambitious players who were ready to meet all of his requirements and instructions. They bought his idea and personality, and Spurs almost won the Champions League thanks to it.

At PSG, players don’t seem to respect – or fear – Pochettino in the same way, and his frustration is reinforced by his inability to get his message across. As an experienced coach, he knows that his older players only accept what they want to hear and not what they don’t. And that’s why the cracks eventually open up.

If the big stars of the PSG do worse, Pochettino will pay the price, but the club will also lose.

Perhaps it would be best for all parties involved for Pochettino and PSG to accept that it really doesn’t work and leave him to discuss his future with United and for PSG to hire a coach with previous experience winning the Champions League with the team. isot egot. Zinedine Zidane maybe.

But at the moment, of course, Pochettino and PSG are happy. All we need is results and performance to prove it.