The arrival of Messi and the permanence of Mbappé offered Pochettino the possibility of aligning a dream trident. However, the first appearances of the three stars have not offered the expected result.
City will be the third team to test the effectiveness of the Parisian attack. Mbappé, along with Neymar and Messi, is less Mbappé. That feeling comes off after the two games in which the three coincided on the field. Against Bruges and against Lyon, Messi, Neymar and Kylian started. In this last Ligue 1 match, the French forward barely came into contact with the ball on 28 occasions, playing the entire match. He hadn’t offered such a low record in a season and a half.
More comfortable on the band In those two games in which the three have been on the field, Mbappé has not scored a goal but has given two assists. Curiously, those two goal passes came from the wing, a position where Kylian is most comfortable and that he must sacrifice when Neymar and Messi are on the field. Pochettino has already dropped that the trident, and especially Mbappé, go through a logical period of adaptation.
First they have to get to know each other on the field and assimilate certain movements that their teammates make. And this will not be easy. In fact, the first frictions with Mbappé’s controversial statements on the PSG bench in the last engagement of the Parisian team have already come to light.
To get those three figures of such depth to coexist and understand each other is not an easy task for Pochettino. Mbappé, for the moment, seems to be the most affected.