Former Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) midfielder Jean-Michel Larke has criticized PSG’s trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr, and Kylian Mbappe. He claims this trio, popularly known as MNM, never help the team at all defensively.
The former French star, who is currently working as a sports journalist, has claimed that his former club’s dream of winning the Champions League is in danger because of Messi-Neymar-Mbappe. He also said that the French champion’s team is not a balanced team because of these three stars.
“Sergio Ramos’ performances are getting a lot of criticism at the moment,” Larke said via PSG Talk. “But an unbalanced team cannot be blamed entirely on the defense or on one player. We talk tactically about a team with three forwards, who do nothing defensively.”
According to him, the Paris club’s top brass are so busy adding players to their forward line that their attention is not focused on the defense which is in big trouble. “The club has a big problem in defense because the top brass is running after big names up front,” he added.
Emphasizing that a strong defense is the most important thing for a team to win any competition, Larke says that PSG currently does not even have a solid defense. He says, “We don’t have the Marquinhos of the 3-4 years back. To win any tournament you need a player who can make the difference in any game, but to win a big tournament you need a strong defense.”
He also expressed his sadness that he cannot dream of the Champions League because the Paris club does not have a strong defense at the moment. Despite the criticism of the club giants, the three stars Messi, Neymar and Mbappe have been in very good form this season. Messi has 8 goals and 10 assists for PSG this season, while the Brazilian star has 11 goals and 11 assists.
On the other hand, Mbappe, who is the top scorer in Ligue 1, has scored 13 goals for PSG this season. PSG is currently top of Ligue 1 and will face German giants Bayern Munich in the last 16 of the Champions League.