Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 defeat to Rennes on Sunday did not sit well with a large part of the French press, who hit out at the team’s star Neymar. Despite playing all three of their stars – Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar – in attack, PSG failed to net or grab a single point at Rennes. This means that they now sit just one point ahead of second-placed Lens in the Ligue 1 table. Paris Saint-Germain’s 1-0 defeat to Rennes on Sunday did not sit well with a large part of the French press, who hit out at the team’s star Neymar.
Paris Saint-Germain’s 1-0 defeat to Rennes
Despite playing all their three of their stars – Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar – in attack, PSG failed to net or grab a single point at Rennes. This means that they now sit just one point ahead of second-placed Lens in the Ligue 1 table. The Brazilian forward was singled out by L’Equipe after his poor performance in the game, with the press questioning whether he has lived up to expectations at PSG.
Neymar has recorded 15 goals and 13 assists in 22 games this season, but he has not managed to rediscover his form after the World Cup break. Neymar got off to a great start to the 2022/23 season before suffering an injury while on international duty with Brazil in the 2022 World Cup. He has yet to bounce back and was sent off against Strasbourg on December 28. The Brazilian star did not play in the match against Lens or in the Coupe de France due against Chateauroux.
“As was also the case against Angers in midweek, the Brazilian dropped back too much looking for balls and tried too many times to score on his own,” stated the French newspaper.
“The result was that he lost balls in tricky areas and hardly ever caused danger in the Rennes box.
“It was a worrying performance just a month before [the Champions League Round of 16 clash against] Bayern [Munich].”
Meanwhile, journalist Daniel Riolo didn’t hesitate to label Neymar’s signing from Barcelona as a failure for the Ligue 1 club.
“Do we realize that Neymar, in terms of transfer and salary, is the biggest failure in the history of football?” he wondered.
