Unconsciously, Neymar has reached the age of 30, once the son of Brazil's natural choice, once a sprinting prince with 200 minutes of physical fitness, and is entangled in injuries.
Missing a penalty to narrow the score put him in the spotlight, but it really didn't matter. After playing almost 100 minutes after his comeback, Neymar, who contributed 1 goal and 1 assist, still plays his own football, the kind of football that makes people feel happy to watch.
01. Return to the starter after 3 months: 4 fatal blows in 20 minutes
Neymar has been absent since an ankle injury in the match against Saint-Etienne in Paris on 28 November until a substitute against Real Madrid in mid-week. The match against Nantes was the first time in nearly three months that Neymar had returned to the starting line.D.
He was in a left-sided position, while Mbappe was also standing closer to the left to increase contact with Neymar. Messi was in the middle and Pochettino wanted right midfielder Wijnaldum to do more of the front insertion, but the effect was average in practice.
As soon as the Paris match against Nantes began, the team's threatening attacks almost all came from Neymar's brilliant pass. This time he gave Bernat a straight plug, allowing him to enter the box and face the goalkeeper, but unfortunately failed to grasp it.
In the immediate onslaught, Neymar sent Mbappe a direct thrust to win the chance to face Nantes goalkeeper Lavon. Unfortunately, Mbappe has adjusted to the right-footed shot and still can't get any results.
After Neymar's return, everyone will frequently see the footage of Ney Chuanm running in the Paris counterattack last season. This time Neymar's straight ball once again found the forward Kylian Mbappe, but unfortunately the latter's direct shot after inserting into the box was once again blocked by Lavon.
Statistics show that since the 2017-18 season, Messi ranked first among the players who contributed xA (estimated assists) through straight balls, followed by Neymar, who are also the only players with more than 10 xA (expected assists).
Considering that Neymar's attendance in the past four and a half seasons has been less than half of Messi's, in terms of the quality of the straight ball, Neymar may be able to compete with Messi for the first place.
Even the red card change that should have changed the course of the game was a straight ball from Neymar. His pass was just right, when the referee first gave a red card to the Nantes defender who had brought down Mbappe, and then changed it to a yellow card, which greatly changed the course of the game.
02. Not a straight ball: Neymar has a number of key penultimate feet
As an offensive initiator, Neymar not only has a straight ball, he has the speed and the ability to sprint frequently, so he will also withdraw to organize the attack in the game, and then look for the opportunity to return to the box.
Although Neymar has many mistakes in this game (after all, it is the first start in 3 months), but the offensive efficiency is not low. In addition to sending a three-foot pass to face the goalkeeper, he also has a lot of penultimate third-foot attacks.
In this game, Messi also sent a multi-legged pass and a good chance to shoot, but it is worth noting that Neymar helped a lot in it. Although some people think that Neymar likes to dribble people and have some sticky balls, when the opportunity arises, Neymar may be the most decisive person besides Messi.
This time Mbappe wanted to carry the ball and was taken away by Neymar, who then sent a clever pass to the vacant Messi. Messi could have shot himself, but he chose to send a better pass to Wijnaldum, who unfortunately failed to take advantage of the opportunity in front of goal.
Like this attack, when Neymar takes the ball, there is a lot of space behind the opponent's defense. The moment Neymar went straight to Sambape, it gave Messi a chance to insert it.
In the first 25 minutes of the first half, Neymar orchestrated four scoring opportunities to face the goalkeeper. The first two straight balls from himself, 1 was the penultimate third pass, and 1 was his own shot without the ball.
This time Messi's chance, when Neymar sent a pass to Mbappe, was already half complete.
The same scene took place in the second half of Neymar's wonderful pass to Wijnaldum. The Brazilian drew defensive attention and gave the Dutchman a good pass to the vacant position, and then Messi had no ball forward.
Unfortunately, Wijnaldum's pass was too big, and Messi did not get the ball, allowing the opportunity to speed up the defense well and disappear.
03. Breakthroughs and goals: Neymar can still play after injury!
Many people are talking about Neymar's decline, and the 30-year-old is "not far from retirement". However, in the past 100 minutes of the game, Neymar has still been able to pass, and at the same time, he has also scored beautiful goals, proving that he can continue to move forward.
As can be seen from the passing data, in the past 4 and a half seasons, the first person to wear a crotch in a single year is Rashford, who has completed 21 times in the 2020-21 season. However, Neymar, who ranked second, played half of Rashford's playing time, but also reached 18 times. It has to be said that if Neymar stays healthy, he will be very scary.
In the past 2 games, Neymar has had shots of storming the core area to create fouls. This time, after receiving Messi's pass, he headed into the penalty area and was brought down on the edge of the penalty area. The referee simply gave a free kick, and Neymar himself hit the wall.
In the Champions League focus battle with Real Madrid, Neymar came off the bench at 0-0, and the first touch was to attack the real madrid hinterland and create a foul to win a well-placed free kick. Unfortunately, Messi then did not play well.
Many will complain that Neymar missed that penalty in the last Ligue 1 game, when his shot was too soft and soft, allowing the team to miss the opportunity for a big comeback.
In fact, as far as penalties are concerned, Neymar has hit 20 of the last 22 home penalties, which is very efficient. A chance mistake doesn't tell the story.
After all, as long as it is not a psychological obstacle caused by consecutive penalties, every penalty is just an accident, even if 100 penalties are scored consecutively, there is no guarantee that the World Cup final can continue to hit the twelve-yard line. So a chance penalty mistake for a non-major match doesn't really matter.
What pleased Neymar's supporters the most was his goal in the game. Many people may notice Messi's beautiful straight plug, but in fact the starting point of the goal came from the combination of Neymar and Mbappe on the sideline.
Mbappe's movement took the attention of the two centre-backs, and Neymar suddenly pulled in and caught the opponent off guard. Messi's straight plug is beautiful, but gives Neymar a left foot position. The latter was beautifully overpowered and brought the goal.
The goal also made Neymar the second-fewest players to score 60 goals in the last 60 years (81 games after Ibrahimovic's 70 games).
For Neymar, his biggest enemy is injury and the malice of his opponents. When Nantes players put down Neymar in a boxing fashion, it was incredible that they were not punished in the era of VAR.
Conclusion:
Perhaps for a variety of reasons, Neymar will now have less rights to hold the ball, hold the ball and launch attacks at Paris Saint-Germain, while adding more no-ball reception and movement. But Neymar is the kind of player who will enjoy the game when he goes on the pitch, and when he faces the fouls and malice of his opponents with a smile, all the fans can do is enjoy the last samba football.