Since providing assists for Mbappe at the Bernabeu, Neymar has contributed seven goals and two assists to Paris Saint-Germain in his last six games. Especially in the past three Ligue 1 games, Neymar, who has scored 6 goals and 1 assist, has scored the first goal of breaking the ice for the team in three consecutive rounds with three sprints in the front of the box.
The 30-year-old Neymar has no plans to retire, and if Mbappe is not greedy, the national derby Neymar can even score a hat-trick.
01. Frequent sprints into the penalty area: Neymar scored his first goal in three consecutive games
Paris is not only Mbappe has speed: Neymar can be a sharp knife
Opponents now face Paris Saint-Germain and know that Mbappe is the team's number one killer, so if the team continues to focus on the Frenchman, it will actually be in trouble under the opponent's strict position.
So in the past 3 Ligue 1 games, Paris began to consider making Neymar a sharp knife, and achieved good results. Neymar's forward insertion is still very fast, scoring the team's first goal in three consecutive games, contributing 6 goals and 1 assist.
Because Neymar has more front-liners, Messi also gets more opportunities to dominate the attacking ball. Because Messi's passing direction is like to give to the left side, this is also very in tune with Neymar's sprint line.
Unfortunately, in this long pass, Messi's strength is slightly larger, directly sent to the goalkeeper's control.
The first goal to break the deadlock was messi and Verratti playing the ball on the right to attract the attention of the opponent's defense.
Neymar on the weak side of the far end suddenly stepped forward, making full use of the depth behind the Marseille defense.
Neymar has scored four goals in his last 2 games, and apart from one penalty, the remaining three goals are all high-speed forward and backward goals, and all of them are completed with left foot.
The difficulty of this goal is actually very large, and Neymar's direct left foot pad shot without pausing is very skilled. From the start to the last force, it can be seen that Neymar's physical condition is improving, and he is gradually walking out of the serious injury at the end of the year.
b. If Mbappeken passes: Neymar can seal the victory early
Neymar's current positioning is to cover most of the left half of the pitch and switch to the role of striker when necessary and directly into the penalty area. This can also be seen on the heat map, where Neymar switches between left-back and forward, with very few times at the bottom.
In the second half, Neymar took the ball on the left this time and passed it back to his teammates, and then directly inserted it at high speed, forming a good attacking opportunity.
Messi's clever pass to Mbappe on the flank, if the latter chooses to pass, then Neymar is a one-handed opportunity to score a goal, helping the team to score the third goal and seal the victory.
This time the attack is actually the current popular anti-offside model. The player inserted in front of the middle is not the first point to receive the ball, let the flanker take the ball and cross it, on the one hand, attract the defensive center of gravity, on the other hand, it is also conducive to the passer's power (the cross will likely attack).
Unfortunately, Mbappe felt that speed was his advantage, and he tried to run a single knife on his own but failed.
02. Playing aggressively: Defensive engagement is also increasing
As can be seen from the statistics, Neymar has recently reduced his attempts to dribble people in the game, and more no-ball runs + fast passes to help Paris Saint-Germain increase mobility.
At the same time, Neymar is also frequently involved in defense, contributing 2 steals and 1 interception, 4 fouls, and 3 fouls against opponents.
Like this wave of attacks, Neymar collided with Messi in the middle of the road and then burst through the wall, and Mbappe made a mistake when he scored. He himself snapped back the ball for the first time and then committed a foul.
Unfortunately, his own free-kick was deflected by the goalkeeper's flying side and he did not get the goal.
Looking at this wave of attacks, the starting point came from Neymar's high-level pressing in front of the field to create an opponent's mistake and then get the opportunity to play the sideline. Neymar went straight into the box and sent a pass back to Mbappe, but the latter's shot failed to hit the target.
This wave of offensive and defensive conversions was still due to Neymar flanking intercepting the opponent's transfer ball and then playing a counter-attack opportunity. Unfortunately, Neymar gave two passes to the middle, and Messi and Mbappe stood too close together, resulting in the lack of full use of space.
At that time, if Mbappe had stepped forward in time to take away the attention of the 2 defenders, it would have been a golden opportunity for Messi to receive the ball.
However, Mbappe played a little selfishly in this game, and some of the balls were more self-centered in movement and handling, which also allowed him to overlap with Messi this time, resulting in being surrounded by opponents.
03. Kinetic energy enters the penalty area in 3 seconds & Jing ze sends a magic pass with one foot
Because of the recent improvement in shooting, 6 goals in 3 games have made Neymar's goal statistics soar. But even though he has delivered 43 key passes this season to bring shots, 11 of which are excellent scoring opportunities, he has only received 4 assists, which is somewhat unlucky.
Messi had 2 beautiful goals in this game, but unfortunately they were all blown offside in the first goal. The first goal came from Neymar pulling the ball back from the front and sending a clever pass, bringing left-back Mendes forward to let Messi cover the goal in the middle.
Unfortunately, Mendes started slightly ahead, was whistled by the referee for offside, and the goal was invalid.
Facing Marseille, who had the second best defense in Ligue 1 and had conceded just as many goals in Nice, Neymar repeatedly inserted the opponent's side flank and ribs in the penalty area, posing a great threat.
This time he went deep into the hinterland after receiving Messi's wonderful pass, but unfortunately his teammates at the back point did not keep up. Neymar opted for a return pass to give Mbappe the chance to shoot in the inverted triangle.
It can be seen very clearly from the GIF that Neymar suddenly found Messi to collide with the wall after taking the ball and then inserted it at high speed. In the absence of a better cross-pass opportunity, he chose to reverse the triangle to Mbappe, but unfortunately the latter did not follow up with the shot and did not play well.
After 1-1, the person who broke the balance was still Neymar. After this in-cut, the ball hit the opponent's arm and helped Paris Saint-Germain win the penalty.
Mbappe's home penalty shot in front of the 12-yard line this time allowed Paris Saint-Germain to win the French national derby 2-1 and defeat their rival Marseille, who is also second in the league.
Pochettino spent more than half a year finally grinding the forward trident. Unfortunately, in the critical stage of the Champions League knockout round, Neymar has just come out of injury and is not in the best condition.
Will the three of them remain on the same team next season? This should not be too likely. It is not known whether Paris Saint-Germain will become stronger or weaker after the change of the lineup next season.
Conclusion:
At the age of 30, Neymar still has enough energy to prove himself. Horses that can sprint in large numbers, can score goals and organize attacks, and are still not the object that opponents can limit.
Maybe he can't reach the heights he should have reached because of too many injuries, but at least he still has a chance to make up for it. The next year will be crucial and hopefully Neymar will stay fit and run to score more goals with more sprints.