As has been the case for most of the season, Paris Saint-Germain has several players absent who will miss the team’s Ligue 1 match against Lille OSC on Sunday at the Stade Pierre Mauroy.
At his pre-match press conference, manager Thomas Tuchel confirmed that Marquinhos, Juan Bernat, and Thilo Kehrer are all out due to injury.
Edinson Cavani and Layvin Kurzawa are also out but it’s because of their current transfer situation and not due to injury. Cavani is pushing for a January move to Atlético Madrid while Kurzawa is likely to be included in a swap deal for Juventus FC defender Mattia De Sciglio this month.
Tuchel clarified both situations to the media at his press conference:
“It’s a decision for tomorrow’s game. It’s better because, for Layvin, it’s a situation that happened two days ago, it’s very short and I think it’s only necessary for tomorrow’s game so that he can think and find a solution or not. Then we can continue. With Edi, this has been going on for a little longer now but he has trained and is no longer injured. We decided that it is not available because the situation is not very clear and that’s how it is. It’s not much, it happens in a transfer window, but I’m calm.”
In my opinion, I think the Kurzawa situation is more of a done deal than Cavani. Atlético will have to increase their transfer fee to convince PSG to part ways with their all-time leading scorer.
Despite the distractions, Tuchel stated that the team had a good training session and remains focused on Lille and not the upcoming UEFA Champions League tie against Borussia Dortmund on February 18.
“We had a good training session, with quality, intensity, a good attitude. It’s good and necessary to be ready for the match on Sunday against the team with the best home record. It’ll be a tough game because Lille has a lot of quality, they have a very strong 4-4-2, compact, with good attacking transitions. We’ll need to look out for a lot of things. It’s a big challenge for us.”
“I have not spoken with any player or with my Dortmund staff. But on the other hand, you talk about it all the time at a press conference. We are talking about Lille, Pau, Lorient. It may not be good for you but it is a reality.”
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