Paris Saint-Germain continues to limp toward the end of the 2022-23 Ligue 1 season after their second straight home loss, this time falling 1-0 to Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday at the Parc des Princes.
The capital club’s inability to at least end this season on a positive note has many in the French media sounding off again on the squad. RMC Sport pundit Daniel Riolo sounded off on the squad again for not showing any heart or soul in defeat.
“Galtier got the address wrong, but someone gave him the address,” Riolo said Monday on RMC Sport (h/t Canal Supporters). “We hit the players, we hit everyone. Stop feeling sorry for him anyway. The club looks like nothing. The level of play has never been so bad in the club’s history.
“He is still responsible for what we see on the ground! He has skills. He had a life before. He managed Lille OSC [and] AS Saint-Étienne; he managed clubs. The team looks like nothing at all. There is no game, nothing. At some point, he is responsible; stop having pity.”
Currently, PSG has a six-point lead on RC Lens and Olympique de Marseille for the Ligue 1 championship. Still, if the capital club continues to drop points, especially losses, it opens the door for those two teams to scare the French giants and possibly take first place atop the table.
Suppose PSG does the unthinkable and loses the league title. In that case, the toxic environment surrounding the club will only worsen heading into a critical summer where sporting advisor Luis Campos needs to revamp the squad.
Why do PSG fans expect their club to win every match? And why should they expect Messi to score in every match? And why should they blame Messi for every loss? They are simply being unrealistic.
Sometimes, fans can be surprisingly unrealistic. I remember how Argentinian fans used to behave the same way against Messi. Are they they still booing him now? He eventually proved them wrong.
Let’s face it. PSG isn’t a one-man team. Messi is in a team and he is a team player. Despite the significance of individual brilliance, it takes a team work to win a match, and there is a limit to which an individual player can stretch himself.
In his footballing life, Messi has won and lost many matches, and he still excels. It has happened with Barcelona and with the Argentina national team. Why should PSG fans expect him to be different now?
One thing that is unfortunately evident is that there is a score of fans who did not like him right from the start, and they keep on finding faults with Messi – simply because he isn’t French!
They have their favourite French star who they never boo even the the worst of his performances on the pitch – Mbappe.
Seeing what Messi does on the pitch, the skills he puts in place, the opportunities he creates, the passes he gives to colleagues, the goals he scores the assists he makes the team spirit he embraces, the off-the-pitch benefits he brings to the club, and for what Messi has done to football, this negative attitude by PSG fans against Messi is very unfair. It’s very unfortunate and it should stop.