Milan Skriniar is one of the new faces at Paris Saint-Germain this 2023-24 season. The Slovakian defender arrived from Inter Milan and signed a five-year contract with the French giants as a free agent.
The 28-year-old has played in 13 matches in all competitions, so it’s a decent sample size to begin forming an opinion. Le Parisien spoke with Thomas Heurtaux, who played for clubs like Caen and Udinese during his career.
Nonetheless, Heurtaux didn’t have favorable remarks for the former Inter Milan captain. The Frenchman notes that he’s not seeing the same player he saw in Serie A.
“I’m going to be harsh, but I find him generally disappointing, and I think that his start to the season is average,” Heurtaux said (h/t Le10Sport). “What he showed at Inter was very, very strong. Today, he is not the Skriniar of Inter. I find adapting to Paris very difficult. It’s disappointing because it can do a lot more.”
Furthermore, Heurtaux provided an analysis as to why he views Skriniar’s adaptation and performance as disappointing.
“At Inter, he intervened at the right time, didn’t back down, started with the ball, liked to move forward, and did it very well,” Heurtaux added. “Today, it’s better that he concentrates on purely defensive tasks because he is not at his level.
“I expected something else. [Skriniar] had everything of a modern defender with this aggression and his physical power. In Paris, you see him in more difficulty on this level.”
Regardless of what the Frenchman states, manager Luis Enrique counts on Skriniar, and he’s a significant point in PSG’s defense. Right now, he and Marquinhos are the partnership that the Spanish tactician is going with to get this squad into the UEFA Champions League knockout stage and a Ligue 1 title.
