Sometimes, as a defender, you’ll respond to a piece of skill by chasing back to regain possession, or simply chop down your rival in a fit of frustration. His aim has always been to one-up himself, using defenders as props in his play-within-a-play, and this is no exception. It is at this moment, though, that he spots his opening. Neymar knows this too, however, and he knows there will be a brief flicker of expectation that he’ll do the sensible thing, preserving his team’s narrow lead as the final seconds tick away.
PSG are still a goal to the good, after all, and simply outnumbering the Brazilian doesn’t guarantee Angers will regain possession and push for an equaliser against their 10-man opponents. There’s a brief moment, as El Melali approaches, when the two defenders visibly exhale, preparing themselves to attempt to prevent Neymar keeping the ball in the corner.
His header was the third goal he has netted since returning to action, but the highlight of his performance – the moment which reminded us of his quality – would come later. They went on to lose the French Cup final after wrapping up the title and then took only one points from their next two league games, but they were victorious against Angers at the weekend at least, with Neymar on the target. PSG wrapped up the title in mid-April – incidentally, on the day Neymar returned to action after three months on the sidelines.Ĭynics might argue the drop-off in form in the preceding weeks was a deliberate ploy to allow the star of the team to join in with the celebrations, but if that was the case then you’d imagine a 5-1 loss at Lille was laying it on a bit thick. It seems as though he has noticed this too, responding by treating us to the kind of thing that reminds us of his status as one of the world’s top players… just in case we had forgotten. The Brazilian has continued to lead the line for Paris Saint-Germain, surpassing the 25-goal haul of his debut campaign with time to spare, but PSG’s disastrous Champions League exit at the hands of Manchester United means he has had to do his thing away from the spotlight. “He’s a big lad so you have to respect his opinion, you have to respect that, but it’s always good to know what the managers want from you.”Īpart from England, Okocha enjoyed an 18-year career across Germany, Turkey, France, and Qatar.It feels like we haven’t heard a great deal about Neymar in the 2018-19 season, at least compared to previous years. “That gets him crazy so he made it clear to us that whatever we’re bringing to the team, our own ideas should be in the final third and not in our own half. On what Allardyce couldn’t stand, Okocha said: “One thing he kept to was fannying about in our own defence line,” Okocha explained with a laugh. “But then when we came in and when he started bringing players with better quality in his squad, we started playing a bit more possession football.” “After a while, I realised that it’s not really that kind of long-ball person, but it was all he had then, the players that he had then he can only play direct football with them because they haven’t got the ability to out-possess the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester United, so he was playing to his strengths. On playing under the guidance of Sam Allardyce at Reebok Stadium, Okocha said: “It took me a while to really understand what Sam’s philosophy was, but once I understood it, it was a bit easier then. “As a football person, football comes first, not the city, not the lifestyle, but one thing that’s clear is that the training ground was different, the attitude towards the games was different.” “I will say that it’s obvious that I didn’t really do my research before signing for Bolton,” Okocha continued. Okocha has also admitted he did not do enough research before moving from Paris Saint-Germain to Bolton in the Premier League.
“It’s all about doing it at the right time and the right moment we were trying to see out the game, play out the draw, which was a massive result for us, and in that little corner that was always on for me.” “It was something that I perfected,” Okocha said as quoted by talkSPORT. 19 years down the line, and Okocha has explained how he had managed the skill.
0 kommentar(er)
