One Slovan goal, and a defender under the lamp again
Camara. Nobody in Paris knew the name on Wednesday morning. By the end of the night he had got past Illia Zabarnyi and put Slovan Bratislava’s only goal into the net at the Parc des Princes.
PSG won 6-1. That scoreline will be forgotten by the weekend.
The moment will not. There was no clumsy technical mistake from the Ukrainian. He was half a step late, his body turned a fraction too slowly, and a striker nobody had heard of got there first.
Foot Mercato, L’Equipe and Le Parisien each rated him 3 out of 10. Three newsrooms, one number.
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€60m, and the questions have not stopped
Paris paid Bournemouth more than €60m for the 24-year-old a little over a year ago. The reasoning was easy to follow. Marquinhos was ageing, and here was the man to take over.
It has not gone that way.
The Brazil captain, 32, remains indispensable. And when Zabarnyi is in the starting eleven, the Parc watches the back line with one eye half-closed, whoever the opponent happens to be.
He has real strengths. He fights in duels, he wins headers, he defends with edge. Against genuine pace in a one-on-one, though, he struggles. Balls played in behind cause him problems too. Which is awkward, because Luis Enrique asks his defence to sit extremely high.
Opposition coaches noticed months ago. They keep aiming at the same patch of grass.
Paris have nothing behind him
That is where this gets serious. There is no credible alternative in the squad at centre-back.
So the plan becomes hoping Marquinhos gets through to spring in one piece. He is 32, in a season with four competitions. Call it a gamble.
Zabarnyi has time on his side, obviously. Second season in France, 24 years old, nothing decided. But the same weaknesses have shown up match after match for a year now. Leave them unfixed and the club will sign somebody. Winter is not far away.
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