A question about pressing, an answer about Paris
He was asked whether he needs to run. The answer came from a 19-year-old who is, at this point, the axis of almost everything Barcelona do going forward.
Lamine Yamal did not dodge it. Speaking on Tuesday before Feyenoord’s visit in the Champions League, he reached for another club to make his point.
“Just look at the teams that have won titles recently, like PSG. At PSG, everyone presses. We are all trying to press at Barca.”
Then the part that carried. “If you don’t run, every team will beat you. For the team, if we want to win, we have to run. If you don’t run, you will lose.”
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Paris as the reference, not the rival
Sit with that for a second. A Barcelona player naming PSG as the template for collective work. Three or four seasons ago the sentence would have been unthinkable in that dressing room.
Yamal has started in Catalonia since he was barely out of school. He could have said a winger with his tools gets judged on dribbles and assists, and nobody in the room would have pushed back.
He went with defensive effort instead.
A Barca side running hot
The table agrees with him. Four wins from four in La Liga, 17 scored, two conceded, top of the pile. The 5-0 at Valencia over the weekend was the loudest evidence yet.
Feyenoord come to the Camp Nou on Wednesday at 18:45, Barcelona’s first European night of the season. The new league format is unforgiving about slow starts.
Ninety minutes on Wednesday will show what the words are worth.
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