Paris Saint-Germain – OGC Nice: Kean Plays Hero Against Nice (2-1)

Paris Saint-Germain’s aggressive buildup formation exposed Nice’s 4-1-4-1 medium block in the first half, allowing a heavily rotated side to coast comfortably through the first 45 minutes. In the second half Nice made slight adjustments, which made them far more potent on the counter and threatened PSG’s cosiness. However, Moise Kean saved the day again with a winner in the seventy-sixth minute. 
Tactical analysis and match report by K.T. Stockwell.

A scrappy two-nil victory over Marseille in the previous round helped to keep Paris Saint-Germain firmly in a highly competitive title race. The reigning champions have yet to look fully formed under new manager Mauricio Pochettino, but their ability to collect points has gifted the Argentine manager enough time to continue to work out the kinks.

A mid-week Champions League fixture against Barcelona and an injury to Neymar forced more tinkering from Pochettino against Nice. PSG stuck with their 4-2-3-1 formation, but rested Marco Verratti and elected to go with a double pivot Two central midfielders next to each other. of Leandro Paredes and Idrissa Gueye. Julian Draxler got a rare start in the number ten position, playing alongside a haphazard attacking triumvirate of Kylian Mbappé, Mauro Icardi and Moise Kean.

Put simply, Nice have been extremely poor this season. The club has vastly underperformed expectations – sitting fortieth heading into their clash with PSG. The southern French side has begun to show some improvement since acquiring the young defensive tandem of Jean-Clair Todibo and William Saliba – finally boasting a reasonable defensive platform on which to build attacks.

Nice have also firmly adopted a 4-3-3 formation and the consistency seems to be . . .