Achraf Hakimi must be a fulfilled man. During his first two seasons in the capital, the Moroccan often gave the impression of having to take care of everything in the right lane of the Parisian team, generally being neglected or forgotten by a Lionel Messi reluctant to serve his partner or to help him. But since August, things have changed: the Moroccan right-back has found a major ally in his preferred area in the person of Ousmane Dembélé, number 1 accomplice and appointed henchman of the former defender of the ‘Inter Milan.
Since the start of the season, this association of benefactors had disseminated a few promises here and there which really took shape this Friday evening during the victory against Montpellier (3-0). It’s simple: the three goals scored by Luis Enrique’s team came from the right lane occupied by Hakimi, author of two assists for Lee and Vitinha, and “Dembouz”, decisive passer for Warren Zaire-Emery. With these three new offerings, the two men have only reinforced their status as distributors of pancakes, the Moroccan being PSG’s best decisive passer in Ligue 1 (4 assists) and the Frenchman his runner-up (3 assists).
“We have a lot of quality in this area. “Haki” and “Ous” play very well together, they see each other, have their points of reference, confirms Milan Skriniar who can carefully observe the connection between the two players from his central defender position. Today, we were very good in that regard. Of course, we have very good players in the other lane, but tonight (Friday) it was the right side which made the difference and we are very happy for the guys because they were very good. It’s a pleasure to see them play like that and to work with them every day. »
“They get along better every day”
If the figures speak for themselves and demonstrate the new place occupied by the right lane in the offensive animation of the Spanish coach, we must go beyond that and underline the complicity between the two partners. Like the first goal scored by Kang-in Lee, Ousmane Dembélé was very often able to take advantage of the Moroccan’s formidable projection capacity to serve him in the interval before the number 2 showed off his quality as a center. The volume of play of Achraf Hakimi combined with the technique, the unpredictability and the liveliness of the Parisian number 10 ultimately represented a real headache to manage for a Montpellier team put to death in these phases of play.
“How can we manage to fit these two players? We block them by being more compact and closer to them, concedes MHSC coach Michel Der Zakarian. Technically, they were very good. They combine technique and speed, it was complicated for us. They do the right thing and they punish you. » Bis repeated on the third Parisian goal scored by Vitinha at the end of yet another movement initiated by Achraf Hakimi, starting 45 m from the goals, and again found by the left foot of “Dembouz” after a giant one-two produced with stunning simplicity and realism.
At a time when Luis Enrique repeats and insists on his desire to have a PSG that is “unpredictable” for the opponent and capable of multiplying the danger offensively, the Hakimi-Dembélé pair thus offers him a new weapon of choice on the front. an attack which has too often been dependent on the performance of Kylian Mbappé. “The instructions for Achraf and Ousmane are the same defensively as for the others: you have to run in all directions, where there is a need, where there are spaces to fill,” explains Luis Enrique. The attitude of the team is the same. The offensive quality of these two players leaves no doubt: they get along better every day. » It is up to them, from now on, to reproduce on the European scene, Tuesday evening in Milan, everything that is well done on the national scene. An evening to continue to ignite the opposing left lanes.
2023-11-05 01:34:47
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