'They play where they want to' - Liverpool legend claims PSG cannot succeed with current squad
Liverpool legend, Steve McManaman has revealed that Paris Saint-Germain cannot succeed in the Champions League because the players are too powerful and that "they play where they want to play".
PSG suffered yet another disappointment in the Champions League on Wednesday as they collapsed to lose the round of 16 tie to Real Madrid 3-2, despite leading the tie 2-0 going into half-time in the second leg.
However all that went downwards quickly as they disintegrated in the second half, with Karim Benzema scoring a quickfire hat-trick to ensure that the Los Blancos qualified for the quarter-finals on a final 3-2 aggregate.
"The minute they got back in that game, the whole place changed."
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) March 9, 2022
"PSG take liberties in their league... It's in their DNA to capitulate!"@rioferdy5, @themichaelowen, Steve McManaman, and @seemajaswal discuss just what happened to PSG on a crazy night in Madrid.#UCL pic.twitter.com/CzUVVCC22x
McManaman who also represented Madrid during his career believes that the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe hold too much power on the field and that the likes of Mauricio Pochettino cannot control them.
"The players are too powerful. They were too powerful under Thomas Tuchel, too powerful under Unai Emery, too powerful under this man [Mauricio Pochettino]. They can’t get told off and when the going gets tough, they do not care," he told BT Sport.
"They play where they want to play. The top three are amazing footballers but they don’t work hard, they do not work hard when the going gets tough."
It will be interesting to see how the Ligue 1 giants bounce back from this disappointment, considering that they have a bloated squad and will look to make changes in personnel this summer.