Ligue 1: Kylian Mbappé and Luis Enrique would have had “a positive exchange” this Saturday

Relations between Kylian Mbappé, once again replaced on Friday, at half-time of the match in Monaco, and Luis Enrique are becoming strained day by day. Not ideal for PSG, three days before a crucial match in the Champions League.

The Spanish coach had done very little without Mbappé since his arrival at the head of the Parisian team last summer. But now he has just done it in the last three matches, starting him on the bench against Nantes on February 17 (2-0), replacing him at the hour mark against Rennes last week (1- 1), and from the break therefore on the Rock (0-0), where the star began his career.

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This series comes just after the striker's announcement to club leaders of his departure next summer, after seven years in the capital.

On Saturday, the two men had a “positive exchange”, a source close to the matter told AFP, after light training at the PSG Campus in Poissy. Asked by AFP, the club did not wish to react, but denied the existence of frosty relations between the coach and the French star.

Friday evening, shortly after the start of the second period, without the top scorer in the history of the club replaced by Randal Kolo Muani, the agitation reached the stands of the Louis-II stadium, when Mbappé went around the field by the athletics track, taking his time and greeting the public, all smiles in his tracksuit.

Like nothing ever happened. Except that then, he joined not the bench, but the platform, not far from the usual place of Prince Albert II of Monaco - absent on Friday - to sit next to his mother Fayza Lamari, who manages his interests .

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It was a member of the club's management who proposed this solution, assured the player's entourage contacted by AFP, without explaining why, but trying to deny any controversy.

Several tens of meters in front of Mbappé, Luis Enrique, focused on the match, replaced his players with the inability to bring back anything other than a second draw in a row, after having come close to being punished for several Monegasque actions in the first period.

There was a time of doubt about a potential precaution taken by the staff after contact by number 7 with Guillermo Maripan. Mbappé remained on the ground for several minutes, his hand on his right shin.

But, afterwards, Luis Enrique assumed the new replacement of the evening captain in the absence of Marquinhos: “It's 100% the coach's decision, sooner or later we will have to get used to playing without Kylian Mbappé , I am making this decision for the good of the team.

And the former Spain coach was obviously not surprised to have to answer no less than three questions in a row on the subject, evoking a “hat trick” (three consecutive goals) from the journalists.

“I’m not going to get into that game, for me there’s no problem, it’s the way I want to manage things,” he insisted.

Already, after Rennes, Luis Enrique had explained that he was preparing for the post-Mbappé era, who had thrown, apparently clumsily, his captain's armband towards Vitinha during his replacement.

On Thursday, Luis Enrique even assured that the team would be “much better” next season.

In the league, the one who guided Barça to the Champions League title in 2015 can afford this strategy, his team enjoying a comfortable lead (12 pts) over Brest, before its match on Sunday, and Monaco.

But it seems more hypothetical on Tuesday for the most important match of the season, in San Sebastián against Real Sociedad - who lost again (3-2) on Saturday in La Liga, at Sevilla FC - , in the round of 16 second leg of C1.

It's hard to imagine the Spanish coach doing without his star to capitalize on the advantage gained in the first leg (2-0), because Mbappé is the team's undisputed top scorer (32 goals in all competitions), far ahead of Randal Kolo Muani (9 goals) and Gonçalo Ramos (8).

Can the change in his status affect the performance of the 2018 world champion? Despite the deadline for his departure, all in all well accepted by the supporters, the atmosphere appears relatively calm on the surface.

The player's entourage is working on it, saying he is “focused on Tuesday's match” in Spain.