‘The smile is back!’ – Is Lionel Messi back to best after stellar start to season for Paris Saint-Germain?

Exactly one year ago today (Monday) Lionel Messi bade farewell to Barcelona in an emotional press conference in a scene that many thought was never going to happen. It was a stunning moment in football history, one that no-one really expected to see despite Barcelona’s financial struggles, it became one of the iconic images of 2021. Ad At the time Messi’s destination was uncertain, Manchester City were still circling as well as a few other clubs both in and out of Europe as sporting directors frantically crunched the numbers.

Ligue 1Messi overhead kick lights up PSG opening-day thrashing of Clermont FootYESTERDAY AT 18:19 As we know now Paris was to be his next stop but it was far from plain sailing. PSG won the league but despite registering the second-most assists in Ligue 1 Messi was far from his best. This season PSG have won their opening games 4-0 against Nantes in the Trophee des Champions and 5-0 against Clermont in their first Ligue 1 match of the campaign.

Messi has scored three goals and picked up an assist in those two matches, capped by an outrageous overhead kick against Clermont. So is Messi back? Or is it a little more nuanced than that? In order to find out we got in touch with Cyril Morin from Eurosport France to get more information. What’s different under Galtier? Let’s start here because ultimately there are going to be games every season where PSG steamroll their opponents, that is the reality when the money being pumped into their club gives them such a big advantage.

So what looks different this season under new manager Christophe Galtier compared to last season under Mauricio Pochettino? “The difference is very clear,” says Morin. “First of all, the system. Now PSG plays in a 3-4-3 formation