Marquinhos is the pawn of the Tuchel-Leonardo duel

Tuchel and Leonardo follow their particular pulse. PSG beat Dijon with authority this weekend (4-0 with goals from Moise Kean and Kylian Mbappé, both twice) and recovered well from the defeat against Manchester United. Little could be argued about the victory and the authority of it but The cold war between the two marks the current situation of the club and has a person affected by it: Marquinhos.

The Brazilian and his position on the field once again focus the debate in France several days after the day ended for PSG. A Tuchel, Marquinhos likes as a defensive midfielder despite being a central vocation. The German insists with him despite having the newcomer Danilo and other alternatives for different occasions such as Leandro Paredes, Gueye or Verratti.

Thus, from the French press the choice is questioned mainly by the use of a center-back where it has other players with more experience in that position and by 'lowering' the level of the defense with Diallo as Kimpembe's partner. “With Marquinhos in the middle, Tuchel is going to have to put the physio as central” or “Even a mute would have found a way to talk about these strange elections” were some of the niceties that Le Parisien collects and that were poured from the televisions on the performance of the French.

Beyond the coach's liking or not for the Brazilian in that position, this movement is also interpreted in a political key given the public-private confrontation that both maintain and they see it as a blow of authority to show that he and only he is the one who does the alignments. “Leonardo must be pulling his hair out. He imagined that by letting Thiago Silva go, Marquinhos would no longer play in the middle,” Rolland Courbis correctly pointed out.

Several players in between (Marquinhos, Danilo …) who look like pawns in a game of chess that can end with a victory for one of the two sides that goes to the club.