(Reuters) – Kylian Mbappe has scored 14 goals in 12 Ligue 1 games for Paris St Germain this season, and his manager would love to have three strikers of that standard, Luis Enrique said on Saturday.
Mbappe has also scored three goals in the Champions League, but there is a big gap to the next highest-scorers at the club, Achraf Hakimi and Randal Kolo Muani, who both have four goals in all competitions.
It is a very different situation to last season when Lionel Messi scored 21 goals and Neymar netted 18 but both have since left PSG.
“I’d love to have three strikers like Mbappe who score 17 goals each, but it’s not possible,” Luis Enrique told reporters.
“Last year there were three world stars and they shared the goals more. There are a lot of players who have scored. We don’t just depend on Kylian… others have scored.”
The manager was questioned about his team creating a lot of chances against Newcastle United on Tuesday, which finished 1-1, but lacking in their finishing.
“That’s very funny. If we have a finishing problem, what do the others have?” Enrique responded.
“A team that scores three goals a game, creates 10 clear chances against Newcastle… football is a game, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. We’d have a problem if we didn’t create scoring chances.”
PSG have scored eight goals in their last two league matches, but just two in their last two Champions League games.
Luis Enrique had a short answer when asked if there is a mentality issue with his strikers.
“You can say what you want.”
With PSG travelling to take on Le Havre on Sunday, Luis Enrique refused to accept that they should put in a less dominating but more efficient performance.
“I assume that if I’m dominant, I’m going to have the opportunity to win the game without conceding any chances to the opponent,” he said.
“As a coach I’d like us to only play in the other side’s half and the other team doesn’t have any chances to score. I want to dominate as much as possible.”
PSG are top of Ligue 1, with Nice just one point behind and they face Nantes away on Saturday. Le Havre are in eighth place, 14 points behind the league leaders.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
