On Sunday, PSG's players and their families had their Christmas party at Disneyland Paris. Everyone was there apart from Hatem Ben Arfa, who was ill and probably not in the mood, and Neymar, who had the club's permission to go back to Brazil for "personal reasons."
The former Barcelona forward, bought for a world record €222 million last summer, has not gone missing much this season though. Not everything has been perfect, of course, but Neymar's first four-and-a-half months in Paris have been very eventful to say the least.
First, there are his impressive stats: 15 goals (nine in Ligue 1; six in the Champions League) and nine assists in 18 games in all competitions (12 in Ligue 1; six in the Champions League). He has created many more chances as well and has been dominant in the attacking third. He was decisive away in the 2-2 draw against Marseille, scoring the first goal, even if he got sent off late in his first Classique; he was also key in PSG's 3-0 win over Bayern Munich at the Parc des Princes in the Champions League group stages.
Then, there are his overall performances. Despite his excellent stats, the feeling is that he turns up when he wants and though he has had moments of brilliance where one could see his genius in action, he has also played some matches where he was clearly not up for it. When he is on his game, like against Bordeaux or in the Champions League (except for the final game against Bayern), he is unstoppable.
However, Neymar also has a tendency of trying to do everything himself, especially when things are not going according to plan for the team. At Dijon (a 2-1 win) or at Strasbourg (a 2-1 defeat), he tried to win the game alone and failed: overplaying and forcing things to the detriment of the team like Zlatan Ibrahimovic used to do when he was in the side. Defensively, the Brazilian rarely puts a shift in, which can unbalance the team when they don't have the ball -- though PSG didn't spend all that money on him for his defensive capabilities. READ MORE
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