Messi needs time to adjust at PSG says  Djibril Cisse

 

Those in a hurry to see former Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi get back to his free scoring status have been told that it takes time to adjust to new environment. Former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse who made the submission Friday, said Lionel Messi needs more time to adapt to being at Paris Saint-Germain.

The Argentine superstar was the highest-profile signing of the summer, moving from Barcelona to the French giants, but has not yet recorded a goal or assist in four Ligue 1 games.

But former Liverpool striker Cisse insisted to French newspaper L’Equipe the issue was not to do with his talents but instead a symptom of his off-field struggles.

He said: ‘Messi’s problem, if we can speak of a problem, is that he’s a human being. He has emotions. He has lifestyle habits. For more than twenty years, he was in his element, in Barcelona.

‘And there, we take him, we put him in another environment and we say to him: ‘Go ahead, perform.’ But he changed his life. His family has changed their life. We must give him time to adapt, even if his name is Messi.

‘The life of a football player is impacted by his private life. For me, it’s not a football problem.’

L’Equipe questioned the 34-year-old forward’s suitability to playing as a right winger in the club’s typical 4-3-3 formation – with all the pressing and tracking back that entails.

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However, it also reported that with Messi moved into a house in Neuilly, with his son at the PSG Academy and his wife Antonela Roccuzzo acclimatising more and more to the capital, his adaptation to his new club was starting to go well.

And Cisse admitted Messi might get a tougher time of it on the pitch as well.

He added: ‘After that, it’s true, he must also adapt to the (league). It’s a physical Championship, with young defenders who put a lot of commitment into duels and want to compete against Messi.

‘I remember seeing La Liga games where defenders, no doubt out of respect, did not always set foot with him as with others.