Edinson Cavani's Positional Choices Undermining Paris Saint-Germain

When Paris Saint-Germain paid Napoli €60 million for the services of Edinson Cavani in the summer of 2013, the striker was expected to take the French club to the next level. With a few flashes of excellence, it’s not that the Uruguayan has failed to make his mark, but on closer inspection, there are question marks over his ability to lead Laurent Blanc’s attack.

This season has been full of ups and downs for the 27-year-old forward. He has scored eight league goals, plus another five in the Champions League, helping the club into the knockout stages of the competition. However, in his last nine league games, Cavani has only found the net twice, his last goal coming at the end of a 4-2 victory over Evian Thonon Gaillard. With his team already 3-2 up, the game was already over.

During his first season, Cavani should have been happy with his contribution. Playing on the right of PSG’s 4-3-3 he scored 16 league goals and played a huge part in the club winning the league and cup double, scoring twice in the Coupe de la Ligue final against Lyon. In October 2013, Blanc, speaking to the French media, via Ian Holyman of ESPN FC, was happy with the forward’s contribution.

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With the same players, we could play with three midfielders, two strikers and a No. 10. We could have a different structure so that everyone feels good in the team. We’re thinking about it and we’re working on it.

For the moment, Edinson is playing on the right side that he knows well. He’s playing well and is scoring goals.

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However, in the summer Cavani was quick to make comments about Blanc’s tactics and the formation, via Sky Sports, suggesting that things had to change in order for him to stay.

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I am at Paris, I think I will stay here, but you never know with the transfer window," he told Ovacion Digital.

There was a discussion with Laurent Blanc before the end of the season and I think there will be a new tactical scheme this season.

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Blanc’s tactics remain the same as they did last season, although now Cavani is playing on the left of the 4-3-3, allowing Blanc to play Lucas Moura on the right, producing some excellent performances from the Brazilian winger.

Part of this season’s problems don’t come from Cavani’s place out on the left wing, they come from the Uruguayan’s lack of positional sense and an awareness of where the space is being created by Blanc’s setup.

Christophe Ena/Associated Press

In the 4-3-3, Ibrahimovic, since the start of last season, has been dropping deep. Initially he would take up the No. 10 role, helping the Swede to contribute 11 assists in Ligue 1. Three of those helped set up Cavani. This season, only once has the Swede set up his teammate. That was the aforementioned goal against Evian in the league, and it was more of a blind cross from Ibrahimovic.

With Ibrahimovic dropping deeper, looking to build the PSG attacks, you would expect the two players to combine more often. However, when analysing Cavani’s movement and where the forward makes contact with the ball. The problem is not Ibra’s reluctance to pick out Cavani, but it comes from the striker’s inability to take up dangerous positions in the final third.

He may be listed as playing on the left wing, but with Zlatan coming back into the midfield, Cavani has all the space through the centre to exploit. Defensively he does a very good job in covering PSG’s left side, but he needs to take advantage of the space created from Ibrahimovic’s movement.

WhoScored

Looking at Cavani’s heatmaps, via WhoScored, it shows a clear failure of the No. 9 to take up the central positions that would help create opportunities for Blanc’s attack. In his last three league appearances, Cavani has only touched the ball inside the penalty area a total of nine times.

WhoScored

If you go back to the 2-0 win over Caen back in September when Ibrahimovic was out, Cavani was asked to play the central role where he had nine touches of the ball inside the box in just one game. There is nothing to stop the Uruguayan taking up the same positions with Ibrahimovic in or out of the team.

Reporters can question whether or not Ibrahimovic has a problem passing Cavani the ball, but the stark reality is that there is no point giving a centre-forward the ball when he is in ineffectual positions.

If Cavani wants to score more goals and see more of the ball, he needs to rediscover his killer instinct, exploit the space created by Ibrahimovic and become much more aware of what is happening around him. Maybe then PSG will look like a much more dangerous side in the final third.