Cavani being frozen out?
The Neymar-Edinson Cavani-Kylian Mbappe smorgasbord of attacking talent works, but it doesn't work the way it should or even the way it looks like it does.
Sparks flew early last season over a penalty when Neymar demanded it off Cavani and the Uruguayan refused to budge.
That all got smoothed over, or so it seemed, but L'Equipe's data suggests all is not well. And there is one clear victim of the ongoing resentment: Edinson Cavani.
Neymar finds Mbappe with 25 per cent of his passes and the young French attacker finds the Brazilian with 31 per cent of his. However, Cavani is only found 0.5 per cent of the time Neymar passes the ball and Mbappe passes to him with 5 per cent of his.
Against Lyon, the Uruguayan did not receive a single pass from either of his two teammates for the 40 minutes he played. Cavani was sacrificed after the sending off of Kimpembe against Lyon and despite the absence of the striker, they won 5-0 with Mbappe's 13-minute blitz which yielded four goals.
According to L'Equipe, Cavani feels isolated on the field and, despite having six goals and three assists, is the odd man out. They also claim he is more withdrawn and doesn't celebrate his goals as he used to.
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