Ligue 1 2023/24: PSG’s attacking depth beyond Mbappe’s brilliance

PSG are preparing for life without Mbappé — this time, for real — after it was announced that the world champion would be leaving the French giants at the end of the season.

So, what would the team look like, especially in the forward line, without him? Do they already have players to replace the Frenchmen’s quality and output in their ranks? The visualisation below shows the numbers of PSG’s attackers from this season.

Kylian Mbappé has scored nearly 40% of PSG’s goals in Ligue 1 this season. Surely, that kind of number is going to be hard to replace, at least right away.  

However, PSG’s transfer business in 2023 means that the French champions already have some brilliant talent in-house from where those goals could come. The club spent big, especially on attacking depth, last summer. One of those signings was the 21-year-old talent Bradley Barcola from Lyon. 

The French U21 international has played the most minutes next to Mbappé and can play on either side of the attack. With four assists and two non-penalty goals to his name, Barcola looks set to have an interesting and long future ahead of him. His numbers from his first season at PSG look promising and could make him one of the first names in the starting XI after Mbappé’s departure. 

After a long saga, Ousmane Dembélé signed for Les Parisiens last summer. The winger has struggled for goals but has the most assists (seven) in the PSG squad. At Barcelona, the Frenchman’s tenure was dominated by injuries, but he seems to have a bit more luck at PSG, featuring regularly for the French champions. Still only 26 years old, he could be an important player for Luis Enrique in the post-Mbappé era. 

Mbappé’s goal contributions could be replaced by Kolo Muani, who was signed in the summer from Eintracht Frankfurt, and Gonçalo Ramos, who was signed from Benfica. Both Muani and Ramos are centre-forwards, predominantly, and even though they don’t have the pace of Mbappé, they are good strikers and box-players with excellent finishing ability. Both have six goals to their names from a similar xG, too. Ramos has played slightly more minutes than Muani this season but it will be interesting how the minutes are split among these two next year. 

Asensio and Kang-in Lee are the other two players who have featured in different positions across the front three. Asensio, who has played the fewest minutes among the attackers, could see a repeat of the same next season, too.