Mauricio Pochettino earns himself PSG lifeline with scrappy Lille win

PSG might have beaten Lille 2-1 on Friday, but for the majority of the game, they were absolutely woeful.

The first 45 minutes were particularly bad for Mauricio Pochettino's men as the superstar duo of Lionel Messi and Neymar were about as poor as you could imagine, and PSG were deservedly behind at the interval. Had it not been for Marquinhos and Gianluigi Donnarumma, the game could have been over early on.

It looked to be another failure for Pochettino's side, and calls to sack the boss flooded social media as soon as the referee paused things at the break.

But then the boss proved his worth.

Undoubtedly aware of the ramifications of his next move, Pochettino made the bold decision to replace Messi, who had just endured probably the worst 45 minutes of his entire career, and shift from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1.

The result? A noticeable improvement in performance and three points which should have been well out of reach by that point.

Replacing Messi with Mauro Icardi was a masterstroke. The former Inter hitman wasn't particularly good himself, but he actually looked interested and his movement as a natural striker caused problems for Lille, who now had to mark a man in the middle and couldn't focus on swarming Neymar and Angel Di Maria.

There will have been a temptation to take Di Maria off at the break. Pochettino did exactly that last time out against Marseille, largely punishing his countryman purely because he isn't as popular as Messi or Neymar, but there was no mistake this time around. Pochettino had the cojones to make a decision that was trending on Twitter within seconds of popping up on screens.

Di Maria was the star of the show for PSG, pulling out a gorgeous cross for the equaliser and firing home a late winner to save the day.

That all came about because of Pochettino and his choices at half-time. The boss must be commended for that, although the fact that he is developing into a comeback specialist is alarming, to say the least.

The problem with Pochettino's time at PSG is that his tactics in the second 45 minutes of matches have been significantly better than those in the first 45, in which his team usually find themselves trailing and forced to mount an unlikely comeback.

That's not going to cut it at PSG, who will not tolerate falling behind in too many more games, but those in charge will be frustrated with just how well Pochettino clawed them out of this hole. His tactics and know-how is obviously there, so why can't he show that all game?

At the end of the day, he's navigated a tough opposition here. Fair play. But this can't go on forever.