Paris St Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino has defended his decision to substitute forward Lionel Messi in Sunday's 2-1 win over Olympique Lyonnais in the French Ligue 1 and said the Argentine was okay with being taken off 14 minutes from time.
The interaction between Messi and the coach on the touchline has since generated a lot of buzz on social media. While many reports claimed that Messi ignored Pochettino's outstretched hand while walking back to the bench, replays, however, showed that he did shake his hands.
The 34-year-old former Barcelona player looked puzzled when he was replaced and exchanged words with Pochettino as he walked off the pitch.
After the match, Pochettino defended his decision to take off Messi. "Everyone knows we have great players, a squad of 35. It is my decision. We can only have 11 players on the field at one time," Pochettino said.
Messi was replaced by another new signing in Achraf Hakimi with the scores tied at 1-1. But it was Messi's Mauro Icardi who came up with the winner in stoppage time as PSG edged Lyon 2-1. The win helped PSG register their sixth win in six matches in the French Ligue this season, taking the team five points clear of Marseille at the top of the table.
"Every coach thinks about that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes players like it and sometimes they don't. At the end of the day, that's why we're here. These are decisions that have to be made by the coach. As for his reaction, I asked him how he was, he said he was okay. That was it. That was our exchange," added Pochettino.