Paris Saint-Germain are hosting Manchester City at Parc des Prince in the UEFA Champions League game Tuesday night. The French giants' newly-landed superstar Lionel Messi is meeting Pep Guardiola, the manager who led Messi and Barcelona to the peak in 2009 and 2011.

City are a formidable rival, but PSG have other things to worry about. One of them is the lack of chemistry between Messi and the rest of the team. So far, he has played three games for PSG but scored no goal or assist at all. That's unacceptable because it's Messi pairing with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

Former French national team striker Nicolas Anelka said Messi should be the one assisting Mbappe, not the other way around.

"Mbappe has to lead the attack because he's No. 1. Messi was at Barcelona, but now he has to serve Mbappe. He's been at the club for five years, and Messi has to respect him," Anelka told Le Parisien. "He's a phenomenal player in terms of his speed; there's no one better on the planet. If Paris want to have the best team, they have to do everything they can to keep him."

The irony is, Mbappe has repeatedly rejected contract extension offers from PSG, including the latest offer in September.

"But I think it's very clear in Kylian's head. He wants to see something else, and that makes sense. He's dreaming of the Ballon d'Or, and how can he win it if he's playing in the sixth-best league by UEFA coefficient? If Kylian had been in England or Spain for the last three years, he would have already won the Ballon d'Or," said Anelka.

Messi was taken off the field in the Ligue 1 game against Olympique Lyonnais on September 19. Though it was later revealed that he was injured, the rumor of the Argentine superstar falling out with manager Mauricio Pochettino spread quickly like wildfire.

Anelka said he understands Messi's frustration: "You don't take off a six-time Ballon d'Or winner in the 65th minute when he hasn't scored for his team. That plays with his head a lot. A forward needs his coach to show him confidence, and that right there won't do it. I'm getting ahead of myself but Messi will not forget what Pochettino has done. It will stay with him. He's the star of the team and it was his first game at the Parc des Princes. It's going to be very difficult to recover from that as a situation."

"Messi didn't play against Metz, and for me that's already a response. You can't manage Messi like that. The coach wanted to send out a strong message, which is good, but this is Messi," added Anelka.

As City's manager, Guardiola coached Messi between 2008 and 2012. They two won three La Liga championships and two Champions League titles together. When asked how he plans to stop Messi (and Neymar, Mbappe) in Tuesday's game, Guardiola said he has no idea.

"I don't know. This amount of quality, I don't know what we should do to stop them, honestly. They're so good. This amount of talent altogether, to control it is so difficult," said the Spanish manager at the press conference on Monday.

"We know exactly how difficult it is. But at the same time, we are trying to go again, knowing how good they are individually and collectively. I think this kind of player [Messi] speaks for itself. Messi speaks for itself; you don't have to describe him. What he's done is more than exceptional," Guardiola spared no praise talking about his former ace.