Youth does the serving at PSG in form of Marco Verratti

At 22, Marco Verratti is leading Paris Saint-Germain in assists, but an impetuous temper is also on display, writes Ian Hawkey

Paris Saint-Germain’s Gregory Van der Wiel, left, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, back, have done plenty of celebrating with Marco Verratti, centre, who has proven to have a keen eye for a pass that will unlock the opponents’ defence. Coach Laurent Blanc, bottom right, wants the 22-year-old Italian to watch his temper. Franck Fife / AFPShow less

Marco Verratti looks younger than his 22 years – you might even describe him as slightly baby-faced – though the piercing blue eyes do make his gaze rather steely, even severe.

Mostly he plays with the poise of a 30-something veteran, but sometimes he has bouts of ­impetuousness.

The Italian's maturity as a footballer is much discussed in and around Paris Saint-Germain, in whose midfield he carries a very adult responsibility Wednesday night at Stamford Bridge.

Verratti told RMC radio ahead of the second leg of the Uefa Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea, which is poised intriguingly at 1-1 after the Paris meeting, that he expects a game of "special emotions, high ­pressure".

It will require a distinct approach from his side from the one they took to the same venue in the quarter-finals of the competition last year, when they let a 3-1 first leg turn into defeat on away goals.

“We have to be bolder this time,” Verratti said.

On the same RMC, a station French football fans tune into if they want robust opinions and feverish punditry, the former PSG coach Luis Fernandez was recently telling listeners how he found Verratti frustrating.

“He does the things a midfielder has to – winning the ball, keeping possession – but after that he slows things down,” said Fernandez, who was a forthright midfielder in the talented French national team of the 1980s.

Fernandez would like the Italian to use his fine distribution skills more quickly.

Laurent Blanc, the PSG coach, also has spoken out over the irritations Verratti causes him: not so much the quickness of his instincts with the ball at his feet, but the quickness of his temper.

Fact is, Verratti seldom goes through any match unnoticed by the referee.

It is not so much the tackles: the timing, technique and courage of his challenges is sound, when he stays focused and calm.

It is the backchat to match officials and his level of aggression that Verratti struggles to keep under a sensible ceiling.

“He gets too many yellow cards, and if that continues, it’s going to give him problems,” Blanc warned Verratti in January. “People say ‘he’s still young’, but it’s been an issue for two-and-a-half years.”

Blanc has since been gratified to note that since he upbraided Verratti publicly on that theme, the Italian’s card-count has diminished considerably with just the one booking – against Chelsea in Paris – in his past seven matches.

At the beginning of the season, he was collecting cautions at a rate of more than one every two games.

The statistics that measure the frequency of his decisive passes are far more flattering.

Verratti, who generally slots in on the right of PSG’s midfield trio, leads the club’s rankings for the number of assists for goals this season, evidence of the clever eye for a telling pass that made him stand out even as a very young player with Pescara, the provincial Italian club close to where he grew up.

When PSG plucked him from there in 2012 he was 19.

They still paid well over €10 million (Dh39.5m), a high price for his age, given that he had only appeared in Serie B, Italy’s second tier, at that stage and that his goalscoring record was modest – as it remains.

He had already been labelled the “New Andrea Pirlo” because of his precise passing, particularly over long range from deep positions and because he also has a broad repertoire of tricks on the ball.

He likes to dribble and take opponents on, as well as deliver inch-perfect lobs into the path of colleagues such as Edinson Cavani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Javier Pastore.

His rise while at PSG has been prolific.

Two Ligue 1 titles and promotion to an Italy national team for whom he was a starter in their opening World Cup match last summer.

Not far into that match, he was combining with Pirlo to set up a beautifully engineered goal against England, scored by Claudio Marchisio.

In Brazil, he earned the blessing of his hero Pirlo.

“He can become one of the best midfielders in the world,” Pirlo said.

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