At Paris St-Germain, they say the only complaint they have heard from Lionel Messi since his extraordinary move to the club in August has been about the often grid-locked traffic. He could just as easily have been referring to the packed defences he has faced in Ligue 1.

In truth, though, Messi has integrated as well as could be expected, after 21 years at Barcelona where he played 778 games, scoring 672 goals and winning 35 trophies across 16 seasons, into the PSG dressing room, where he is the biggest star in a squad full of stars (and egos).

It is a transition that has been helped by the fact that among his team-mates are Neymar – who even offered to give up his No 10 shirt as a gesture to help persuade Messi to join him at PSG – and fellow Argentine Ángel Di María, who he has known since he was 14.

Messi also brought with him Pepe Costa, who was officially part of Barcelona’s club-player care unit but who left – like Messi – when his contract was not renewed. Costa is a confidant and has helped Messi’s family settle in Paris where they have moved into a rented home in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, close to Di María and Leandro Paredes, another Argentina team-mate.

“It is true that at first it was very strange,” Messi said. “On the one hand, there is the difficulty of moving to a new place after so many years in the same place. On the other, it was very easy because I knew many players and there is a lot of Spanish spoken there.”

Mauricio Pochettino, another Argentine is, of course, the PSG coach and in an interview with Telegraph Sport over the weekend he spoke about the humility Messi had shown since his move: he waits his turn for treatment, he queues in line for food and he did not take that No 10 shirt from Neymar, instead choosing No 30 – his number when he broke into Barcelona’s first team.

But while Messi has mixed well at the club, has he integrated quite as well on the pitch? Like many players who move to France, he has been surprised at the physicality of the league. It did not help that the 34-year-old arrived without a pre-season, suffering from the trauma of believing the club had reneged on a promise to keep him, and with an injury, which led Pochettino to put him on his own fitness programme.

Meanwhile, Pochettino spoke about the challenge of integrating Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, not least because they all want the ball played to them in a different way, at a different “tempo”.

“He hasn’t had the time to play in Ligue 1,” Pochettino said. “Because he was injured and [needed] time to adapt, he has played more for Argentina and in the Champions League. It’s a matter of time. He needs to find his best way to play, his best form.

“Leo arrives after 20 years at Barcelona to play for PSG, he needs his team-mates to know him, for him to adapt, it is not only on the pitch, it is off the pitch. If you want to give your best, you need to be really happy outside. It is a change but not only for him, also the whole team.”

Pochettino’s use of Messi has been questioned, however. He prefers to deploy him on the right of his front three but he has appeared isolated there – and easier to isolate – with Thierry Henry, his former Barcelona team-mate, believing it is a problem. “He is having a bad time and in the centre he can find rhythm,” Henry said.

In fact, Messi’s most impressive work has been in the Champions League, possibly because it is a competition he is more familiar with – he has scored three goals including a stunning strike in the 2-0 win over Manchester City.

In the French league, Messi scored his first goal only last weekend, in a 3-1 win against Nantes, and Pochettino has been urged to use him more centrally – either as the main striker or in behind Mbappé.

A bit like Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi is at an age where he needs to be playing closer to the opposition goal to get the best out of him, although this would necessitate a change in Pochettino’s formation.