Paris Saint-Germain is having a start to the season far from its standards. Beaten this Friday evening by AS Monaco at the Parc des Princes (1-2), the capital club went on to a third match without a win in Ligue 1 and a second defeat this season after the one conceded against Lens during the Champions Trophy. In the meantime, the Parisians also conceded two 2-2 draws against Rennes and then Lille. Result: only 2 points taken after three days, an unusual result for the reigning French champion, who is clearly struggling to launch his season.
And on the ground, the observation is quite similar. Physically and technically, PSG does not yet seem at its best level and regularly leaves space to its opponents. Luis Enrique’s team notably displays a certain defensive fragility since it has conceded two goals per match on average in Ligue 1 since the start of the year. However, despite this worrying balance sheet, the Spanish coach categorically refuses to give in to panic. “Really, it’s incredible motivation for my players, for the team, for the club. If you want to bet on who will be champion at the end of the championship, we can bet. 7 points? OK, we’ll try to rectify that as quickly as possible.”he said at a press conference.
A crumbly defense
Luis Enrique even went further to defend his players’ performance against Monaco. “No, you don’t have to worry. I say it honestly. It’s a special moment. Today (Friday), how many shots on target did Monaco make? Two. How many goals? Two. We will see at the end of the season if it balances out. I have to say that Monaco defended very well, I liked how they played. They are first, congratulations to them and to Filipe Luis. What I want to convey is that you shouldn’t just see the result. We pressed sensationally today, much better than in many matches where we didn’t concede a goal. But today, bad luck was there for us. What I saw defensively was of a very good level. The result cannot erase everything good we have done. Monaco knows that if they play ten times against us like that, we win eight times, draw once and lose once. It’s today. »
Same story with João Neves, who does not want to sound the alarm despite this complicated start to the season. “It’s difficult to lose, it’s normal, it happens in football, we will try to improve. There is no explanation, we tried to do the right thing. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win, that’s how it is. My first year in Paris, we didn’t win at the start and we ended up champions, so we’re not in our best version, but we’re going to try to improve that. We had a great match, but Monaco has a great team with a great coach, congratulations to them. We didn’t manage to score enough, it’s going to happen. If we don’t concede goals, we won’t lose. But it’s football, we’re going to try to score one more goal than the opponent. We are going to rest to play the C1. We’re not worried about that, we have a high level mentality and a great team, so we’ll think about our favorite competition now. » PSG will now have to quickly find its rhythm, especially as the Champions League is already arriving. There is therefore no question of alarm, but the coming weeks will allow us to see if this sluggish start was just a simple accident.
