Facing Bordeaux Gives Unai Emery the Chance to Switch Things Up at PSG
Paris Saint-Germain return to league action on Saturday afternoon as they host Girondins de Bordeaux at the Parc des Princes following their 3-1 UEFA Champions League victory over Ludogorets.
The Bulgarian side pushed them hard for huge portions of Wednesday's match, and if Cosmin Moti had tucked away his second-half penalty, the result could have been much different.
PSG have to improve, and Unai Emery has to find a way to get the best out of his side. That won't be easy when they take on a Bordeaux team who have made a flying start to the season.
"The beginning of the match was very tough; it's never simple when you don't know your opponent so well," Thiago Silva commented in the post-match press conference. "After conceding we managed to take control of the match and create a lot of chances. We're happy with the result, even though it was hard fought."
Lessons will need to be learned quickly, and Les Girondins will offer a similar test.
Part of their quick start has come from the arrival of their new coach. Like PSG, Bordeaux also appointed a new manager in the summer, taking Jocelyn Gourvennec from EA Guingamp to the Stade Matmut Atlantique.
He is a manager the Parisians know well, and despite PSG's four consecutive Ligue 1 crowns, the former Marseille player has a relatively good record against the capital club.
Gourvennec won promotion to Ligue 1 with the Breton side in 2013, and just four weeks into the new campaign, he was faced with a huge test. Just like he will on Saturday, he took on PSG at the Parc des Princes.
The record books will always show a 2-0 home win, but it was far from comfortable.
Guingamp set up playing 4-3-3, loading the midfield with Mustapha Diallo and Younousse Sankhare providing power and toughness. Captain Lionel Mathis added some guile and experience to try to read the game.
Up front, similar to what Ludogorets did on Wednesday, the attack was filled with pace: Claudio Beauvue on the left, Fatih Atik on the right and the imposing Mustapha Yatabare leading the line.
The home side dominated the game—with 20 shots on goal, nine on target, and over 60 per cent possession—but EAG and Mamadou Samassa held firm, until the 91st minute.
With Guingamp close to winning a historic point, Adrien Rabiot—who came on for Javier Pastore with 26 minutes to go—found the back of the net with a left-foot shot as the game entered injury time.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic would seal it after converting from Gregory van der Wiel's pass. It flattered the home side, but the newly promoted team were proud of the way they played.
That was another example of PSG starting slowly, and it's a problem that has affected them for a number of years.
"The first half was difficult after we conceded that goal. But after our equaliser, we played our own game," Cavani told press after the Ludogorets win. "We found a way to put into place the things we work on in training. This is an important win. We need to keep working hard in order to keep on getting the wins."
After losing 2-0 to Toulouse in their last Ligue 1 fixture, the pressure is on Emery to pick up the three points. Gourvennec has yet to win a game in Paris, but he knows how to get a result against this club.
Later in the 2013/14 season, after the 2-0 away defeat, he would use his favoured 4-4-2 formation to frustrate and trouble Laurent Blanc's team—who played 4-3-3—and Guingamp picked up a 1-1 draw, with Yatabare's 84th-minute header cancelled out by Alex three minutes later.
The next season, in the first encounter between the two sides of the campaign, Jeremy Pied's 11th-minute effort secured a memorable 1-0 home victory for Gourvennec's men.
Three years on, it was the same PSG midfield trio that started the game in Bulgaria on Wednesday: Marco Verratti, Blaise Matuidi and Thiago Motta.
They were the essence of everything Blanc built in Paris. It had looked like, with the emergence of Rabiot and the signing of Grzegorz Krychowiak, that their time together was over.
It's unlikely that Emery will play all three on Saturday, mostly because of the challenge they faced on Wednesday and the journey back from Sofia.
That could work in the Spaniard's favour, though, with Bordeaux offering a similar test to PSG's recent Champions League opponents.
Bordeaux's away results this season have been mixed. Starting with a 4-1 defeat to Toulouse—which doesn't look as bad anymore—they then beat Lyon 3-1 at Parc OL to put the cat among the pigeons and make people sit up and take notice.
Metz had started the season well, but Gourvennec's team brushed them aside with an impressive 3-0 win in Matchday 6.
In all three games, the Bordeaux coach has kept to his principals, playing 4-4-2. Only in the opening-day win over Saint-Etienne has he tried anything else, so it would be a surprise to see him deviate from that on Saturday.
Interestingly, the formation may be constant, but his selections have not. In those three away games, he has started 19 different players.
Playing against the 4-4-2 would be the perfect time for Emery to go back to the 4-2-3-1 that was so entertaining in pre-season.
Persisting with the 4-3-3, the buildup play is always ahead of the two central midfielders that sit in front of the defence, meaning it's easier for the away side to contain and protect the back four.
Playing with a base, most likely Rabiot and Krychowiak—possibly Verratti—gives an opportunity for a No. 10 like Pastore to penetrate between the lines and give the midfield another problem to think about.
Width is going to be key at the weekend. Bordeaux play well on the break, and Brazilian winger Malcom has started very brightly for FCGB and will be a threat. His pace is dangerous, and with him cutting inside onto his left-foot, combined with Diego Rolan, Gaetan Laborde and Thomas Toure, the big pitch in Paris could play into their hands.
Emery’s full-backs have been given permission to bomb forward, and in the 4-2-3-1, they should have more cover from whomever the former Sevilla man picks to start in attack.
It would be a surprise to see both Lucas Moura and Angel Di Maria again. This is a chance to look at Jese, Jean-Kevin Augustin, Hatem Ben Arfa—if he is declared fit—or even the exciting Nanitamo Ikone, who came off the bench at the end of the Ludogorets game and looked lively in pre-season.
His inclusion would be ideal and the perfect way to match Bordeaux down the flanks.
Saturday’s fixture is huge, as Emery needs a victory to try to steady the Ligue 1 ship. However, Bordeaux are playing exceptionally well and look to have fully bought into Gourvennec’s philosophy.
He is showing signs of taking Bordeaux to the next level the same way he did with Guingamp—which helped him pick up a number of positive results against the Parisian giants.
Emery will have to shake up his side and find a way to regain their entertaining, free-flowing style if they are to win convincingly on Saturday.
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