Why Has It All Gone so Wrong for Laurent Blanc at PSG This Season?

It has not been an ideal start to the season for French champions Paris Saint-Germain and their coach Laurent Blanc. Seven points behind early-season Ligue 1 leaders and bitter rivals Olympique de Marseille, Les Parisiens have drawn six of their opening nine domestic fixtures.

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PSG tied an additional game in the UEFA Champions League—away at AFC Ajax in Amsterdam—taking their current total so far to seven draws from 11 matches in all competitions. Had Blanc not steered his team to an impressive 3-2 home win over Spanish giants Barcelona in their second Group F encounter, we would likely not even be referring to him as PSG’s coach anymore.

Despite that slow start to the season, the fact remains that the capital club are still unbeaten. So why does this season seem like such a disappointment then?

Put simply, PSG do not look as dominant as they were last season when they eased to a second successive Ligue 1 title by a nine-point margin. This campaign has been far more difficult for the French giants and there are a number of reasons for that.

Firstly, fitness has become a major issue for Blanc and his team.

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At present, no fewer than six first-choice players are injured and expected to miss Friday’s resumption of action in Le Championnat with an “away” game against RC Lens at the Stade de France. Star man Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Motta, David Luiz, Marquinhos, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Serge Aurier have all developed fitness problems since last month’s international break.

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Per PSG.fr, captain Thiago Silva has only just returned to first-team training after suffering a hamstring injury in an ill-timed friendly clash with SSC Napoli back in early August. The Brazilian international is in a race against time to be fit for Friday’s match, with Blanc facing the possibility of only being able to field one fit central defender in veteran Zoumana Camara.

So far this season, the PSG coach has been unable to field his first-choice starting XI and has often been forced to play certain players when they should have been rested.

One reason for this difficult situation that Blanc finds himself in is the fatigue accumulated by a number of key players—such as Silva, Luiz and French international Blaise Matuidi—over the course of a long and arduous last season and the FIFA World Cup in Brazil that followed.

The second is a lack of strength in depth in certain areas for PSG.

This summer’s transfer dealings only addressed a lack of depth in one key area, right-back, where Aurier came in to compliment Dutch international Gregory van der Wiel. Luiz’s arrival added quality in central defence, but Blanc also needed quantity. The Brazilian replaced compatriot Alex, but still left the squad short of a reliable fourth defender.

Last season’s injury problems suffered by Silva and Alex showed that Camara was relied upon too heavily and that area of the squad needed upgrading. This problem was not remedied and Blanc now finds himself in a situation where Silva, Luiz and Marquinhos are all struggling for fitness.

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In addition to the central defensive area, Jeremy Menez’s departure—to AC Milan along with Alex—has left PSG short of a versatile attacking player, capable of being deployed out wide. Lavezzi’s recent injury has exposed this and the absence of Ibrahimovic has meant that Edinson Cavani, Lucas Moura, Javier Pastore and Jean-Christophe Bahebeck are Blanc’s only available attacking options at present.

This selection of players has prompted a change in formation, at times, away from last season’s tried and tested 4-3-3 to more fluent 4-3-1-2 and 4-2-3-1 combinations. Partly down to a lack of form from key players—such as Cavani—and partly because of the aforementioned fitness issues, PSG’s performance levels have dropped.

Blanc has not helped himself either, unable to help his struggling team rediscover the same intensity that made them almost unstoppable domestically last season and took them to the Champions League quarterfinals in Europe. Le President’s inability to implement changes during games—albeit with limited personnel at times—has contributed towards the stuttering start made by the defending champions.

Despite it being a slow start to the season, it is easy to get carried away though. PSG are still unbeaten and they top their Champions League group after that Barcelona victory. A good run of form could see them pull back some ground on league leaders Marseille by the time the two meet in Paris in early November.

While it might not be going to plan at present, there is still enough time for Blanc and his players to turn it around and fire themselves to a third consecutive Ligue 1 title and European progress.