Which Ligue 1 Clubs Can Actually Challenge PSG This Season?
Paris Saint-Germain warmed up for the start of the new Ligue 1 season with a 2-0 win over Olympique Lyonnais in Montreal last Saturday to lift the Trophee des Champions for a third consecutive time.
The French champions kick off their domestic campaign away at Lille OSC on Friday evening, having already scooped up two pieces of silverware thanks to last weekend’s success and overall victory in the recent International Champions Cup in North America.
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Before Le Championnat gets back underway, the gulf between PSG and the rest of the French top flight appears to be bigger than ever, and it is difficult seeing any sides getting close enough to them over the course of a full season.
However, the same was said at the start of last term and the campaign before that, and both AS Monaco and Lyon managed to push Les Parisiens closer than many expected before falling away in the final few weeks.
If any teams are likely to challenge Laurent Blanc’s men this coming season, it will be those two once again.
However, PSG’s pre-season win over Lyon and Les Gones’ poor form in their other friendlies—not to mention immediate injury headaches over Clement Grenier and Gueida Fofana—mean last term’s runners-up OL are already at a disadvantage.
Monaco are probably the more likely challengers to the capital club’s recent domestic hegemony this season, but it has not been an ideal summer for them either.
Les Monegasques have done some fantastic business during the off-season as they continue to cultivate their newfound reputation as France’s answer to Portuguese giants and transfer experts FC Porto.
Leonardo Jardim’s men have lost a lot of players though.
Those figures, most sold for a healthy profit, have been adequately replaced. However, it is going to take time for this group to jell, and that adaptation period could cost the principality outfit their chance to really push PSG in the title race.
It was the right decision by Jardim and Monaco’s transfer guru Luis Campos to sell the likes of Geoffrey Kondogbia to Internazionale—for almost double what ASM paid for him—Yannick Ferreira Carrasco to Atletico Madrid and Lucas Ocampos to Olympique de Marseille.
The pair have also done well to keep the likes of Anthony Martial, Aymen Abdennour, Fabinho, Layvin Kurzawa and Danijel Subasic at Stade Louis II this summer.
Defence was Monaco’s greatest strength in Jardim’s debut season, and the back line is untouched, suggesting the team will be as rock solid as they were last term. It took ASM a few months to really find their feet under the Portuguese, but once they did, they were very difficult to break down.
Assuming that is the case once again, but from the start of the season this time, Les Monegasques’ success is going to depend on how dangerous they are going forward.
Keeping Martial was a strong move on that front, while the additions of Stephan El Shaarawy, Ivan Cavaleiro, Guido Carrillo, Mario Pasalic, Thomas Lemar and Fares Bahlouli give Jardim greater bite in attack.
If the canny 41-year-old can get his new arrivals bedded in and firing on cylinders early on, this Monaco side will score the goals needed to feasibly keep ASM in the reckoning for the title.
Once again though, the adaptation of those players to Ligue 1 will take some time. Unless PSG make a laboured start to the new season like they did last term, they might have already opened up a big-enough lead to keep the men from the principality at bay.
If Monaco are the favourites to challenge PSG, then Lyon are the second-best option.
Despite the injuries suffered by Grenier and Fofana, coach Hubert Fournier and president Jean-Michel Aulas have done well to keep the spine of last season’s successful side intact, signing Nabil Fekir, Corentin Tolisso, Samuel Umtiti and Anthony Lopes to new contracts.
Sought-after frontman Alexandre Lacazette has also stayed at Stade Gerland for now, and if he can snap out of his pre-season malaise, Les Gones will once again be a threat.
However, after such an impressive season last term, OL could pay the price for their success. The team are in the UEFA Champions League, and their ability to balance domestic and continental cup competitions is questionable.
Fournier does not yet have the necessary depth available to him to make an early push for the title and to take Lyon out of the group stages of the Champions League. Therefore, the seven-time French champions’ ability to truly challenge PSG could depend on the final few weeks of their transfer window.
The acquisition of Rafael Da Silva, per PA Sport (H/T ESPN FC), is a step in the right direction and adds some much needed squad depth.
What of Marseille and AS Saint-Etienne then?
Considering the scale of the rebuilding job Marcelo Bielsa has on his hands at Stade Velodrome, a title tilt by Les Phoceens would be a minor miracle.
An immediate recovery after losing the likes of key players such as Andre-Pierre Gignac, Andre Ayew, Dimitri Payet and Giannelli Imbula will be tough to pull off, but El Loco is at least able to put his stamp on this side now and if anyone will be able to get the best out of them, it will be him.
Qualification for the UEFA Europa League and—at a stretch—the Champions League is probably the best Bielsa and OM can hope for and that alone would be a huge success.
As for Saint-Etienne, they will be there or thereabouts once again in the shakeup for Champions League qualification, but their biggest problems are a lack of goals and next to no squad depth.
Combined with a Europa League campaign, unless Christophe Galtier’s men make some much needed signings in the remaining few weeks of the transfer window, Les Verts will not have enough to challenge PSG.
Overall, it is difficult seeing any teams outside of Monaco or Lyon being able to threaten the French champions’ current domestic dominance.
Les Monegasques are more likely than Les Gones though, and it could be that Jardim’s men are better able to balance their Champions League and domestic cup commitments than OL.
However, even Monaco are unlikely to prevent PSG from racking up a fourth straight Ligue 1 title.
The only thing at this moment in time that looks as if it could slow Blanc’s men down is their own complacency once again. But judging by their efficiency towards the end of last term and their strong form so far this pre-season, that may well be a thing of the past.
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