3 Biggest Positives for PSG's 2015-16 Season so Far

French champions Paris Saint-Germain have made a strong start to the Ligue 1 season and currently sit 10 points clear at the summit after 13 rounds of matches. Laurent Blanc’s men are unbeaten in Le Championnat and have only failed to win two domestic games so far this campaign.

In the UEFA Champions League, PSG sit second in Group A, three points behind Real Madrid after their recent 1-0 defeat away at Los Blancos in the Spanish capital. Four points better off than Shakhtar Donetsk and Malmo FF, with both left to play in their remaining two game, Les Parisiens should qualify comfortably in second place.

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Statistically speaking, PSG’s start to the 2015-16 term is superior in every way when compared with the same period of their 2014-15 season.

This campaign, the French capital outfit have 35 points and not 27. They are top and not second, have scored 31 goals instead of 25 and they have only conceded six as opposed to eight. By this time last year, Blanc’s men had drawn six games in Le Championnat already and only won seven in less than convincing style.

The three-time consecutive Ligue 1 champions are gunning for a fourth straight French title in record time. They have started the term in dominant fashion and appear intent on making themselves as comfortable as possible before the latter stages of the Champions League recommence early in 2016.

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There have been three notable improvements made by PSG this term, and the first of those positives is their strong defence.

Blanc’s men have only conceded six goals in 13 Ligue 1 games so far. If stretched to include continental competition as well, the team have only allowed seven goals in 17 games across all competitions this season.

What is most impressive is that from those 17 fixtures, 11 have ended in clean sheets. Only one team has managed to score more than once in a match against PSG this campaign, and that was Girondins de Bordeaux.

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Kevin Trapp’s soul-destroying mistake, which allowed Wahbi Khazri to equalise for a second time at Parc des Princes, was easily avoidable, and there was nothing that the rest of the defence could do about it.

The same could be said of Real’s solitary goal in the recent 1-0 win when the two sides met at Santiago Bernabeu. This means that the impressive number of seven goals conceded in 17 games across all competitions should be two fewer than it actually is, so an even more impressive five.

Another positive in the early part of this season has been the way that Blanc appears to have better grasped the importance of squad rotation.

Le President has been able to utilise the full depth of his squad so far this campaign, instead of relying on the same few faces as he has done in previous terms. Fringe players such as Adrien Rabiot, Benjamin Stambouli, Gregory van der Wiel and Ezequiel Lavezzi have all received a relatively decent amount of game time and will likely continue to do so.

Blanc has led PSG to victories with a rotated starting XI against the likes of SC Bastia and Stade Rennais away, while he has also been able to rest key players in some home games without dropping as many points as they had done at this stage last season

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However, arguably the biggest factor in Les Parisiens’ strong start to the campaign is the fact that the squad are less complacent. This is particularly obvious in domestic games.

Although PSG have had to scrap to earn victories at times this term, the players are clearly aware of the importance of amassing as many points as possible before the Christmas period. The team appear focused during games, and they are committing fewer silly errors than they did last season.

Only in the 1-1 draw away at Stade de Reims in Ligue 1 can you really argue that complacency was an issue with the team, and even with a rotated starting XI, the French champions should have been able to win comfortably.

Overall, it has been a strong start to the campaign by PSG, and the positives outweigh the negatives so far. However, their inability to beat a depleted Real Madrid either home or away in the Champions League has taken some of the shine off of that excellent opening form.