PSG's Sudden Defensive Vulnerability Must Be Addressed Before Chelsea Return

Paris Saint-Germain tasted defeat in Ligue 1 for the first time this season on Sunday, going down 2-1 to Olympique Lyonnais at Parc OL.

Maxwell Cornet and Sergi Darder scored the goals for the hosts, while Lucas Moura netted a consolation strike for Laurent Blanc’s men.

Overall, Les Gones deserved their win. Bruno Genesio’s side showed far more desire, and they produced some excellent football to show the French champions up and end their record unbeaten run in Le Championnat at 36 matches.

Speaking to PSG’s official website after the final whistle, coach Blanc admitted that he was lost for words as to why his players performed so poorly:

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If I had explanations, I would give them to my players. Nothing in our preparation suggested we would play so poorly. Lyon were the better side and deserved their win. They were much better than us in terms of their attitude. That was the key factor. They walked all over us and we didn't answer the challenge. We had prepared well for this game. Were we too relaxed? I don't know. We need to use this result to bounce back against Saint-Etienne on Wednesday.

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Arguably the most surprising thing from the Lyon defeat is how vulnerable PSG looked—again—in defence. Les Parisiens have conceded in three consecutive games across all competitions, having allowed Chelsea and Stade de Reims to score before the Lyon match.

Considering how important a clean sheet away against the Blues is in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie because of the London outfit's away goal, the tough Coupe de France quarter-final away at AS Saint-Etienne and a home Ligue 1 clash against a resurgent Montpellier HSC beforehand offer good chances to rectify this.

PSG need to shut both sides out, and captain Thiago Silva needs to re-establish his authority over a back line that has lost some of its discipline in recent games.

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The Brazilian himself was surprisingly poor against OL. Largely responsible for Darder’s superb strike after allowing himself to be lobbed, Silva could not marshal his defence to any sense of structure after Cornet’s well-taken opener.

Gregory van der Wiel was not blameless for Lyon’s first; the Netherlands international should have done much more to prevent Cornet from getting his shot in. However, the 28-year-old’s evening did not recover, and he was often overrun.

With Silva struggling, David Luiz failed to step up alongside him. There was only so much Maxwell could do from the left to help, which he tried to do as often as possible, although the veteran Brazilian was also below par overall.

Speaking with PSG’s official website after the game, Luiz felt mistakes were made by his team, but he also praised Lyon’s excellent performance:

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It's our first defeat. I think Lyon played better than us today. Congratulations to them. I think Lyon played very well. That's the way it goes, that's football. Were we thinking about Chelsea? No. We were thinking about Lyon, but we didn't play well. We scored one goal in the second half, but we were tired. We made mistakes. The loss? Paris plays every game to win. Sometimes it's not possible.

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Key to PSG’s defeat on the night, in tactical terms anyway, was Blanc’s decision to start with Thiago Motta, Benjamin Stambouli and Adrien Rabiot in midfield. That trio was workmanlike at best and offered zero creativity, immediately meaning there was no link with the front three.

Considering Rabiot is being groomed to ultimately inherit Motta’s deep-lying midfield role, all three midfielders essentially occupy the same spot and make a poor combination.

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Javier Pastore’s impact after his introduction for Stambouli at half-time immediately underlined the lack of invention in the PSG side at Parc OL.

With Blaise Matuidi and Marco Verratti missing, as well as knowing what a Motta-Stambouli-Rabiot midfield combination produces because of past experiences, Blanc should have considered moving Luiz into the middle instead.

The main reason for this would have been to make the midfield more dynamic. Replacing Luiz with Marquinhos in defence might also have helped to keep things tighter at the back.

The young Brazilian could also have been played at right-back, but even that might not have prevented PSG from conceding the goals they did.

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Serge Aurier’s self-inflicted absence has weakened the PSG back line. As reported by ESPN FC’s Mark Rodden, the Ligue 1 leaders are punishing the Ivory Coast international for criticism of his coach and team-mates with a three-week stint in the reserves.

However, it would be wrong to say the 23-year-old’s unavailability is the reason they are vulnerable in defence.

All across the defence, PSG’s players need to step up in order to remedy their fragility ahead of March 9's trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea.

Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, although the reason why Les Parisiens did not concede more than two goals away at Lyon, needs to cut out the silly, concentration-related mistakes from his game. Silva needs to make sure the back four is more solid than it has been lately.

Speaking during his pre-Lyon press conference, Blanc admitted he wants greater concentration from Trapp.

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[Trapp] is not satisfied when he's making mistakes, and I'm not either. It really cost us against Real Madrid, but don't forget that we had to score one goal in Madrid, and we did not do it. I always say that we have to score in this game, but we did not, and we conceded one, so we lost our only game of the season.

So yes, I think Trapp is making some mistakes because of a lack of focus, and I also think, it's not an excuse, that when you're the PSG keeper during a league game, you don't have a lot to do, so you need to have an extra focus.

It's not rare during a league game for our keeper to not be involved in the game for a while. This is where you see the great keepers. If they have three, four or five saves to make, they do it. I think that Kevin needs to improve in this area, he's aware of it, I talked about it with him, he needs to work on this, it's a skill required to play in a great club like PSG, so it's up to him to work on it.

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Regardless, the Lyon game once again hammered home the fact PSG’s defence has suddenly become a concern at a key point in the season. Blanc and his players must remedy this as soon as possible or risk seeing their hard work over the first half of the season go to waste in a matter of days.