Despite an amazing Kylian Mbappé, PSG failed on the second step of the podium in Ligue 1. – AFP
- Winner of Brest on Sunday evening, PSG still had to give up their league title to Losc at the end of the 38th day of Ligue 1.
- A resounding failure, necessarily, for the Parisian club, powerless against its direct opponents this season.
- On the bridge since last July because of the pandemic, Parisians have had to deal with many injuries and the dismissal en route of Thomas Tuchel.
This time it’s over. PSG did the job by winning in Brest on Sunday night on the 38th day of Ligue 1, but must give up their title of champion at Losc, winner in Angers. A logical conclusion for this season during which the Parisians will have left too many points on the way, especially against their direct competitors. A bitter failure which can be explained by a truncated preparation and the delicate end of Thomas Tuchel’s mandate – even if that cannot excuse everything.
An extended season
There is a reassuring side to having seen Paris Saint-Germain row so much in this 2020-21 season. If Paname had walked in Ligue 1 having resumed training on June 22 to hit the Cup finals and then the Champions League Final 8, when could he have been worried? Especially since his three direct opponents have had very little (if at all) tasted European competitions throughout fiscal year 2021, where Paris had to stuff a year of playing every three days – to which must be added international windows also enlarged. Enough to justify the irregular collective dynamic and the individual air pockets to which even Kylian Mbappé, whom we will finally remember that he still flew over the debates with more than 25 goals scored, did not escape.
Not a victory against his direct opponents
Two defeats against Monaco, one draw and one loss against Losc. Of the three teams on the L1 podium, PSG is the only one not to have beaten a member of the leading trio once. Weird. Small consolation prize: Paris still managed to beat OL once, and in a very good way (4-2). But this season, Paris has failed to rise to the level of its competitors in the league.
A really not crazy transfer window
Can we quote a real good deal in the summer transfer window in Paris apart from the departure of Jesé? Joking aside and for the services rendered, we will possibly cite the loan of Moise Kean, who, before snorting balloons inflated with helium, had the merit of compensating for the disappearance under the radar of Mauro Icardi for a time. For the rest, it is not famous.
Starting with Alessandro Florenzi and his iPhone battery life at the end of its life. And what about the non-extension of Thiago Silva, pseudo-responsible for all the bankruptcies of PSG in the Champions League, who strangely finds himself for the second consecutive year in the C1 final. The departure of the Brazilian certainly allowed Marquinhos to emancipate himself as leader of the locker room, but he also left his compatriot in a galley with Kehrer or Danilo Pereira, Leonardo’s latest overestimated recruit.
Tuchel and Leonardo are in a boat…
Arrived on tiptoe, the Portuguese did well in spite of himself the subject of one of the many bickering between Leonardo and Thomas Tuchel, the German having decided to leave Marquinhos in 6 to bring Danilo down in central defense. This was obviously not appreciated by Leo, who would later confirm in public that the former FC Porto captain “is a midfielder” and that “even Tuchel knows it”.
The kind of trouble that is part of a deleterious internal climate, far from the esprit de corps displayed in Lisbon, when PSG had reached the Champions League final. We suspected that all this would end badly for the German, but not as abruptly as a dismissal as a Christmas present. “A shitty Christmas”, as Tuchel soon confirmed.
With Pochettino, nothing new
His successor, Mauricio Pochettino, will therefore not have succeeded in raising the bar, at least not enough. If the arrival of the Argentinean rhymes with greater regularity in the results – 16 points lost en route all the same – it is not enough to erase the collective faults of a team doomed to be eternally saved by the genius of its individualities. But Poche had warned everyone: with a match every three days, we can not put anything in place. PSG’s future successes would not be its own, nor its failures. An efficient way to work quietly for six months. But from now on, the former Tottenham manager has no more excuses.