According to a formula dear to rappers, men lie, but not the numbers. And those of PSG are messy in defense, the past few weeks. Paris has never conceded so many Ligue 1 goals at this stage of the season (24) in eight years. Other indicators lead to alarm for the capital club, which will have to beat Dortmund 1-0 or by two goals apart in less than two weeks to see the quarter-finals of the Champions League. They concern the current dynamics. PSG have taken an average of four times more goals in their last six official matches than the rest of the season.
For Edouard Cissé, former PSG midfielder, defensive decay is the most visible symptom of all the mysterious evils that befall the Paris club in February. "The most classic explanation is stress, anxiety, excitement," advises the consultant for Telefoot. It exists outside and even if the players feel serene, it is reminded to them each time they leave their house. There is also a psychological aspect in the adversaries. Before, when they saw Icardi, Neymar, Mbappé, etc., they were afraid to take a suitcase. They begin to tell themselves that PSG takes goals when it is jostled. "
The discussion between Kylian Mbappé and Marquinhos, Sunday against Bordeaux, captured by Canal +, illustrates this phenomenon: "They come twice to us and there is fire, annoys the world champion. We have to be more peaceful, we have to manage. When they are in our camp, they have nothing. We have to manage this. You're the boss, you tell everyone to go up, we go up. "
"With two colossi in front, the defenders are well sheltered"
From an individual point of view, PSG have aligned five different defenses in the last five games, including one very experimental against Amiens, with four goals suffered (4-4): Herrera, Kouassi, Thiago Silva, Bakker. The goalkeepers Keylor Navas, against Lyon and Amiens, and Sergio Rico, against Bordeaux, did not come out of their most prosperous period either. The various successive absences (Diallo, Dagba, Marquinhos, Meunier, Thiago Silva, Bernat) have also weakened the structure. Paris played with its standard defense (Meunier, Thiago Silva, Kimpembe, Bernat) for the last time on December 9, 2019 in Montpellier.
The rear guard would probably have been less exposed with two more airtight ramparts in front of it. The current series relaunches the debates on the possibility of defending well against enterprising adversaries with the 4-4-2 tailor-made for the fantastic four.
"In the Champions League, you have to have other circles than Verratti and Gueye who do not protect the defense enough," says Edouard Cisse. With two colossi in front of them, the defenders are well sheltered. Against a team that puts the impact, the Parisian environment is quickly exceeded. The preference of PSG attackers is not to defend. So we ask them to replace themselves rather than defend. Thomas Tuchel is convinced that his team "is capable of remaining without a goal conceded in 4-4-2", as he repeated on Sunday. What did not prevent him from modifying (without success) his system against Dortmund…
Defense of PSG in figures
24. PSG have conceded 24 goals in 26 league days. Its worst record at this stage since the 2011-2012 season (26), the first of the Qatar era.
32. All competitions combined, Paris conceded 32 goals in 41 games. This is more than over the entire 2015-2016 season in 59 games (31 goals conceded).
13. PSG have conceded 13 goals in their last six games (against Nantes, Lyon, Dijon, Amiens, Dortmund and Bordeaux), or an average of 2.2 goals per game. Before that, this season, his ratio was 0.5 conceded per game (19 in 35 games).
6. PSG remains on six games with at least one goal conceded, all competitions combined, while leaving a series of five "clean sheets". It's the worst series of the season. Last year, Paris had conceded goals in 8 straight games, between April and May.
