Seven and one which makes eight!
No need to turn the problem in all directions, to do and redo the accounts, there is indeed something wrong this season at the Parc des Princes.
The setback conceded Wednesday night in front of Manchester City (1-2) is not yet too much but it makes you dizzy as it stigmatizes the incomprehensible paradoxes of this two-faced PSG.
On the tails, there is this “Doctor Paris”, surgical as soon as he travels, clinical and sharp from Old Trafford to Camp Nou, capable of feeling (almost) at home in Munich, Marseille or Lyon.
But there is above all the face, that of "Mister Paname", unrecognizable in his den where, failing to magnify himself, he reveals a disturbing profile in the face of those he aspires to dominate on the national scene (OM, Lyon , Monaco, Lille) or continental (United, City, Bayern).
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The figures, moreover, leave no room for doubt.
Of the twelve defeats conceded by PSG this season, eight have been at the Parc des Princes.
Either as much, or almost, as over the whole of the last eight years.
We must go back to the 2006-2007 financial year, at a time when the club flirted with the bottom of the table, to find traces of such a record at home.
Marseille and Manchester United led the way
How can today's Champions League semi-finalist star constellation display such statistics? The first two shocks of the season against OM (0-1 defeat on September 13) and Manchester United (1-2 on October 26) are perhaps a first source of explanation. "Not so much because they set the tone for the season, but because they anchored in the minds of the opponents that there was room to do something at the Parc des Princes," explains Denis Troch, former coach deputy of the PSG who became a mental trainer. And conversely, Parisians have, through the discourse of the press, their relatives or social networks, perhaps unconsciously integrated the fact that they were more fragile at home. From the moment we are invaded by this feeling, it can become corrupted. "
Like all observers, the former assistant of Artur Jorge has also noted that the absence of the public had upset the situation.
And that Paris "could be an orphan of its amplifier" and "suffer from the absence of this support which helps to reach the end of its forces.
“A theory that takes the lead in the wing when we scrutinize the home course of the various big arms of each European championship, also facing behind closed doors.
In France, Lille have lost just three games at home, as have Atlético de Madrid and Barça in Spain.
As for Bayern, only PSG came to surprise them on their lawn.
"A lack of collective investment"
For Jérôme Rothen, the problem lies above all in the minds. “For me, the common point of all these setbacks at home is in the lack of collective investment, slips the former Parisian medium just before celebrating the 15th anniversary of the After Foot on RMC. Technically speaking, few teams have the potential of PSG. It's good that the concern is elsewhere, in the fact that this group sometimes works backwards. Players at this level all know that there is work with and without the ball. But sometimes I feel like they forget about it. It can happen to anyone to be faint, but not to lack desire. It was a recurring problem under Thomas Tuchel. Pochettino had corrected him. I felt more cohesion. But unfortunately, Wednesday's game served as a wake-up call. "
It remains to be seen whether it is still useful to vaccinate so much, after having been in a position to win everything, these repeated setbacks place it especially today in a position to lose everything.
