Chronic. Since 2012, reading in the bowels of a first part of the PSG season has been an adventurous exercise. With the break, the championship is almost always acquired to him – the miraculous exercises of Montpellier (2012) and Monaco (2017) remain exceptions. Nationally, the club has more to lose than to gain, as it has an obligation to win everything.
He will still play his season in the Champions League (C1), in which he has lost more than matches, dizzying defeats in disappointments that have become commonplace. The goal is there: to stop knocking out on the glass ceiling that still separates it from the top clubs of the continent – and quarter-finals for four seasons.
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Means and method
Impossible to be taken in by the impressions of the group stage of the C1, following gala matches where the wealthy clubs risk only the industrial accident. Paris has paid for the knowledge: a convincing journey is worth as short-lived assurances as laudatory headlines, finishing first only gives relative advantages.
"It's another competition that begins" in February, almost another sport for Parisians who have never known how to play since their last qualification in the quarterfinals, in 2016. Unlike Ajax, Tottenham, Atlético Madrid, Monaco or Roma, last square remained terra incognita for the PSG of the Qatari era. Paris has the means of its ambitions, not the method.
Explanations abound, certainties much less. We point out the gaps: this nebulous "experience" of the big clubs; a mental deficit which would be due to both the club's DNA and the players' profile; a too lax direction with its number of stars; adversity too low in Ligue 1, etc.
Leonardo's return to the post of sports director has already filled the institutional void between an already busy coach and a ghostly president. Few guarantees are however granted to Thomas Tuchel, third technician in the “aspiring great coach” category after Laurent Blanc and Unai Emery.
Is it a team?
Regardless of these structural flaws, PSG ended the year with little certainty. We have heard that PSG "No longer scary", on the strength of his three defeats – including one against the red Dijon lantern. Heckled and inconsistent in other meetings, he owed his salvation only to the lightning of his stars.
If the L1 does not harden the PSG to the jousts of the C1, perhaps these difficulties are not the worst preparation. At least the team has taken stock of its shortcomings. The main one lies in her dilettantism, but she has sometimes shown her determination – if only by dominating Real Madrid at the Parc des Princes.
Nothing convincing enough: last season, the mental victory over Liverpool in November preceded the breakdown against Manchester United in February. But this reminder that the major players are fueled by the challenge invites to balance the negative impressions, and to recall the main unknown: do they make a team?
Again, doubts. Tuchel has lost the thread of his first season, his management of the group has become complicated and he finds himself with an insoluble wealth problem. The experience of the "6 + 4", four players attacking as they want and six defending as they can, gave the impression that they were not playing the same match.
The sum of talents or The value and results
However, by not playing together, everyone loses. The players have the solution. Neymar, who wanted to leave this club where he said he was not feeling well and Mbappé, who will not last forever, will have to run behind their personal statistics a little less, as fast they run.
From Thiago Silva to Angel Di Maria via Marco Verratti or Marquinhos, those who have confirmed their value must finally translate it into results for Paris. Perhaps they will realize the urgency for their own careers to pass a course with their team – nothing less than reaching the semi-finals.
Part of the team’s performance will depend on that of recent entrants, Leandro Paredes, Pablo Sarabia, Idrissa Gueye or Ander Herrera. Above all, everyone must show a spirit of sacrifice so that in 2020, the collective will be worth at least the sum of its talents.
We are paradoxically tempted to see, in all the uncertainties that accompany this vintage of Paris-Saint-Germain, good signs for the future. This team, which has so many faults, may be more likely to hold surprises than the seven before it. First part of the answer on February 18, for the knockout stage of the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund,
