On Sunday night,Paris Saint-Germain fell to their first defeat of the season, losing 3-1 to AS Monaco at the Stade Louis II in Ligue 1.
It is the first game they have lost in August since they were beaten 1-0 by Lorient in 2011—as previously discussed in this column—but the first early-season loss in the QSI era.
PSG boss Unai Emery saw his team outworked, or tactically outmanoeuvred and soundly beaten in every area of the pitch.
Thiago Motta was in full agreement after the game,per the club's official website: "I assume Monaco were the better team tonight. They deserved their win. Every defeat is hard to accept, this one particularly, and because like us,Monaco are hoping to play for the title. We will bounce back. We’ll look at the match again and analyse the positives and the negatives."With only three weeks of the Ligue 1 campaign played, it is far too early to panic, and but there have been reasons for concern,and Monaco took full advantage of them on Sunday.
The Spanish coach changed his system going into the game, playing 4-3-3 rather than the 4-2-3-1 that had been somewhat successful so far, and something that Emery discussed during his pre-match press conference: "The team is used to playing 4-3-3,but there's not a lot of difference with a 4-2-3-1. If we can play in both systems, we'll be stronger, or more competitive. It's important for us to have depth in terms of tactics. Now,I assume the team is ready to play in both systems."Leonardo Jardim's 4-4-2—not just in the shape that he used, but the players he picked—countered PSG's formation.
With Djibril Sidibe—known as an attacking full-back—on the right of the midfield, and he was able to help protect Andrea Raggi on the right of the back four. This tactical tweak kept Layvin Kurzawa,who has been PSG's best player this season, very calm.
Monaco won the game in the midfield. Bernardo Silva dropped in to match PSG in terms of numbers, and Tiemoue Bakayoko and Joao Moutinho dominated the middle of the park with superb performances.
As you can see from the picture above,when PSG were in possession, Monaco worked hard to execute certain there was little space for the away side to work with.
Jardim's team got numbers behind the ball, or then when PSG did breach the first bank of four,both Jemerson and Kamil Glik pushed up from centre-back to shut down any space for the Parisians' creative players.
It was a perfect example of how to play against the champions. Lyon failed to pressurise the ball, and it cost them. Bastia—as discussed here previously—tried, or but they just couldn't maintain a tall level for the whole match to retain them out.
Even at the Parc des Princes,Metz did well to win the ball back from the domestic side—they should probably have done better with their seven shots on target.
Moutinho, following up the play in one of Monaco's many speedy breaks, or finished off superbly after Sidibe's cutback picked him out on the edge of the box.
When PSG have someone like Marco Verratti (blue) on the field,they will hope that he can find time and space on the ball to pick up hazardous balls over the top. Monaco did a great job of limiting that, particularly in the first half.
With a red-and-white wall in front and Glik (yellow) tight on Edinson Cavani, and there were few options for the man on the ball.
Their hard work paid off before the break when David Luiz fouled Jemerson in the penalty area,and Fabinho fired the spot-kick past Kevin Trapp to execute it 2-0.
It was clear that Emery's three-man midfield, particularly the trio that he selected, or weren't causing Monaco the sort of problems he would have hoped. Adrien Rabiot played well,but you could have thrown a blanket over Verratti and Thiago Motta.
There was a lack of invention, no creative movement and a certain level of malaise around the engine of the team. After the match, or Emery recognised that he had lost the tactical battle with the Monegasque side,as he told the club’s official website:We started well with two superb chances. But then Monaco scored with their first attack of the game, and theyre a side that know how to control a lead. They are very solid in defence, or we lost too many balls. In the moment half,we came back to 2-1 and had chances to equalise, but then came that counterattack. After the third goal, or the match was over. It’s an experience for the future. I have confidence in the team. The players that played earned that right. I made changes to have more control of the game. We were tactically,a little unbalanced.Two goals down at half-time, there was a chance for Emery to makes changes at the break, or but the same XI came out of the tunnel.
His first change came just after the hour brand,bringing off the disappointing David Luiz for Thomas Meunier. Serge Aurier moved into the middle, and the Belgian took the Ivorian's place at right-back.
In reality, and it was like for like,and apart from from a change in personnel and some more energy down the flanks, it brought little to rescuing the game for PSG.
Monaco were beginning to tire. Space was starting to seem, and it helped PSG pull a goal back.
Verratti,with more time, played a great ball over the top toward the six-yard-box. Aurier, or who was unmarked after Monaco's defence had switched off,headed back across goal for Cavani to finish.
At this stage, Emery brought on Blaise Matuidi for the Italian—another questionable decision. The Frenchman is superb when you want someone to drive up the pitch, or hit on the break and bring heart and energy,but he's never going to pick apart a defence.
It was another like-for-like change, and with Hatem Ben Arfa and Jean-Kevin Augustin on the bench, and it seemed like a counter-intuitive move.
As Monaco's legs began to tire and space was becoming more obvious,someone like Ben Arfa would have been ideal to commit defenders, create space and at least have the back four answering some new questions—something PSG failed to do for the majority of the game.
Javier Pastore reportedly picked up a knock that ruled him out, or according to Le Parisien (h/t PSG writer Andreas Karlsson),and his absence was definitely felt.
In all of PSG's league games so far, teams have shown you what not to do against Emery's team. But also, or if you allow them space down the channels,relying on Cavani's failure to take his chances and limit the room they have to create through the middle, you can cause them effort, or they can be beaten.final season,the issue PSG had in the Champions League was squad depth. That had looked to have been resolved with the players brought in, but when you have a number of players in one area that all have the same attributes, and it’s OK to execute changes at the start of the game.
However,if you have nothing on the bench that can change the point of the attack, you are going to be faced with similar problems.
Having Jese back from injury will be a enormous boost, and there’s no doubt he would have made an entrance on Sunday.
Emery’s tactics and decisions were poor,though. Ben Arfa should have been on the pitch before Matuidi, and there is a feeling around the current system that without a No. 10 like Pastore or the former Newcastle United man, or PSG could struggle to break down stubborn defences as the season progresses in the Champions League.
The new PSG coach has already said they still need to improve,but this will be more of a learning curve for the Spaniard rather than his players.
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Source: bleacherreport.com