Team Focus: A Good Season for PSG and Blanc – But Where Next?

When Thiago Silva lifted the Coupe de la Ligue trophy, high in the main stand of the Stade de France just after 11pm on Saturday night, the Paris Saint-Germain captain and his teammates celebrated with gusto. There was no tokenism, no sense that this was a mere trinket of consolation - just roars of joy. 

It was, evidently, a moment that PSG needed after the challenging spell that has followed their Champions League exit to Chelsea. The defeat at Stamford Bridge hit to the heart. It was a night on which, after André Schürrle’s opening goal for the hosts, the swagger drained out of Laurent Blanc’s side alarmingly quickly. The team with the third highest average proportion of possession in this season’s Champions League retreated into their shells to such a point that they ended up with just 48% in the match that they had bossed in the opening 20 minutes.

In one sense, everything is rosy again. Saturday’s win could well be followed by another trophy next weekend; wins against Evian at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday and at Sochaux next Sunday would clinch a second successive Ligue 1 title. Blanc, having declared himself “happy” at the club and with president Nasser al-Khelaifi saying he is satisfied with his coach, looks set to sign an improved contract to stay, even though nothing has yet been made official. 

Yet that Blanc’s position had been questioned in the media in the days following the Champions League exit is a reminder not just of how deep the defeat cut, but of how high expectation is – and thus, how potentially fragile the coach’s status could be. Silva, speaking before Saturday’s final, acknowledged it as a fact of life at the Parc. “In football,” he said, “when you’re working with a great team in a project built to win, you’re exposed. When you go out of the Champions League and you lose in the league (successively, with the league defeat to Lyon last week), it’s normal that there’s pressure.”  

Saturday’s victory was that fine balancing act in microcosm. PSG started strongly, and looked like running away with the final after Edinson Cavani’s first-half brace. Their midfield trio of Marco Verratti, Blaise Matuidi and Thiago Motta suffocated Lyon in that opening period and prevented them getting any foothold in the game (the trio’s pass completion rates were 91%, 93% and 89% respectively). The average player position map also reminds us that the lively Matuidi frequently dropped out wide to combine with left-back Maxwell, who had created Cavani’s early opener. 

Yet the current below-normal confidence was clear in Lyon’s ability to turn things around after the interval. It is shocking to absorb the fact that Cavani’s penalty – scored in the 32nd minute – was PSG’s last shot on target of the evening. Remi Garde’s side had more attempts in open play than their prestigious opponents (5 to 3), while PSG’s edge in overall attempts (8 to 6) was gained by two late attempts on the counter-attack as Lyon threw caution to the wind as they chased an equaliser. 

Lyon deserve credit for their vigour and fight, though the second half shouldn’t colour our view of the game as a whole. PSG were deserved winners, despite the controversy of Cavani’s ultimately winning goal, with Anthony Lopes’ supposed foul on Lucas Moura clearly occurring outside the penalty area. They mastered possession as adeptly as always under Blanc, having 58% of the ball and landing 89% of their attempted passes, but also dominated the physical side of the match, winning 69% of the game’s aerial battles. 

The spine of the side is hard to question. Silva’s ability to get the job done with the minimum of fuss on the big occasion was again clear too, as he made 6 clearances (his partner Alex made 5). The pair only made a tackle between them, emphasising their level of control. In front of them, Motta and Matuidi helped PSG to keep shape when Lyon applied pressure, as did Javier Pastore and Yohan Cabaye after their entrances as substitutes. Cabaye made two tackles and completed 100% of his passes after arriving in the 74th minute, which was exactly what Blanc would have wanted from him. 

The detail of the struggle in the latter stages should – and will – be forgotten with the passage of time. This two-trophy season should be considered a successful one. It’s just that PSG’s second-half wobbles at the Stade de France, quite a normal passage within a cup final against capable opponents, is judged in the context of the moment - a context in which PSG, for really the first time under Blanc, have revealed a frisson of vulnerability. 

The numbers over the entire season speak for themselves. It is no secret that Blanc was not first choice for the hotseat, but he has changed PSG for the better. They bully teams, and entertain, in a way that Carlo Ancelotti’s vintage rarely did. They have scored 74 times in their 33 Ligue 1 games to date (compared with 69 in all 38 last season). They have fulfilled Blanc’s avowed possession-based mandate, with an average of 64.4% per league match this season, up from 56.1% last campaign, behind both Lille and Lyon. They take 15.4 shots per match, compared to last season’s 13.4 (which had been behind Lille and Marseille). 

Losing the talismanic Zlatan Ibrahimovic at just the wrong time of the season was clearly a huge blow. In fact, despite Cavani’s misgivings about starting out wide, the Swede’s tendency to drop deep has allowed the €64m man plenty of time at the sharp end. His 3 shots per game is only marginally below his average of 3.4 in the last five seasons (though short of his uncommonly high 4.6 from last season), and Blanc has begun to fuse an understanding between the pair – no mean feat given Ibrahimovic’s individualistic make-up.

Improving this pairing further next year could be the key to helping PSG step up a level further, because there’s not too much to improve upon. They are dealing in fine margins, as team and coach alike are aware.

How do you think Blanc can improve PSG for next season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below