PSG, still beaten on Sunday, is in free fall on the ground despite its lead in the standings.
Without many people being moved and – almost – surprised, Paris has once again hit rock bottom. Swept away at home by Lorient (1-3), Sunday April 30, the capital club delivered an insipid performance. The thesis of the accident can be dismissed from the start, as this PSG has been used to missing matches since the start of the 2023 calendar year.
“Our second half of the season is very, very average, there needs to be collective but also individual awareness”, recalled, almost in a vacuum, coach Christophe Galtier after the meeting. A speech in line with those hammered out during the last blunders, and the scope of which can be questioned with its players. Galtier barely admitted that some players were “inside”. An understatement, given the involvement and level of Lionel Messi or Juan Bernat on Sunday, for example.
Dull speeches
He doesn’t seem to be the only one preaching in the desert. From sports director Luis Campos to captain Marquinhos, the other Parisians who spoke did so out of convention more than conviction. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma swore that his people were “concentrated to finish this season well” in an outing that struggles to convince given the involvement displayed. Campos, however unaccustomed to microphones, split a call for sacred union with the supporters, which seemed all the more disconnected as the Auteuil bend, where the ultras usually sit, was closed. “We are very disappointed, but it’s a moment to be together, for everyone to be together until the end of the season”he claimed, without any strong decision or statement coming from the club.
A club which has now fallen nine times in 22 outings in all competitions over the current calendar year, when it had not lost a single match in the first part of the season. “When the Champions League ends in Paris, it’s all over”, explained Laurent Blanc, the coach of Lyon, at the beginning of April, spent on the PSG bench between 2013 and 2016. But this year, the ailments even predate the inglorious exit from the track against Bayern in March (0-1 , 0-2). Paris was already drinking the cup in February (three defeats in a row) and clearly lost its luster on the return from the World Cup, at the end of December, from which certain players returned physically worn out (Neymar) or on a pedestal (Messi ).
Paris can hardly project itself
The few successes gleaned without convincing, as in the last two meetings against Lens (3-1) and Angers (2-1), have nevertheless sheltered him from the competition. Even if it is not mathematically out of the woods for a new coronation, it is hard to see PSG not taking shelter against Troyes and Ajaccio, its next two opponents, desperate and almost condemned to the descent. A title for lack of anything better, before, like almost every year, leaving for a summer of changes and promises.