Today marks our first glance at the modern day “Galacticos” who serve a very important lesson in the fact that a team filled with stars is not enough to achieve success on the pitch…… Nevertheless, P.S.G indeed has one of the most exciting teams in Europe at the moment, and when they are playing well they rival the likes of Manchester City and Barcelona for some of the best football across Europe. It should be an exciting prospect diving into their tactical elements that make them tick!
Within the French league (Ligue 1) P.S.G are of course the dominant force winning almost every domestic competition at will due to the packed talent within their roster. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing this season with a poor run of form in January and February that could’ve cause a potential shock, but once they got their groove back, normal services returned.
In the end, they’ve won the league with ease. Shout out to Lens for doing as much as they could though!
Now then, on to the fun stuff!
Here is P.S.G’s preferred starting X1 over the course of the Ligue 1 campaign On paper, this team should have swept away any team within Europe. They possessed so many technically brilliant players that it would’ve basically been impossible to take the ball away from them. And with the likes of Mendes, Hakimi, and Mbappe all having blistering pace there was always the option of going directly towards goal. But, as you already know, it takes being efficient in both ends of the game, and this P.SG team never had any sort of protection for their back 3 that consisted of an aging Sergio Ramos and a player playing out of position in Danilo. The midfield 2 (as amazing as they are on the ball) do not offer any sort of defensive solidity which is crucial especially in European football.
STRATEGY
With all that technical ability, it makes perfect sense for this P.S.G team to start all of their plays from the back. In fact, they only have 4 players within the entire starting X1 who are over 6ft (182cm) and they all play in the defence! Playing out from the back makes this team recycle possession with each other efficiently and play to almost every player’s strengths
INSTRUCTIONS
Just imaging the level of animation pertaining who should be taking what with all these star players and egos on the pitch…
GENERAL
One thing about this P.S.G team is that there set up allows the tactics to be VERY interesting…. Since most of their players are smaller in stature they tend to build up patiently, maintaining close proximity between each other, while rotating like crazy and showcasing a lot of individual brilliance
ATTACKING
The ‘Attack’ area correlates quite well with the ‘General’ since they play a more shorter passing style while progressing the ball through the centre of the pitch as much as possible. The 2 Wingbacks (Hakimi and Mendes) make these tactics even more effective since they are like dogs on those flanks, tirelessly running up and down providing the width while the man dem in the middle showcase their world class qualities
DEFENDING
Here is where P.S.G tend to falter. No matter what the attributes say within SM23, none of the front 3 enjoy pressing so that is out of the picture. They do not have a recognized ball winner which means that their passive pressuring will not always be effective, and the back line have no other choice but to play with a high line since there is no pressure on the ball and they must squeeze the pitch in order to ensure that it is easier to win the ball back with all their deficiencies. Make no mistake, they will still dominate most games due to their abundance of world class players, but this is a weakness within their set up that will lead to a lot of dropped points and early elimination within Europe
It still baffles me how this team that is filled with so much brilliance couldn’t muster a Champions league trophy, and with the likes of Messi and Neymar potentially leaving, as well as Mbappe looking to be the heir to Karim Benzema at Madrid anytime soon, this P.S.G team may go down as the biggest disappointment in football since the Golden Generation of England in my opinion.
That’s all that we have for today soccermanagerite. Tomorrow, we’ll be heading to Italy to check out a team that is currently on the lips of many within the footballing globe. Care for a glass of wine? 🍷🇮🇹
The Soccermanager Experience 