Luis Enrique called it “typical” that Paris Saint-Germain only managed to see off newly-promoted Le Mans once he had made four changes around the hour mark. The description was generous. The substitutions turned a tight game into a 3-1 win, but the fact that PSG’s leading players were required at all is starting to look less like an accident and more like a pattern.
Ligue 1 has felt like a side quest for the club in recent years. PSG have succeeded in rearranging domestic fixtures to aid their Champions League campaign, and their biggest names rarely appear in the league at all. Ousmane Dembélé started just 12 Ligue 1 matches last season and still won the player of the season award, a decision that was greeted with contention. He was not on the teamsheet against Le Mans, and neither was Nuno Mendes. Both were rested. It is only mid-October, and the club’s priorities are already plain.
That thinking shaped the summer transfer window. PSG spent more than €150m, yet none of the players brought in looked likely to dislodge the starters ahead of them. They are there to facilitate rest rather than to unsettle the hierarchy, and when they feature the conversation tends to be framed around squad management.
Saturday offered precisely that kind of opportunity. Mika Godts, Maghnes Akliouche and Ferran Torres, who cost a combined €150m, all started. Dro Fernández and Lucas Beraldo were deployed in midfield, with Lucas Digne, Lucas Hernández and Illia Zabarnyi across the back. This is their stage; Willian Pacho, Fabián Ruiz, Désiré Doué, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Dembélé, Mendes and Vitinha have another.
Beraldo had put PSG ahead from the penalty spot midway through the first half. Le Mans responded through Louis Mafouta, who finished first time from a whipped cross, and Patrick Videira’s newly promoted side asked real questions of a defence that was weaker than PSG’s first choice but hardly makeshift. Luis Enrique was eulogistic about the work done by his opposite number, and rightly so: Le Mans have troubled some of the bigger clubs in Ligue 1 while operating on a shoestring. Their best player this season, Adil Bourabaa, was absent on the night — he was signed for a mere €15,000 in January.
The contrast was stark. Around €100m worth of PSG talent was withdrawn an hour into the game, with Kvaratskhelia, Ruiz, Doué and Vitinha coming on. A long-range effort from Ruiz was spilled into the path of Kvaratskhelia, who scored two minutes after his introduction. Akliouche, who has been frustrating since his €50m move from Monaco, was the only attacker spared the mid-game switch-up, and he justified the decision by scoring his first goal for PSG to wrap up the victory.
PSG have now won their last three league games without being convincing in any of them. The summer window was supposed to construct an alternate XI capable of winning Ligue 1 at a canter, and so far it has not delivered that.
The deeper issue is the pressure on the starters. Bradley Barcola’s departure to Liverpool removed a situation in which four genuine world-class forwards competed for three positions. Godts, Akliouche and Torres now have to step up and push the established names, and the early evidence is mixed: Torres produced his worst performance in a PSG shirt against Le Mans, Godts has not got going since joining, and Akliouche, while he “surprised” Luis Enrique, lacks consistency.
PSG will probably make nine outfield changes for their Champions League meeting with Manchester City on Wednesday. The problems evident against Le Mans should not be a factor against Enzo Maresca’s side. But there is a feeling that PSG, more so than last year, are walking a tightrope. Luis Enrique’s squad is thin by design, and the players brought in to win Ligue 1 games are struggling to do so. Winning a third consecutive Champions League would therefore be a big ask. Luis Enrique will hope it does not have to be.
The result leaves PSG sixth after six league games on 11 points, with Monaco top on 14 and Lille and Rennes a point further back. Marseille, meanwhile, eased some of the pressure with a 2-0 win at fellow strugglers Troyes that lifted Bruno Génésio’s side out of the relegation zone.