Cédric Chasseur / Photo credit: FRANCK FIFE / AFP
PSG, in full upheaval, begins its Ligue 1 season against Lorient. Now led by Luis Enrique, the Spanish coach will have the mission of making people forget a rather chaotic 2022-2023 exercise. The Parisians will however play without Killian Mbappé, not retained, and Neymar, declared forfeit.
In 2023, the whistles often made the Parc des Princes vibrate more than the cheers of the supporters. Lack of game plans, defeat records, premature elimination in the Champions League… Paris Saint-Germain fans have not really been spoiled. Hence this expectation vis-à-vis Luis Enrique; an expectation reinforced by his desire to make PSG a new offensive team.
A team with no real benchmarks
“I don’t want to have only ten minutes at full intensity. I want 95 minutes of total football at maximum intensity of attacking play in order to show the fans that we are professional and that we want to give them pleasure”, he said at a press conference. Except that the Spanish coach will have to deal with a slightly less talented workforce.
A team with no real benchmarks which leaves former PSG coach Alain Giresse somewhat perplexed. “It’s a team that is rebuilding. It doesn’t have a lot of bases precisely because it has all the same been dismembered: Messi, Neymar, perhaps Mbappé, Ramos. So it’s still a Paris Saint-Germain which has potential but which does not present for the moment the guarantees of a team still completely stabilized and organized, therefore… to see”, he analyzes. Still, Paris Saint-Germain is still the big favorite in Ligue 1 in the eyes of observers, but also of Luis Enrique, who wants to be the champion of total football in Paris.