Paris St. Germain is once again the clear favorite to win the new Ligue 1 season. But the second tier of French club football has been busy strengthening its ranks over the summer.
PSG: Unrest at the start – but few question marks
Despite all the dominance Paris St. Germain has shown in Ligue 1 since Qatar’s entry in 2011, there is still a new record to break in the new season: the fifth consecutive national championship is beckoning – something even PSG has not achieved yet, with AS Monaco and Lille OSC temporarily ending Paris’s title monopoly.
It seems unlikely that this will happen again this year. Not because the competition hasn’t caught up, but because PSG hasn’t stood in its own way for around two years: PSG may no longer have the biggest names since Qatar’s arrival, but it does have the best team. If only because it is one. The well-rehearsed collective that stormed to the Champions League title in impressive fashion has remained almost entirely intact, and everyone has to submit to the clear playing philosophy of successful coach Luis Enrique – even Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The departure of the Italian goalkeeper promises some unrest at the start of the season – and as much as Donnarumma’s class between the posts will be missed in the title defense, the team is likely to benefit, especially in the league, where PSG usually stifles its opponents with possession football, from having Lucas Chevalier between the posts in the future, a goalkeeper who, unlike Donnarumma, has his strengths in building up play. However, the truth is that whether the swap of Chevalier for Donnarumma will really be considered a success will not be decided in Ligue 1 – which probably applies to PSG’s entire season.
Marseille: “Masterpieces” and a lack of rivalry
Olympique Marseille fans have an ambivalent relationship with their coach. On the one hand, Roberto De Zerbi’s emotional nature fits perfectly into the Velodrome, which is unrivalled in the country in terms of atmosphere, but on the other hand, his directness rubs some people the wrong way. For example, at the end of July, in an interview about the most important game in French soccer, especially for the fans, he said: “PSG against Marseille is not a rivalry for me. If people want to call it ‘Le Classique,’ they should, but let’s be honest: PSG was simply the stronger team.”
Statements that, despite De Zerbi’s sporting success in his debut season, have not been well received everywhere, especially since he attributed his team’s weakness in front of their own fans (only 7th in the home table) to the “intimidating” atmosphere in the Velodrome and said that the fans were “sometimes a driving force, but sometimes also a brake” for their team. Despite everything, De Zerbi is considered the great hope in his second year in Marseille. He wants to implement his signature style of clear positioning even more strongly and ensure greater stability, because: “If we become more consistent, we will take a step forward.”
To this end, sporting director Medhi Benatia has spent a lot of money and made Igor Paixao the most expensive transfer in the club’s history. In addition, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has returned to expand the experienced core around Adrien Rabiot, Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg, and goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli and should at least be valuable as a substitute. De Zerbi describes Benatia’s decision not to pay any transfer fees for Lille technician Angel Gomes, Burnley center back CJ Egan-Riley, and Juventus loanee Timothy Weah as “Benatia’s masterstrokes.” Now he has to deliver one himself to make Le Classique a rivalry again.
Monaco: Experienced core and a hot personnel issue
Thiago Scuro is a man who does not shy away from making clear statements. “It doesn’t matter whether we achieved our goal,” said the CEO of AS Monaco just a few days after the last matchday of last season, when Monaco had just barely qualified for the Champions League. “We should have been better. To finish regularly at the top of Ligue 1, we have to do more.” And he and his staff have indeed done more than usual in the transfer window so far. The clear focus: to give the talented team more experience and more character.
Scuro also attributed the weak periods in the previous season to a lack of mentality and leadership in the young team. In addition to Paul Pogba, who will draw more attention to the usually sparsely filled Stade Louis II, AS signed two players in the summer, Eric Dier from Munich and Lukas Hradecky from Leverkusen, who bring plenty of international experience and are expected to form a new central axis around which top talents such as Lamine Camara, Mika Biereth, and Maghnes Akliouche can align themselves—as long as they are still there.
Akliouche is likely to remain the hot topic on the departure side until the transfer window closes. The home-grown player is attracting interest from several top European clubs, but Scuro is taking a tough stance here too, saying back in May that “there aren’t many clubs that are in a position to handle a transfer of this magnitude.” If no deal is reached in the end and Akliouche stays in Monaco under his big supporter Adi Hütter, AS is likely to be PSG’s closest rival in the new season.