Just how overrated is PSG?

Doc wrote:Thought it was funny when Cruijff kept saying PSG was better than Madrid and considering today's events, it's down right hilarious.

Madrid can still draw ( and lose ) to City in the SF .

Too early for gloating imo .

PSG are just another Arsenal with lots of money and better squad and lots of money.

farfan wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

M99 wrote:Sportsczy wiping his tears with Pogba's apartment lease papers.

DAT Verratti - Motta - Matuidi better than Xavi-Busquets-Iniesta

Funny thing, 2/3 of that midfield didn't play and the remaining 1/3 went out with an injury in the first half .

I never rated PSG as a " top team " , but i gotta admit that they also had some terrible luck with injuries and suspensions at crucial times in the season .

Even if they played they still aren't no where near them. Only Verratti would've broken into that midfield.

Glory wrote:

Winter is Coming wrote:

Glory wrote:


What exactly for ? Agreed City played well in the 1st leg. But here in this match, PSG didnt even try.

Well they were good in the first leg and just did enough to get by this leg. I can also say City were barely trying also considering they could've gone through with 0-0. Nevertheless I was impress with some of their defense display and pressing at the right moment. They forced a few mistakes from PSG and drawing the PK.

Yea but that doesnt mean PSG should be playing at a slow tempo, right ? All their build ups were patient, cautious sideways and backwards passing stuff.
They simply didnt show intent to win the game even in the later stages of the game.
City didnt have to get out the 1st gear most of the time.

I dont know if this is the way they normally play in their league or not, but just that they didnt look like a team that wanted to score one or 2 away goals to me.

I don't watch them. I don't disagree that they played sloppy and bad, but I feel some of that was due to City. PSG I believe had only one shot in the first half and that from a FK too PSG, but at the end obviously missing a player Verratti was going to effect them.

farfan wrote:

Doc wrote:Thought it was funny when Cruijff kept saying PSG was better than Madrid and considering today's events, it's down right hilarious.

Madrid can still draw ( and lose ) to City in the SF .

Too early for gloating imo .

madrid can handle man city come now, i know its great to look down on rm, if we get city the team should be able to handle them.

I have severely overestimated blanc and psg if they were beaten by pellegrini of all peeps.

Guess PSG was overrated after all.

Yes, trolling aside, Blanc has to go. The only impressive thing he ever did was win Ligue 1 with prime Gourcuff and Chamakh. I don't doubt the quality of the individual players PSG have, but every time they come up against strong opposition they look toothless. Blanc has been a flop for them and he was a flop for France too.

Turok_TTZ wrote:I have severely overestimated blanc and psg if they were beaten by pellegrini of all peeps.

Guess PSG was overrated after all.

Motta-Verratti-Matuidi were all out due to injury/suspension

That's like Madrid playing without all of BBC or Barca playing without all of MSN...  they're that dependent on the middle 3.  The entire setup of the team depends on them.

They can survive with one of them missing... but when you get to 2, or all 3 in this game mostly, then the struggles were very predictable... at least to me who watches them.  

Matuidi is absolutely irreplaceable.  At least Rabiot can cover Verratti relatively OK.  Motta is also irreplaceable.

As I said in the chat during the game. I quite like the look of Rabiot.

Talented young player.

Being able to play at half speed in their league and still be 30 points ahead of the next competitor at this point in the season can't help. Combined with not having their first string midfield was disastrous for them.

They lack a sense of urgency when tables are turned against them, I think that's what sets them miles behind teams like Barca, Madrid, Juve and

even Man City. I would argue it's because PSG plays in less competitive league where they have been dominating for the last 3-4 years by a great

margin, and are rarely faced with a situation where their position at the top the league is ever threatened.

Didn't see the game but if Verratti, Motta, & Matiudi are out then who covers them? Just Rabiot?

This sort of thing happen to them last season as well.

sportsczy wrote:

Turok_TTZ wrote:I have severely overestimated blanc and psg if they were beaten by pellegrini of all peeps.

Guess PSG was overrated after all.

Motta-Verratti-Matuidi were all out due to injury/suspension

That's like Madrid playing without all of BBC or Barca playing without all of MSN...  they're that dependent on the middle 3.  The entire setup of the team depends on them.

They can survive with one of them missing... but when you get to 2, or all 3 in this game mostly, then the struggles were very predictable... at least to me who watches them.  

Matuidi is absolutely irreplaceable.  At least Rabiot can cover Verratti relatively OK.  Motta is also irreplaceable.

All due respect, this is an example of how overrated PSG are.

You compare Matuidi-Verratti-Motta to MSN or BBC, two champions league trio with the best attackers in the world. They should never be cited in the same sentence, regardless of context, unless it's to point out Verratti is shorter than messi.

PSG are not just about the midfield, this is what you forget, it's the coachings, tactics, decisions, Zlatan, Van der Wiel, it's everything. It's the whole that is overrated.

Micah_12 wrote:They lack a sense of urgency when tables are turned against them, I think that's what sets them miles behind teams like Barca, Madrid, Juve and

even Man City. I would argue it's because PSG plays in less competitive league where they have been dominating for the last 3-4 years by a great

margin, and are rarely faced with a situation where their position at the top the league is ever threatened.

17, 17, 9, and 4

Those are the margins of victory for Juventus between the 11/12 and the 14/15 seasons.

The uncompetitive league argument is bogus. Good teams can come out of poor leagues. It's more about the composition of the team and its manager than the league.

I'm of the firm belief that today's failure by PSG was a combination of injuries to key players and a single misjudgment on Blanc's part. Matuidi, Verratti, and then Motta being out through injury severely hampered PSG's tactics and style of play. Rabiot looks to have a bright future. However, he cannot replace their entire first-choice midfield.

Then, there's Blanc's misjudgment. Instead of attempting to play a second-choice midfield (i.e. like-for-like replacements), he changed the formation in an attempt to remain defensively resolute. This was in the hopes that Ibrahimovic would be capable of doing something spectacular to put them through. He couldn't, nor could Cavani, nor Di Maria, etc. Was it a conservative approach? Oh yeah! Ill-advised? Probably... Could it have worked? Yes. Unfortunately, for him and PSG, this simply wasn't their day.

Mr Nick09 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:

Turok_TTZ wrote:I have severely overestimated blanc and psg if they were beaten by pellegrini of all peeps.

Guess PSG was overrated after all.

Motta-Verratti-Matuidi were all out due to injury/suspension

That's like Madrid playing without all of BBC or Barca playing without all of MSN...  they're that dependent on the middle 3.  The entire setup of the team depends on them.

They can survive with one of them missing... but when you get to 2, or all 3 in this game mostly, then the struggles were very predictable... at least to me who watches them.  

Matuidi is absolutely irreplaceable.  At least Rabiot can cover Verratti relatively OK.  Motta is also irreplaceable.

All due respect, this is an example of how overrated PSG are.

You compare Matuidi-Verratti-Motta to MSN or BBC, two champions league trio with the best attackers in the world. They should never be cited in the same sentence, regardless of context, unless it's to point out Verratti is shorter than messi.

PSG are not just about the midfield, this is what you forget, it's the coachings, tactics, decisions, Zlatan, Van der Wiel, it's everything. It's the whole that is overrated.

I think his point was simply that they are without 3 of their key players. Don't think he was really comparing them to BBC or MSN.

TBH I agree that they are overrated - everyone here was saying that PSG were going to walk it which I honestly never understood. City are substantially better than PSG on paper. Domestic form means little when comparing Ligue 1 and EPL.

Mr Nick09 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:

Turok_TTZ wrote:I have severely overestimated blanc and psg if they were beaten by pellegrini of all peeps.

Guess PSG was overrated after all.

Motta-Verratti-Matuidi were all out due to injury/suspension

That's like Madrid playing without all of BBC or Barca playing without all of MSN...  they're that dependent on the middle 3.  The entire setup of the team depends on them.

They can survive with one of them missing... but when you get to 2, or all 3 in this game mostly, then the struggles were very predictable... at least to me who watches them.  

Matuidi is absolutely irreplaceable.  At least Rabiot can cover Verratti relatively OK.  Motta is also irreplaceable.

All due respect, this is an example of how overrated PSG are.

You compare Matuidi-Verratti-Motta to MSN or BBC, two champions league trio with the best attackers in the world. They should never be cited in the same sentence, regardless of context, unless it's to point out Verratti is shorter than messi.

PSG are not just about the midfield, this is what you forget, it's the coachings, tactics, decisions, Zlatan, Van der Wiel, it's everything. It's the whole that is overrated.

You are comparing three attacking players with three midfielders that are PSG's engine. Without the PSG midfield, the PSG forwards are at a disadvantage.

That midfield engine is the key both offensively and defensively...  it made Maxwell stay back because Matuidi wasn't there to help and there was no service or creativity to help the forwards.  They were broken in two. Blanc tried to change the tactical setup (352 as opposed to their usual 433) to compensate the midfield issue with numbers but it failed. I think that was too big of an adjustment tbh because you can't perfect a new tactic in a week... this part I didn't like with Blanc. He should have stayed the course tactically despite the injuries/suspensions.

Another good example is Juve without Marchisio, Pogba and Khedira...  they'd get nothing done (and they didn't early in the season although Pogba was the one still healthy), which is what happened to PSG.

donttreadonred wrote:

Micah_12 wrote:They lack a sense of urgency when tables are turned against them, I think that's what sets them miles behind teams like Barca, Madrid, Juve and

even Man City. I would argue it's because PSG plays in less competitive league where they have been dominating for the last 3-4 years by a great

margin, and are rarely faced with a situation where their position at the top the league is ever threatened.

17, 17, 9, and 4

Those are the margins of victory for Juventus between the 11/12 and the 14/15 seasons.

The uncompetitive league argument is bogus. Good teams can come out of poor leagues. It's more about the composition of the team and its manager than the league.

The team's composition/players/ managers etc. is certainly a deciding factor but sometimes you have to take a step back and take a look at the full picture. Looking back at the English domination in the UCL that continued for four seasons from 2005-2009 and the current La Liga domination you cannot ignore that there is a direct correlation between the competitiveness of domestic leagues and the team's performance on a European scale. During that period the top 4 English teams consistently qualified for UCL, and currently the same with the top 3 La Liga clubs because at the beginning of each season all of those teams have a common goal and aspiration to win the title, and other domestic competitions. Giving them the advantage when facing great sides from other countries. You cannot compare the goals PSG set for themselves to the goals of Lyon and Monaco who just hope to make it through the qualification/group stage. Besides when was the last time a team cruising in their domestic league won the UCL? Porto? Barca 2005/06? Lavezzi even said the lack of competitiveness in the french league made him less motivated to play.

Aside from the correct point of how winning the league so early (and multiple times ina row) in a relatively non-competitive league can take the edge off the team and players; the rest of the posts on the criticism are testament that no one here has a clue on PSG, how they operate bar their anecdotes of them in the Champions League.

A common habit in this forum.

On this evidence the phrase "the big five leagues" should be binned. Ligue 1 doesn't deserve to be included if the team that's topping it by 28 points is this mediocre in the CL.

Arquitescu wrote:Aside from the correct point of how winning the league so early (and multiple times ina row) in a relatively non-competitive league can take the edge off the team and players; the rest of the posts on the criticism are testament that no one here has a clue on PSG, how they operate bar their anecdotes of them in the Champions League.

A common habit in this forum.

Same crap when Serie A teams failed to make the semis... EPL got torched last season too. This place is hilarious; but entertaining in its ignorance.

sportsczy wrote:
Same crap when Serie A teams failed to make the semis... EPL got torched last season too. This place is hilarious; but entertaining in its ignorance.

lmao are you *bleep* serious?

Lyon is the only French team that's made to the CL semis in 12 years since Monaco got to the final.

I'd say the rest of the big 4 leagues have done pretty *bleep* well dominating the CL semis in that 12 year span.

And Serie has made 2 finals in that span...  no other semis.   Ligue 1 made a semi and a final.  Your point is?  Do you not consider Serie A a top league?  And other than Bayern and Dortmund recently, no Bundi team had made it either (PSG are basically building up to be the Bayern of Ligue 1).  Is Bundi not a top league? I don't any Bundi team other than Bayern having a realistic chance going forward either.

Clear that Ligue 1 is struggling financially overall... but PSG is not and will compete every year.  4th quarter final in a row.  They'll break through.  Have too much talent not to.  Just need a bit of luck.  It's eluded them so far...  this one was truly disappointing.  But no the others.  First time they've underachieved.

And never compare Ibra to CR again. The Kommander is in a different league