Paris Saint-Germain were in ominously good form as they crushed Olympique Lyonnais 4-1 in Klagenfurt, Austria to claim a fourth

Transcription

1 NEWSLETTER Week 1 TROPHEE DES CHAMPIONS Ben Arfa nets as PSG thrash OL Paris Saint-Germain were in ominously good form as they crushed Olympique Lyonnais 4-1 in Klagenfurt, Austria to claim a fourth consecutive Trophée des Champions. Saturday, August 6, 2016 Trophée des Champions Wörthersee Stadion, Klagenfurt Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 Olympique Lyonnais It may be a new era for the capital club, with Unai Emery having succeeded Laurent Blanc as coach, but they remain in no mood to share out the trophies. Having beaten OL 2-0 in Canada in the equivalent fixture last year, PSG plundered goals, looking sharp in their new formation under their Spanish coach. PSG did the domestic quadruple for the second consecutive season in and Lyon were their closest challengers in Ligue 1, finishing second, albeit some 31 points adrift. Nabil Fekir had a goal disallowed for offside inside the first five minutes. Kevin Trapp, preferred to Alphonse Areola in the PSG goal had spilled a Jérémy Morel effort, only for OL to be denied by the flag. Javier Pastore has inherited the number 10 shirt at Paris Saint-Germain from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Argentinian playmaker required under ten minutes of his competitive debut sporting it to give PSG the lead. Layvin Kurzawa delivered from the left. Di Maria couldn't reach it with his head, but the impressive Pastore was on hand to side-foot home. Angel Di Maria attempted an audacious lob and then in the 14th minute Alexandre Lacazette struck a post for OL with a volley from a Maxwel Cornet cross. While Bruno Genesio's side nearly equalised then, they fell 2-0 behind in the 18th minute. Pastore turned provider on this occasion, squaring for Lucas to finish. PSG had scored with their only two real chances and nearly added a third soon afterwards when Di Maria struck a post with a chipped effort. Emery's side managed their third in the 33rd minute. Di Maria powered into the Lyon box on the left and rolled the ball across for Hatem Ben Arfa, born in the Paris region, to score his first goal for his new club on his competitive debut. The mercurial French international featured at centre-forward, with Edinson Cavani ruled out with a minor muscular problem. Kurzawa, the attack-minded PSG left-back, netted a fourth seven minutes into the second half. Unmarked, he sped on to a quickly taken free-kick and beat Anthony Lopes, enduring a difficult night, with a diagonal finish. Corentin Tolisso, who rejected a summer move to Napoli, scored a fine consolation goal in the 86th minute, heading home a volleyed Christophe Jallet cross. It barely made a dent in OL's pain. PSG begin their Ligue 1 title defence at Bastia on Friday night, while OL kick off at Nancy on Sunday afternoon. 08/12/2016 Ligue de Football Professionnel / Ligue1.com 1

2 Trophée des Champions: reactions Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery challenged his team to maintain their blistering start to the season after Saturday's emphatic Trophée des Champions win over Olympique Lyonnais. Saturday, August 6, 2016 Trophée des Champions Wörthersee Stadion, Klagenfurt Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 Olympique Lyonnais Unai Emery (PSG coach): "I have a lot of respect for Lyon, but I think we put a lot of pressure on our opponents today, and we finished off our quick counter-attacks. The team deserves the result. It was a good result, but there is a lot of tactical work still to do, and Ligue 1 will be difficult. PSG are used to winning, but the hardest thing is to keep doing it. I want an ambitious team, which must improve every day by respecting each competition. We're happy now, but we have to continue that in the league next week. The season is long, there are a lot of matches, and all the players will be important. Di Maria could have a great season and Ben Arfa can grow at PSG, but I expect the same thing of the other players, too." Angel Di Maria (PSG midfielder): "It's never easy to win, and even more so to continue to do it. We have had an excellent pre-season. Everyone has played and everyone feels involved. It's important. We have worked a lot with the new technical staff and you can see the result on the pitch: we press more, we go forward more quickly. The coach asks a lot of us, but you can already see the result with a first trophy." Layvin Kurzawa (PSG defender): "We won in style and by playing well, which is what the coach wants. It's a great win, we have started the season well. I think I played quite well, as did the whole team. The most important thing is that we won, and we did that with a lot of desire, which is the main thing." Thiago Motta (PSG midfielder): "We're used to winning, and we have to keep that going. It was important to play a match like that. We showed that we can still get results even when we change our style. This year, we're going to try to improve on what we did last year, but it's too early to say whether PSG are stronger than last season. Those sorts of judgements are made at the season's end." Bruno Génésio (Lyon coach): "We had put a lot of hopes in this game, but aside from the ten minutes before the goal, when we matched Paris, we were outclassed in every area. I had said that we were going to try and close the gap to PSG, but for the moment, the gap between PSG and us and the other teams is too big. We're going to have to learn the lessons and pick ourselves up, because we won't play a team like that every week. It's difficult to explain the defeat, because there was no suggestion we would be that fragile in defence. We forgot certain basic principles and fundamentals. We were punished each time PSG came into our half of the pitch and the margin of victory could have been bigger had PSG been more clinical." 08/12/2016 Ligue de Football Professionnel / Ligue1.com 2

3 LIGUE 1 How might PSG line up in ? For the first time in four seasons, champions Paris Saint-Germain are kicking off a Ligue 1 campaign without Laurent Blanc in the dugout. How will they line up under new coach Unai Emery? Stuart Telford takes a closer look. With PSG's 4-1 Trophée des Champions win over Olympique Lyonnais in the books, former Sevilla FC coach Emery has wasted little time in adding to a trophy cabinet which already housed three consecutive UEFA Europa League titles. Each was won utilising a formation with inverted wingers and a mobile central striker, and PSG undoubtedly have the personnel to continue with such a system. Edinson Cavani may have contributed only one of the 16 pre-season goals Paris plundered in wins over West Bromwich Albion FC, FC Internazionale Milano, Real Madrid CF, Leicester City FC and now Lyon, but the fact remains that the Uruguayan's presence leaves the club well equipped to deal with the departure of 38-goal striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Injured for Saturday's victory over OL in Austria, Cavani was the top scorer in Italy's Serie A in with 29 goals from 33 games. Invariably played on the left of a front three to accommodate the departing Swede, he has still managed 53 league goals from the wing since arriving in Paris three seasons ago. Unbound in his preferred position and still only 29, it is difficult to discount Emery's contention that "[Cavani]'s a great striker. He has the potential to become a reference in his position." Perhaps surprisingly for a side that already boasted the midfield talents of Javier Pastore, Thiago Motta, Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi, Emery's acquisitions this summer have included Hatem Ben Arfa, after his impressive Indian summer in Nice, and Grzegorz Krychowiak, who followed the tactician from Sevilla. Suspended for the Lyon game from his time at Stade de Reims, Krychowiak will shield the defence in Alongside him, Thiago Motta adds valuable experience in the injury-enforced absence of namesake and captain Thiago Silva. Up ahead, a trio of Angel Di Maria and Lucas Moura either side of Ben Arfa looks mouth-watering. Emery has said that "starting from scratch with me, everyone will have a chance," but with 36 goals and 28 assists between them last season, even Pastore might have to settle for a place amongst the substitutes. PSG only conceded 19 goals in 38 league games last term, but the back four is evolving. Left-back Layvin Kurzawa's youth gives him an advantage over the soon-to-be 35-year-old Maxwell, and a goal and an assist at the Wörthersee Stadion on Saturday would seem to have vindicated Emery's faith. On the other flank, Serge Aurier looks set to put last season's run-in with Blanc and Ibrahimovic behind him by keeping summer arrival Thomas Meunier on the bench. With Silva injured and Marquinhos representing Brazil at the 2016 Summer Olympics, PSG have paired David Luiz with 20-year-old Presnel Kimpembe at centre-back in recent weeks. Silva is sure to be restored to the team. Emery's faith in former Ligue 1 standout Adil Rami at Sevilla, meanwhile, suggests that the positionally disciplined Marquinhos might follow suit once he returns from Rio de Janeiro. In goal, Kevin Trapp's ability to distribute with his feet saw him preferred to the otherwise impressive Alphonse Areola at the weekend. Having seen Kingsley Coman pick up league titles in Italy and Germany in the two years since leaving Paris, the club are keen to blood more players from the academy. The nearly 600 minutes of playing time given to teenagers Jonathan Ikoné and Lorenzo Callegari in pre-season is therefore encouraging. "This opportunity is a challenge for me and my challenge is to draw the best out of them," says Emery. "I'm lucky to have great players." Inter, Real, Leicester et al. would not disagree. 08/12/2016 Ligue de Football Professionnel / Ligue1.com 3

4 PSG's possible line-up in : : Trapp; Aurier, Marquinhos, Silva (c), Kurzawa; Krychowiak, Motta; Di Maria, Ben Arfa, Lucas; Cavani OL with sound reasons for optimism In spite of their Trophée des Champions setback, David Crossan argues Olympique Lyonnais are still the club best equipped to challenge Paris Saint-Germain for the Ligue 1 title in Everybody expected a closer Trophée des Champions encounter as the curtain raiser to than 12 months earlier in Canada when PSG won 2-0, but it didn't turn out that way in Austria as ruthless PSG dismantled OL 4-1. On the basis of that 90 minutes, Bruno Genesio's men would do well to get as close as the 31 points back they were from the Ligue 1 champions as they finished runners-up in OL had competed well with PSG from the first whistle, yet the resistance lasted only 10 minutes before an avalanche of goals, with Genesio rightly highlighting the "naivety" of his players. To compound the club's woes, Alexandre Lacazette, the totemic forward, exited Klagenfurt at half-time through injury. So why are there reasons to remain positive? Well, first and foremost, Genesio's assessment that he has "a squad big on quality and numbers" was spot on. Formerly assistant to Hubert Fournier, Genesio took over for the second half of the last league season and mustered 39 points from 19 matches, only six points fewer than PSG obtained in that time. Central to that resurgence in 2016 was OL's home form at the state-of-the-art Parc OL, a privately financed stadium that dazzled visitors to the country during UEFA EURO With Genesio masterminding things, OL turned the arena in Décines into a fortress, winning eight and drawing two of the 10 matches played there so far in Ligue 1. Between January and May, OL rediscovered the vitality that made them such an enchanting proposition under Fournier the previous season. The accent was placed firmly on pace, Lacazette rediscovered his shooting boots and youngsters such as the quicksilver Maxwel Cornet came to the party. Keeping Lacazette is a priority for OL and club president Jean-Michel Aulas has already rebuffed one big offer from English Premier League club Arsenal, while Genesio used all his persuasive powers to convince midfielder Corentin Tolisso to stay. French international defender Samuel Umtiti has departed for Barcelona, replaced by Nicolas Nkoulou. The classy Cameroonian joined at the end of his Marseille contract, having already been tracked by OL a year previously, and will prove an excellent addition should he rediscover the form that saw him make the Ligue 1 team of the season in both 2011 and Nabil Fekir is fit again after long-term injury and the forward is determined to get back to the form that saw him force his way into the French international reckoning. Exactly who features in the Rhône club's squad come the end of the transfer window is crucial to OL's prospects. Aulas says no further players will be added to the squad unless Rachid Ghezzal, now in the final year of his contract, moves on. For OL to stand any chance of usurping PSG, they must retain the services of Lacazette, the Ligue 1 player of the year two seasons ago. OL fans will be monitoring Arsene Wenger's cheque book nervously in the coming weeks. 08/12/2016 Ligue de Football Professionnel / Ligue1.com 4

5 The new men in the middle The summer not only sees players but also coaches switch clubs, bringing with them new philosophies and personnel both on and off the pitch. Ligue1.com looks at the six men who have arrived in unfamiliar dug-outs. Paris Saint-Germain - Unai Emery Laurent Blanc left Emery with a weighty legacy to live up to at the Parc des Princes, but there is every suggestion the Spaniard can yet improve on what was an historic haul of silverware. Blanc's side broke the Ligue 1 points record and a host of other milestones in picking up three successive titles - to make it an unprecedented four Ligue 1 crowns in a row - but their inability to progress beyond the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League cost the PSG boss his job. Enter Emery, whose European pedigree is undoubted after taking Sevilla FC to a UEFA Europa League hat-trick. The challenge for the former Valencia CF man will be to emulate that success in the UEFA Champions League, while also maintaining PSG's stranglehold on domestic competitions. The emphatic Trophée des Champions win certainly bodes well for the latter. FC Nantes - René Girard Nantes have been a sleeping giant in waiting since becoming the last team to win the Ligue 1 title before Olympique Lyonnais began their domination of French football in the first decade of the millenium. Les Canaris have not recovered their lustre since, and their new boss finds himself in a similar position. Girard's miraculous stewardship of Montpellier Hérault SC earned them an unexpected first Ligue 1 title and it proved to be the rest of French football's last before PSG took a grip on the division. A truncated and not entirely happy spell at LOSC Lille followed leaving Girard with a reputation to re-polish too. Stade Rennais FC - Christian Gourcuff 'Je t'aime', 'Moi, non plus'* sums up the on-off relationship Rennes and Gourcuff Sr. had had for years. The newly-installed boss at Roazhon Park is intimately familiar with his surroundings having started his modest playing career with the Rouge et Noir in the early '70s and he then had a single-season spell as coach early this millenium. After establishing his reputation for attractive football at neighbours FC Lorient, Gourcuff - and those who have employed him - will now hope he can ally that style with success. Should he be able to resurrect the flagging career of his son, Yoann, it would go some way to fulfilling that ambition. * 'I love you', 'Me neither' En Avant Guingamp - Antoine Kombouaré Kombouaré is another man aiming to prove himself in Brittany. In the case of the popular former PSG defender, he is used to that. While success on a shoestring became his leitmotif at Valenciennes FC, his spell at the well-heeled Parc des Princes was equally positive, yet did not secure him the position on a long-term basis. Those experiences, plus his stint at RC Lens that brought the club back into Ligue 1, reinforce the idea Kombouaré can also make an excellent fist of his new position where his transfer budget will not be limitless. Girondins de Bordeaux - Jocelyn Gourvennec This is perhaps the most intruiging move within Ligue 1 of this summer's merry-go-round. Gourvennec has known little else other than Guingamp in his coaching career, and - after six years - has stepped out of his comfort zone and into a more unforgiving environment. With the silverware won during Blanc's tenure still shining brightly in Bordeaux fans' memories, and in stark contrast to the disappointments of recent seasons, the expectations on the new boss of Les Girondins are high. Though Gourvennec has only a Coupe de France win in terms of major trophies, his transformation of EAG from a third-tier outfit to established top-flight member is an even greater achievement than Blanc's - Bordeaux are clearly hoping he can work his magic on a grander stage. 08/12/2016 Ligue de Football Professionnel / Ligue1.com 5

6 OGC Nice - Lucien Favre The Swiss tactician has a tough act to follow after Claude Puel guided the club to last season's mightily impressive fourth-placed finish. Yet, Favre has already proven his ability to improve the squads he inherits. He did so in his native Switzerland with FC Zürich, but it is notably in Germany where his reputation was forged on the exacting pitches of the Bundesliga. After Hertha Berlin had been steered from the doldrums into European competition, Favre miraculously ensured Borussia Mönchengladbach avoided a relegation that had seemed all but sealed upon his appointment at the club in February He then turned the Foals into consistent top-four challengers, resurrecting a one-time giant, while playing some of Germany's most enchanting football. With Nice's four Ligue 1 titles in the 1950s a memory now fast fading, Favre appears to be the ideal man to build on Puel's legacy. New signings - six of the best With the new season upon us, and after another busy summer in the transfer market, here are six new signings to look out for in Hatem Ben Arfa (Paris Saint-Germain) Ben Arfa's reward for a superb season with Nice, which led to him being nominated for France's Player of the Year prize, was a switch to Paris Saint-Germain. The 29-year-old, who was a free agent, had been linked with Barcelona and a return to old club Lyon but instead moved to the Parc des Princes on a two-year deal. It is a sort of homecoming for the 15-times capped forward, who was born and raised in the capital region. With Zlatan Ibrahimovic gone, Ben Arfa could become a new hero for the Paris fans, although he claims to not be bothered about dominating the headlines in a star-studded squad. "I don't want to be the star," he said in a recent interview with Le Parisien. "I really want to build something as part of a collective and win trophies with PSG." So far, so good, for the new number 21, who scored a terrific goal on his competitive debut in the comprehensive 4-1 defeat of Lyon in the Trophées des Champions last weekend. Kamil Glik (AS Monaco) Monaco's biggest weakness last season was their defence, which conceded more goals than any other side to finish in the top six. Their hopes of finishing second and qualifying automatically for this season's Champions League group stage were effectively ended in a 6-1 thumping at Olympique Lyonnais on the penultimate weekend. So, with Wallace leaving and Ricardo Carvalho out of contract, the principality club have moved to reinforce that area over the summer with the signing of Polish international centre-back Kamil Glik. The 28-year-old has arrived from Italian side Torino on a four-year deal for a reported fee of 8 million Euros and is set to be Leonardo Jardim's new bedrock in defence. "We have been following Kamil for a long time and he represents perfectly the profile of experienced central defender we were looking for," said Monaco's vice president director general Vadim Vasilyev. Having helped Poland to the quarter-finals at Euro 2016, Glik made his debut as a late substitute in the Champions League third qualifying round, second leg win over Fenerbahçe on August 3. Bafétimbi Gomis (Olympique de Marseille) In a dispiriting summer for Marseille fans which has seen captain Steve Mandanda and Michy Batshuayi both depart while owner Margarita Louis-Dreyfus looks to sell the club, the arrival of Gomis has been just about the only positive thus far. The 31-year-old, who won the last of his 12 caps for France in June 2013, has arrived at the Stade Vélodrome on a season-long loan from English Premier League side Swansea City. Gomis only showed flashes of his goal-scoring ability over the past two seasons at Swansea but he returns to Ligue 1 where he has netted 102 times in total in spells at Saint-Etienne and Olympique Lyonnais. "I didn't play last year but I know my real level. I am working hard and feeling better by the day," warned Gomis. 08/12/2016 Ligue de Football Professionnel / Ligue1.com 6

7 Grzegorz Krychowiak (Paris Saint-Germain) The 26-year-old Polish international midfielder is back in France after two successful seasons at Sevilla. He has linked up with his former coach in Spain, Unai Emery, at Paris Saint-Germain, joining the champions on a five-year deal for a fee reported to be in the region of 25 million Euros. Outstanding for his country during their run to the quarter-finals at Euro 2016, Krychowiak was already well known to fans in France having started his career as a teenager at Girondins de Bordeaux before making a name for himself at Stade de Reims, whom he left in 2014 for Sevilla. Two Europa League winners' medals later and he arrives at PSG targeting the Champions League. "I know Ligue 1 very well. PSG are progressing every year and I also went to Seville to improve myself. My objective is to play for the best teams in the world and PSG are one of them," said Krychowiak, who is likely to partner Marco Verratti in the heart of a new-look midfield at the Parc des Princes under Emery. Jérémy Menez (Girondins de Bordeaux) Having part of his right ear ripped off during a pre-season friendly was not the best of starts for Jérémy Menez at Bordeaux, but the hope is that the mercurial 29-year-old can rediscover his best form in the south-west of France and help revive an ailing giant in the process. A summer of rebuilding at the Matmut Atlantique has seen Jocelyn Gourvennec arrive from EA Guingamp as the new coach while the likes of giant Malian striker Cheick Diabaté, Clément Chantôme, Lamine Sané and Jussiê have all left. Gourvennec has made two marquee signings so far in Jérémy Toulalan from AS Monaco and Menez, recruited on a three-year deal after a two-season stint at AC Milan. "The ambition is to get back into Europe. We need to try to finish in the top five," said Menez, who won the last of his 24 caps for France in March The former Sochaux, Monaco and Roma forward returns to Ligue 1 where he last starred for Paris Saint-Germain, scoring 14 goals in 79 top-flight appearances between 2011 and Jesé Rodríguez (Paris Saint-Germain) Alongside Ben Arfa, PSG's other big attacking recruit for the post-zlatan era is Jesé, the 23-year-old arriving from Real Madrid on a five-year deal to play under his fellow Spaniard Unai Emery at the Parc des Princes. The Gran Canaria native will hope for more regular first-team football in Paris than he managed at the Santiago Bernabéu, although he can expect to find competition for places just as fierce at his new club. "I share with my new club great ambitions for the years to come and it will be a great pleasure to work under Unai Emery," said Jesé after signing, with the fee widely reported to be as much as 25 million Euros for the Spain under-21 international. 08/12/2016 Ligue de Football Professionnel / Ligue1.com 7