Paris is perhaps the most productive city for player development in the world. But could you beat one of the richest, most global clubs in football using only players from the City of Lights? Martin Vert has been set that challenge.
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The mood in Paris is strange, something I’ve not really felt before. Where once PSG shirts were everywhere, suddenly there are some green and white stripes appearing. Where once Neymar, Lewandowski, Fati were on their backs, now its Mukelenge, Massouma and Camara. We have spread from our supporter base in Saint Ouen and are starting to make our mark on this city. Top of the league, an unbeaten run of 20 running back to last season, and Parisians are starting to take notice. They connect with our local talent, in a way they could never connect with a superstar from Brazil or Poland. Our players are this city, and the city is starting to realise that.
Which is why it’s all the stranger that, where we should be full of confidence, the lads look nervous before our game against Marseille. It can’t be the prospect of their global reach, because we are used to that. We revel in that. And I can’t believe it’s the roar of the Velodrome, intimidating as it is. These are experienced players now, and they know what this ground is like. No, this is pressure. The pressure of sitting at the top. The pressure of everyone taking aim. The pressure of throwing it away. I tell them I believe in them, but they still look nervous. Hopefully our quality will see us through.
It does not see us through. We were nervy in the dressing room, and we’re nervy on the pitch. We give away an early corner from nothing, that our hosts waste. And then Diarra nods a ball back to Fofana who fumbles it, but manages to claw it off the line. It’s painful to watch, and it’s entirely predictable when Milik puts Marseille ahead, drilling past Fofana. They hit the bar immediately afterward, before former Atletico Madrid youth teamer Juan Manuel Gordo hits a daisy cutter into the bottom corner. I take the shackles off and throw everybody forward for the second half, but it doesn’t change much, and our unbeaten run comes to an end. Disappointing.
There isn’t much time to feel sorry for ourselves, as the Champions League comes to Paris in midweek. We’ll need wholesale changes, as far as we can make them. Fofana will stay in goal as always, and Brahimi will shift onto the wing because it’s just too soon for Claude-Maurice, but everywhere else we bring in the fresh players. It’s the defensive formation because I just don’t want to lose.
We are probably the better side in the first half, soaking up pressure and then hitting them on the break in the way that Red Star do, but can’t quite make the breakthrough. The second half starts much the same way, until a long punt by Baumann in the Leverkusen goal loops over Niakite’s head. Volland turns him, races away, rounds Fofana and fires home. But that’s just the beginning of the action. I switch to our more attacking shape and we push them back. They are camped in their own half, and then their own box, which allows Goncalves plenty of space to fire home from 30 yards on 74 minutes. He is really asking questions of Huard’s position as first choice left back. We don’t let up, mainly because we’ve made all our changes and have to continue with two strikers, but that works to our advantage. With a minute to go, Mukelenge beats his man and crosses for Fomba to turn home, and two minutes later, with the German side throwing everything forward, Fomba returns the favour. 3-1, and what a way to get back on track.
We have one more game before the international break, and it’s always good to go into the break with a win. Saint-Etienne stayed up by the skin of their teeth last season, and are down there again this season despite being one of the biggest clubs in French football. The full strength first-teamers are back in place, and I think we need to put the defeat at Marseille behind us and start another long unbeaten run to really challenge our Parisian neighbours for the title. We’ll play the balanced shape because we shouldn’t fear them.
We shouldn’t fear them, but that doesn’t mean the players are any more relaxed. It takes just 15 minutes for Cabot to turn home a corner and put us behind, which is frustrating, but ten minutes later we equalise through Mukelenge and I think everything will be ok. The second half is an absolute onslaught and we batter them, but Stefan Bajic is in absolutely inspired form and keeps everything out. And then they win a free kick on the edge of our area, and everybody knows what’s going to happen. Spierings lines it up, curls it around the wall, and finds the top corner. You can’t account for that. But you can absolutely tear your team a new one for conceding a third 60 seconds later. It’s a long ball and Doukansy misses his header, allowing Ganago to race to the line and cut back for Spierings. Mara gets a consolation late on, but I am furious.
The international break gives us a chance to look at what has gone wrong in the past couple of weeks. Marseille are European challengers, and we should expect a tough game against them. Saint-Etienne are relegation strugglers and we should have beaten them. To be fair, we battered them without getting the result. And Bayer Leverkusen are a Champions League side with a much bigger budget than ours and we should have struggled. What is interesting is that Bayer played with a single striker, and the two French clubs played with two up top, which seemed to unsettle us. It has unsettled us before. We need to work on that.
Perhaps even more worryingly than our inability to play against two strikers are rumblings from the boardroom. Patrice has turned down a bid from an outside buyer, but that has led to rumours of an internal takeover. I knew Steve had been quiet for a while. Too quiet, as it turns out. He is angling to be the big boss, and I imagine only my relationship with the fans would keep me off the chopping block if that’s the case.
We return to action against a European chasing Lille side. They struggled a little last year after selling €110m of players without adequately replacing them, but Dane Jess Thorup has invested well in the summer to bring in a new crop of young, exciting talent and they have gelled quickly. We’re at full strength, apart from Diarra who is suspended. I trust neither Niakite or Doukansy in come in to what will be a crucial match, having seen them both beaten by a long ball in recent games, so Bitshiabu will partner Camara at the back. They are both 6’6” tall, so if anything goes over their heads I may sack someone.
I now wonder at what point this becomes a crisis. These are the boys that performed out of their skins last season, in the system they know backwards, with a second string that are good enough to take the pressure off them in the schedule, and yet they just will not perform. The killer blow came early, Jonathan Bamba finding space on the right a drilling into the bottom corner, and we push forward and give a reasonable account of ourselves, but just can’t get back into the game. I can’t explain it.
Of course, the team you want to play when your form is off is definitely Real Madrid, who head to the Jean Bouin next. It’s not the time to tear up everything just yet, and especially against a Madrid side who seem to tear us apart for fun even when we are on form. A win would see us through, and a win for Leverkusen against Porto would also see us through, which would be incredible. We’ll play the rested players, who I hesitate to call the second XI because they seem to be performing better than the others. Alexis Claude-Maurice comes back after his injury layoff.
I mean, it’s a pasting, but somehow we put up a fight. Vinicius Jr’s long range screamer puts us on the back foot, but the real problems start when Goncalves picks up a soft second yellow for a foul on Leon Bailey. Vini adds his second, and Kroos makes it three before the break, but Tattevin gives us hope right on the half time whistle. There’s nothing to lose, so I throw everything forward for the second half, and Farrugia brings us to within one goal on 55 minutes. But Valery trips Vini just past the hour, he’s the last man, and we’re down to nine. Claude-Maurice fades like a man just off the treatment table, and with our reduced number I have no subs left to replace him, and Vini gets his hat trick late on.
The miraculous news when we come off the pitch isn’t that Leverkusen have beaten Porto, but that it means we have clawed our way our of our Champions League group! We’re one of the big boys now, bring it on!
Lens travel to the Pierre Brisson for our final match of November. They are having a disappointing season by their recent standards, sitting in mid-table and just as far from the Champions League as they are from the relegation places. They saw a bit of a summer clear out of their ageing squad and haven’t fully replaced anyone yet. We’ll bring back the ‘first XI’ but, really, I have no idea how this will go now.
What on earth is going on? It’s like quicksand. We’ve lost all of our rhythm, all of our momentum. It’s like the players have never met before. And what hurts more is that Lens absolutely deserve the three points. We are second best throughout and our resistance finally breaks right before half time, first Vavro breaking the lines and firing past Fofana, and then Kolo Muani heading home a cross. I go ballistic at half time, and get an immediate response from Mukelenge, but that’s as good as it gets and it is now four losses on the spin.
Unsurprisingly, everybody else has capitalised on our loss of form, and we drop to fourth. Sure, we’ve played some difficult sides, but there are also sides in there at we should be beating, and I just don’t know what has happened. In my long, long career, I haven’t known a blip like it.
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[kofi]