Epic Failure: Arrogance and Mistakes Cost Paris Saint-Germain at Newcastle
Arrogance and tactics cost PSG against inspired Newcastle squad.
It’s back to the drawing board for Paris Saint-Germain as they head home to the French capital licking their wounds following a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Newcastle United F.C. in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
The signs of an incoming disaster class were clear as day before kickoff. When Luis Enrique’s starting XI was revealed, many, including myself, scratched their heads, wondering what the former FC Barcelona manager was thinking. Why would he go with a 4-2-4 formation with Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Randal Kolo Muani, and Gonçalo Ramos? Perhaps he knew something we non-managers didn’t? Maybe he spotted a weakness in Newcastle’s defense? As it turned out, it was pure and utter arrogance, and the lack of a midfield killed PSG the second the opening whistle was blown.
Marquinhos madness
As bad as the formation was, Luis Enrique wasn’t the one who carelessly gave away an early goal. That was Marquinhos. With a raucous St. James’ Park in full voice, cheering on every move from the home team while verbally applying pressure on PSG, the Brazil international unsurprisingly cracked under the pressure.
From his penalty box, Marquinhos attempted to play out from the back to no one in particular. His half-hearted attempt at a chip was cut out and landed at the feet of Alexander Isak in front of PSG’s goal. Gianluigi Donnarumma brilliantly saved his shot, but Milan Škriniar couldn’t collect the rebound, and Miguel Almirón made PSG pay for the mistake with a clinical finish in the 17th minute.
VAR mistake?
Like we’ve seen in years before, PSG couldn’t regroup after an early mental error, and it was all downhill from here. In the 39th minute, the 6’6” Dan Burn headed home a cross that just barely beat Donnarumma and was given as a goal after a lengthy VAR check. My issue with this goal is that it appears Jamaal Lascelles got a hand on the ball in the initial cross into the box before the goal, and perhaps VAR should have disallowed the goal due to this infraction. When it rains, it pours…
So, it’s nearly halftime, and PSG found themselves down 2-0 thanks to a Marquinhos mistake and a VAR decision that didn’t go their way. Surely Luis Enrique would make changes at halftime regarding substitutions and formation, right? Well, after the teams came out, PSG looked exactly the same. Zero changes were made, and in the 50th minute, Sean Longstaff ran between the cavernous PSG defense and scored with a low shot that beat Donnarumma.
A deserved defeat
Three goals to nil in less than an hour, and the game was essentially done from there. PSG managed to pull a goal back in the 56th minute, thanks to Lucas Hernández. Warren Zaïre-Emery, the 17-year-old who was PSG’s best player on the night, chipped a pass over the Newcastle defense, and the PSG defender got his head on the ball and guided it past Nick Pope for a consolation goal.
A 3-1 scoreline would have been too flattering for this PSG performance, and Fabian Schär made sure it was clear who the better side was. In stoppage time, the Switzerland international fired an absolute rocket that beat Donnarumma and put an exclamation point on Newcastle’s victory.
Following the match, Luis Enrique said:
“These are difficult games to go through as a coach. I think our attitude was very good at the start of the game, we were good under pressure, we managed to get over the top, we had the first chance with Dembélé. I think the result is a bit unfair. Not totally unfair, but I think it’s excessive. I congratulate Newcastle. Why no change of set-up in the second half? Because I thought it was the best, and I still think it was.”
That right there says it all. If you want to know why PSG lost this match, it comes down to arrogance. PSG thought they could dictate the style of play and do whatever they wanted against Newcastle, and that just wasn’t the case. To be fair, I don’t think any club in the world would have gone into Newcastle Wednesday night and got a result. That’s how impactful the crowd was there. It was decades of pent-up frustration that was finally released in the cold, rainy night sky and it acted as fuel for the Newcastle players.
Eddie Howe’s team pressed PSG relentlessly and forced bad pass after bad pass. In the first half, PSG didn’t record a shot on goal despite having most of the possession. After the final whistle, Mbappé didn’t complete a single take-on against Newcastle defenders and was largely absent during the match. This was an abject failure on every level for PSG. There was no midfield, no sense of urgency, no cohesive gameplan, and the team was run out of the stadium by an undermanned Newcastle side.
Changes are needed
With all that being said, the season is not over for PSG. Despite Newcastle’s heroics, they did not lift a trophy tonight. Group F was always going to be a battle, and thanks to Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan playing to a scoreless draw, PSG finds themselves in second place, one point behind Newcastle. Matchday three, which has Milan traveling to the Parc des Princes, will be a must-win match for PSG, but for now, all of PSG’s goals are in front of them, and they now know that the 4-2-4 formation is a non-starter moving forward.
Not only should that formation be scrapped, but there needs to be adjustments to who starts for PSG in these big matches. Vitinha was the man of the match against Dortmund on matchday one but found himself on the bench against Newcastle. He needs to start in the midfield alongside Zaïre-Emery and Manuel Ugarte. Mbappé and Dembélé need to play on the wings with either Kolo Muani or Ramos as the striker. On defense, I’d love to bench Marquinhos, but there are not a lot of options unless you want to pair Danilo Pereira with Škriniar, which could come with its own problems. Another option would be to play Škriniar alongside Hernández at center-back, with Achraf Hakimi and Nordi Mukiele as your full-backs, but that will need to be tested in Ligue 1 to see if it works.
There’s plenty of work for Luis Enrique to do once the team returns from the north of England. This needs to be a learning lesson for the entire squad. No longer can they let their arrogance get in the way. Just because PSG has a lot of attacking options, it doesn’t mean all of them have to be deployed at once. There needs to be a pragmatic approach to Champions League matches. Every opponent is different, and some destinations are more challenging to play in than others. Luis Enrique would have learned some valuable lessons Wednesday night, and now it’s time to see if he can make the necessary improvements.
Next for PSG
Paris Saint-Germain travels to Stade Rennais on Sunday, October 8, for a fixture they traditionally struggle in. Rennes has several talented players who could pose issues for PSG, including Amine Gouiri, Benjamin Bourigeaud, Adrien Truffert, and former PSG attacker Arnaud Kalimuendo. It will be a good test to see if PSG can rebound from defeat and secure a much-needed three points. Currently, after seven matches, PSG sits in fifth place in Ligue 1 on 12 points.
Following the match against Rennes, we’re hit with an international break, and then PSG hosts RC Strasbourg on October 21 before welcoming Milan to Paris for matchday three of the Champions League group stage.