Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc has challenged his players to face up to themselves following Saturday’s 4-2 defeat at SC Bastia, citing their lack of mental strength and criticizing their propensity to give up at “the slightest difficulty.”
Despite boasting one of the best strikers in the world in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and five players costing US$47 million or more, PSG have lost two and drawn one of their past three Ligue 1 matches to slip to fourth place in the French title race.
Poor defending, a lack of aggression in midfield, ill-discipline and fragile team spirit has blighted PSG this season.
Saturday’s loss came after PSG led 2-0 inside 20 minutes. Prior to the winter break, PSG lost 1-0 at struggling En Avant de Guingamp, a team with a minute budget compared with PSG’s.
“At the slightest difficulty, we give up... There is a mental problem,” Blanc said. “When it comes to the mental aspect, it can affect everyone. It’s very hard for a coach.”
The pressure was on PSG and Blanc ahead of yesterday’s Coupe de la Ligue quarter-final away to AS Saint-Etienne, who are in third place in Ligue 1, boast a strong home record and knocked PSG out of the competition at the same stage two seasons ago.
“The [coaching] staff has accepted responsibility,” Blanc told a press conference on Monday. “The players haven’t taken things on board yet. They’re the ones who are playing. When they play well, they get praised, and deservedly so. When results are bad, the coach’s [tactics] are questioned.”
After a scrappy 3-1 win against Ajax in the UEFA Champions League in late November, Blanc gave assurances that his team would improve significantly in the ensuing weeks.
The opposite happened.
A 3-1 loss at Barcelona was followed by the Guingamp defeat and a tepid 0-0 draw against Montpellier Herault that left the home fans glum-faced.
Blanc said he felt “anger” after the SC Bastia defeat and considers his players “lucky” to have a chance to make amends so soon after.
PSG headed into the winter break in third place behind Olympique Lyonnais and league leaders Olympique de Marseille. Despite fielding eight homegrown players in their starting lineup, cash-strapped Lyon now top the league — four points clear of big-spending PSG after 20 games — prompting fears of another upset. In the 2011-2012 campaign, PSG lost the title to unheralded Montpellier, despite leading Montpellier by three points at the winter break.
Preparations for the second half of the season started badly when Uruguay forward Edinson Cavani — the club’s most expensive signing — and Argentina winger Ezequeil Lavezzi failed to turn up for a training camp.
Blanc, France’s former national team coach, dropped them from the squad for the past two games and excluded them from training. They have resumed training, but Blanc again left them out for the trip to Saint-Etienne.
He has pledged to be tougher with his players to eradicate a culture of “special favors” reserved for certain big names at the club. Ibrahimovic, for example, was allowed to return to his native Sweden to go hunting when he was recovering from a heel injury and was rarely seen cheering on his teammates at the Parc des Princes.
Blanc has not ruled out buying or selling during this month’s transfer window, but says “everyone waits until the last minute” before doing business.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
PREDICTION: Last week, when Yu’s father made a wrong turn to the former champions’ parking lot, he said that his son could park there after this year With back-to-back birdies on the 18th hole, Kevin Yu fulfilled his driving range-owning dad’s prediction that he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship and become Taiwan’s third golfer to claim a US PGA Tour title. The Taoyuan-born 26-year-old, who represented Taiwan in the Olympic golf at Paris, saw off Californian Beau Hossler in a playoff at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday. Having drained a 15-foot putt to claw his way into the playoff, Yu rolled in from five feet on the first extra hole, ensuring he joined Chen Tze-chung (LA Open in 1987) and Pan Cheng-tsung (RBC
LeBron James and eldest son Bronny James claimed a piece of NBA history on Sunday after making their long-awaited first appearance alongside each other for the Los Angeles Lakers. The duo appeared together at the start of the second quarter in the Lakers’ 118-114 preseason defeat to the Phoenix Suns in Palm Desert, east of Los Angeles. While LeBron James impressed with 19 points in just 16 minutes and 20 seconds on court before sitting out the second half, Bronny found the going harder with zero points in just over 13 minutes on court. The younger James attempted just one
RSS