It was a repeat of last season’s Coupe de la Ligue final on Wednesday night as Paris Saint-Germain overcame a resurgent Lille OSC side who were coming into the game in decent form. Without a win in three matches, Unai Emery made multiple changes to the starting lineup that previously drew 2-2 with league leaders OGC Nice, including three players who have come through the PSG youth academy.
The former Sevilla FC manager was in need of a positive result and his changes worked to his benefit. Nineteen-year-old Christopher Nkunku was the star of the match and may have earned more playing time as Paris enter the second half of the season. His dribbling, vision, and game-management was impressive and didn’t go unnoticed. After just one league start, Nkunku was in need of confidence to convince the PSG staff that he is capable of competing at this level. Certainly, the young Parisian still has a lot to learn in terms of technique and tactical awareness but he showed glimpses as to why he is so highly rated.
Rotating a squad can make it difficult to get the balance right and to continue the philosophy of the coach. For big clubs like PSG, squad depth is a must if they want to fight for every trophy available to them, including the UEFA Champions League. Emery utilized his squad well and wasn’t afraid to start players like Jesé Rodriguez and Grzegorz Krychowiak, who were in need of playing time and confidence. The convincing 3-1 victory showed the array of talent Emery has at his disposal and the players who did make an appearance should be commended for snapping the streak of disappointing results.
Despite controlling the majority of the game and winning it fairly comfortably, there were a few concerns which will give Emery some pause. In contrast to Nkunku, Jean-Kevin Augustin was one of the few disappointments. He was intelligent in his off-the-ball movement but wasteful in front of goal and his failure to score at least one of his chances will make management’s decision to sign another striker in the next two transfer windows a lot easier.
Another negative on the night was the lack of defending on the late goal to Lille. Marko Baša rose highest and was allowed to head the ball into the net. With Barcelona coming up in the Champions League, these kind of errors will cost PSG massively and they need to be addressed. However, the defense did look solid throughout the match but will need to cut out the silly errors that have plagued them all season.
After the win, the draw for the quarterfinal of the Coupe de la Ligue took place and Paris will face FC Metz at home in the next round. The game will take Wednesday, January 11, 2017.
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Photograph by FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images
There are still some negatives about us, but at least we are coming back with a win. We’re getting back on track.
For me the win was pretty unimpressive. I don’t care if we win 1-0 or 2-1 if we play OUR game and dominate, especially if we come up against a formidable foe, but we should be winning matches by four goal margins on the trot. I don’t feel we REALLY played the way we should, and that’s concerning. A win is always good for the confidence, but we’ve won too many matches playing poorly and it caught up with us vs Montpellier, although I must be honest and say we’ve been VERY unfortunate in our matches leading up to this Cup tie.
For Christmas I’m hoping that Emery gives this squad an actual identify, along with Luan from Gremio and Perisic from Inter.?