Paris Saint-Germain suffered a 1-3 defeat against AS Monaco last Friday in the 25th round of Ligue 1 for the 2025-2026 season. This defeat was all it took to add another layer of drama to the already tense situation, especially with the upcoming Champions League Round of 16 first leg against Chelsea this Wednesday (kick-off at 9 pm, CET). The return leg is on Tuesday, March 17th. Unsurprisingly, former French international turned pundit Christophe Dugarry has been highlighting key moments to assess PSG’s current predicament.
Dugarry: “Everything that made them strong for five months is gone.”
“PSG is outdated, lacking ideas, it’s quite sad. Luis Enrique’s self-persuasion or positive thinking has its limits. At some point, reality catches up with you: your team can’t keep up. Everything that made them strong for five months is gone. We shouldn’t be afraid to speak the truth. And nobody is certain of anything.
For five months, we saw an exceptional Paris Saint-Germain. That means we might never see Paris Saint-Germain at that level again. We need to hear that. And even the players need to hear it. We’ve all had moments in our careers where we were on fire. It lasted weeks, months, years, it depends…
Dugarry: “They’ve become a team that no longer inspires fear.”
There are levers that exist: resting during the off-season and not going to the Champions League.” In the world of clubs, bringing in players who would revitalize the squad and bring something new hasn’t been done. There are plenty of potential levers that haven’t been activated because Paris Saint-Germain felt very strong, and rightfully so. They thought, “That’ll be enough,” but it isn’t. Today, Paris Saint-Germain is unrecognizable. It’s become a team that no longer inspires fear.
Luis Enrique is finally starting to worry. Positive thinking isn’t working anymore. I hope for everyone who loves Paris Saint-Germain that things will improve, but I’ve been worried for a while now.
PSG has been less dazzling lately than at the end of last season, that’s undeniable. And the accuracy of Dugarry’s “analysis” ends there. To dare to claim that Paris is “without ideas” because of a few hiccups in its results is bordering on disrespectful to the team and its coach, Luis Enrique. It’s also disrespectful to the listeners and readers of RMC Sport, who might expect a modicum of seriousness in the football analyses offered there.
The Parisians appeared somewhat physically fatigued, possibly prioritizing the Champions League for higher-intensity performances. There’s a real lack of efficiency, caused in particular by a slight loss of confidence. This is something that coach Luis Enrique himself admitted.
But how can anyone say that Paris has lost its game plan? Or that this team is “no longer intimidating”? Can we really disregard its consistently dominant style of play and its philosophy simply because goals have been lacking and a few errors have led to conceding?
Against Monaco, we can cite several key statistics (according to Whoscored): 20 shots to 11, 72% possession, more successful dribbles (10 to 4), more aerial duels won (15 to 2), more corners (7 to 3), and more balls into the opposing penalty area (53 to 19). This suggests that the result alone isn’t enough to conclude that PSG is in dire straits. This holds true for most of their poor results in recent weeks (Athletic Bilbao, Sporting, Rennes…).
As for the “levers,” it’s not as if PSG could suddenly cancel their participation in the Club World Cup after realizing they’ve qualified for the Champions League final. There’s also the revenue generated and the title that was within reach. This season, we’ve also seen opportunities for young players, which is important in a project. And Dugarry himself said it: PSG could legitimately consider themselves “very strong.” Not to mention that signing new players has never guaranteed progress; Liverpool is a prime example this season.
It’s sad to see such strong statements made without any basis in analysis on one of the most followed sports media outlets in the country. We’ve been worried about the level of football analysis for a while now. Some people are out of touch, completely lacking in ideas.
