Player discontent and second in Ligue 1 - what’s going on at PSG?

But at a time when PSG are struggling to recapture the magic of last season, and with the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie away to Monaco on Tuesday looming, Dembélé’s remarks have underlined that Luis Enrique’s side are not where they had hoped to be at this stage of the campaign.

There have been glimpses, in recent weeks, of the swashbuckling football that propelled Les Parisiens to an unprecedented six-trophy haul in 2025, when only defeat by Chelsea in the Club World Cup final denied them a clean sweep of every competition they were engaged in. Recent league results have included a breezy 3-0 victory over Lille and a historic 5-0 demolition of arch rivals Marseille, as well as a hard-fought 2-1 away win against Strasbourg.

But PSG were bundled out of the Coupe de France by their neighbours, Paris FC, exiting the tournament at their earliest stage for 12 years, and Friday’s defeat by Rennes left them second in Ligue 1, a point behind surprise title contenders Lens.

That they should even have to face Monaco this week, meanwhile, owes to a dismal return of two points from a possible nine from the final three matches of the Champions League’s first phase, culminating in a frustrating 1-1 draw at home against Newcastle United.

One of PSG’s main problems has been that, in many ways, last season simply never stopped. After losing 3-0 to Chelsea in New Jersey on July 13, PSG’s players were given three weeks off and then, with barely a week of training in their legs, found themselves facing off against Tottenham Hotspur in the Uefa Super Cup in Udine on August 13. They began their Ligue 1 title defence away to Nantes four days later.

The inevitable consequence has been a glut of injuries, with key performers such as Dembélé, Doué, João Neves and Bradley Barcola among those to have spent time on the sidelines nursing muscular complaints.

PSG’s recruitment has been underwhelming too. Illia Zabarnyi, the Ukraine centre back, has struggled to find his feet since arriving from Bournemouth last summer and Lucas Chevalier has proved such an underwhelming replacement for Gianluigi Donnarumma that he has lost his place in the side to Matvey Safonov, the Russian back-up goalkeeper.

Although PSG invariably dominate their matches, they have occasionally struggled to convert that dominance into goals in a manner that has brought to mind the difficulties they encountered in the first half of last season.

“I was surprised by their defeat against Rennes,” José-Karl Pierre-Fanfan, the former PSG and Monaco centre back, told The Times.

“There was no continuity whatsoever with the performance against Marseille. But physically, they’re all doing a lot better and that augurs well. I think the problem is more psychological. Are they as connected as they were during the second half of last season? Maybe the slap in the face against Rennes occurred at a good time.”

Playing Monaco could prove to be a good omen. PSG also had to go through the play-off round last season and also came up against domestic opposition, trouncing Brest 10-0 on aggregate in a result that provided a springboard to their long-awaited maiden victory in the tournament.

Given their own difficulties this season, Monaco could be forgiven for approaching the tie with a sense of trepidation. The club from the principality sacked their head coach, Adi Hütter, in October after an indifferent start to the campaign, but their form got even worse under his successor, Sébastien Pocognoli. The 38-year-old Belgian coach, who led Union Saint-Gilloise to the league title in his homeland last season, oversaw a run of seven defeats in eight Ligue 1 games that left Monaco’s hopes of Champions League qualification in tatters.

But it is Monaco’s Brazilian chief executive, Thiago Scuro, who has found himself the target of supporters’ protests, having overseen a close-season recruitment drive that has spectacularly failed to deliver. Eager to add experience and top-level know-how to Monaco’s talented but callow squad, Scuro brought in Paul Pogba, the former England centre back Eric Dier, veteran Finnish goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky and one-time Barcelona starlet Ansu Fati, but injuries have restricted the quartet to only 20 league starts between them.

Although Monaco were thrashed 6-1 by Real Madrid in their penultimate league-phase match, they have showed signs of improvement since then, losing only one of their past six games in all competitions.

“Their most recent games show that they’re capable of being more compact and defending better,” Pierre-Fanfan said. “But defending isn’t enough — they somehow need to win and it’s hard to see them doing that.”

Monaco will nevertheless draw encouragement from the fact that during their run of seven defeats in eight league games, the one match they avoided losing, in late November, was a clinical 1-0 home win over PSG. Repeat the feat on Tuesday and Dembélé will not be the only one sounding the alarm.

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