Analysis of Ligue 1 and PSG's Dominance

This is just scary to look at. They're so good.

It is, isn't it? And the only French club as well to win

the competition.

Uh, what, what are your expectations, I suppose, of Ligue 1?

'Cause everybody's given them a 99 point-

The whole-

You have 99% chance of winning. With the way French

football looks right now with PSG and obviously the French national

team, at some point, do you think we'll see Ligue 1 become more

competitive or do you think it's just gonna be a case of PSG running away with

it

for the next few years?

I, I hope so, but the one thing that PSG have that others can't do,

they can look

at Monaco and look at Ekluse and go, "You're good.

Come here." And they, they, they're getting better by taking away the

best

young talent from other teams. And because they have the money

and they're winning,

it's very hard for a young player to go, "Oh, no, no, I wanna stay here and learn

my trade." You're gonna go where the best are and, and keep winning, uh, titles.

I thought today Ekluse looked really off the pace.

It looked like the game was a bit too quick for him,

but he'll get better as the,

as the, uh, games go. But the reason I think they're gonna win

the league

99.9%, if they wanted to today, they could've had a

completely different front three of Barcola, Dembele, and Mbappé if

they wanted to, just as a front three.

Then they could've went Fabian Ruiz in midfield. Again, if they wanted to.

Could've put Dinou at left back. They could've put Zabarnyi in at center

back.

They have the opportunity in a league which, you know, respectfully,

isn't as strong all the way through.

When they need to take four, five, six players out, they can put these

guys back in. The goalkeeper they bought last year for,

what, 67 million pounds-

Schäfer, yeah

... doesn't even, doesn't even get a game.

Yeah.

So they, they're in a position that they can go, "Okay,

let's look at how it is.

The Champions League's coming up.

Let's change this and put somebody else in."

PSG are the Bayern Munich of the, of Ligue 1.

That's the best way to put it, really. They're both superpowers in their league.

Like Troy said, they can go and buy the best young players from other

teams.

The reason why Ligue 1 isn't as competitive is because Ligue 1 generally

is a

selling league. If they kept more of the young players

from the other teams in the

league longer, then maybe the league could get a bit

competitive.

But if it's not PSG buying the best players,

you've got the Premier League teams

coming in-

Mm

... picking out some of the best players from

that league.

So the young players don't get to stay there long enough to develop,

to build something around these clubs, and make it more of a challenge for

PSG. That's the problem, because the whole league generally has

become a selling

league. So all the best young players will end up

going to a Premier League team,

a, a La Liga team, or maybe even a Serie A team.

Mm. And is it another huge advantage this

season, Grel, in the fact that,

that they don't maybe have to have that close title race?

It, I know in the past it has come down, hasn't it, to the last couple of match

days. But, but overall, they're the ove- overwhelming favorites, and as

we've seen, the calendar's kind to them when,

when the Champions League schedule

comes out.

It, it presents a different challenge for them

is, like, how do you get the guys to

go? Because then you have to play Champions

League, and you have to play in some

big games throughout the season. So then it's like,

it's not like you just press a

button and the guys are ready. So you have to play at a high level the

whole time

anyway. Also, they play against teams, I think, a lot in the French League that

will sit in on them, so they're looking at a little bit of a d-

a different game at

times. Um, but for sure, if, like, you're in the Premier League

and you're looking

at your match up on the weekend, and you guys obviously have been there,

is there, are there easy games in the Premier

League? I don't th- I don't think so.

Even when you play the small teams in the Premier League, you know you're gonna get

kicked. You know you're gonna be... It's a long 90 minutes.

So I think for sure, mathematically, it's harder for the English teams to go

and, and, and go further in Europe when you have the luxury of playing Ligue

1.

And again, no disrespect to them because, by the way, some unbelievable young

talents. Athletic, sharp, really unbelievable technical talents in

that league. I've had coa- I've had friends who have coached in

that league, who,

who have called me and said, "You, it, they'll blow your mind." Like, the am- the

amount of physicality and technical ability in that league.

So not taking nothing away from them, but it's harder to do it as an English

team

and, and maybe even sometimes as an Italian

team.

Mm.

Because the league has more parity in it. And because also we have the rights.

Um, and-