Friday, September 26, 2008

PSG v Grenoble match preview

Week seven of the campaign has Mehmed Baždarević's Grenoble visit Parc des Princes to face PSG. Promotion to Ligue 1 for the club from the Rhône-Alpes region has brought extraordinary success as they have shown tactical precision and disciplined play. While they quite possibly have one of the thinnest squads in the upper-tier of Football in France, I very much doubt you can find a group as unified in play, coaching and intent at this stage of the season. In the first six matches of the young season they have defeated both Monaco and Stade Rennais, drawing level to Valenciennes and losing to Olympique Lyonnais and Girondins de Bordeaux in very well played matches.

Tactically, at this stage of the season, their opposition have played into their style and allowed them to get behind the ball when defending. However they are far too disciplined to allow good sight-lines in a slower attack but are susceptible to more pace-driven and crossing assaults, which bodes well for Ludovic Giuly, Stéphane Sessegnon, Jérôme Rothen and Mateja Kežman. Grenoble's back-four will be without Martial Robin who is serving a suspension from the Bordeaux match as well. Claude Makélélé will direct the PSG backline to pay particular care with Grenoble's attacking force of Daniel Moreira, Nassim Akrour and Franck Djadjede. Summarily, the key to defeating Grenoble is taking the match to them, not allowing them to get into a rhythm.