Following PSG's loss to Nice, Paul Le Guen summarized the match perfectly when he stated they had "no fighting spirit." That may have been kind in-fact as it appears that following the triumphant victory over l'OM many of the players have been spending their time reading press reports of how brilliant they are playing. While two consecutive losses is not a nail-in-the-coffin, gutless, half-hearted attempts are not worthy of crest and an embarrassment.
Heading into the match, PSG had a difficult task and while their is no shame in losing, the 1-0 loss to the Niçois at Stade du Ray lacked effort and inspiration. That being said both Stéphane Sessegnon and Guillaume Hoarau had early opportunities to score but their efforts were no match to veteran 'keeper and a former fixture at PSG, Lionel Letizi. However Nice would take the lead five minutes before the break when set plays once again created havoc for PSG as David Hellebuyck was nodded-in by Eric Mouloungui with marking best phrased as pathétique. After the break, Paul Le Guen summoned Mateja Kežman and Ludovic Giuly from the bench to replace Clément Chantôme and Guillaume Hoarau up-front but unfortunately mid-field play lacked creativity, work-rate and intent. Opportunities to score were few and far between and PSG fell rather lifelessly 1-0.
With the match aside, PSG returns to Ligue 1 action against Lille next Sunday sitting eleventh in the table. Between then and now, Paul Le Guen must address the fight of the club. After the match he commented:
"I gave them a right tongue-lashing because they needed it. I can't explain why we played the first half like that.
"I'm incredibly frustrated and the players know it. We won at Marseille because we worked hard for it, but here, I didn't feel the players had any desire to go out and look for the win.
"It wasn't a physical problem. The players were just lacking aggression and determination. It was in their heads."
"This team has to work if it wants to live up to its own ambitions. I don't ever want to see my players head out looking so soft and hope that things are just going to work out.
"What angers me, is that there was no fighting spirit which needs to be present all the time. It worried me that I tell myself: 'How can the players be incapable of measuring the importance of a game against Nice?'."
It is important to mention that the inclusion of Mateja Kežman and Ludovic Giuly after the break, increased that "fighting" spirit. While Ludovic's injury has kept him off the pitch, Mateja has inexplicably never seen his role never truly materialize with the club and for the betterment of the club hopefully this is start of seeing these two paired on a regular basis.
PSG
Mickaël Landreau,Mamadou Sakho,Zoumana Camara,Sylvain Armand,Ceará (Jérémy Clément 78')
Claude Makélélé,Jérôme Rothen,Stéphane Sessegnon,Péguy Luyindula,Guillaume Hoarau (Mateja Kežman 45'),Clément Chantôme (Ludovic Giuly 45')
Nice
Lionel Letizi,Cedric Kante,Onyekachi Apam,Cyril Rool,Drissa Diakite,Olivier Echouafni,David Hellebuyck,Cyril Jeunechamp,Habib Bamogo(Mahamane Traore 76'),Loïc Remy (Eric Mouloungui 10', Anthony Modeste 85'),Emerse Fae
