Playing Ligue 1 on easy mode has turned PSG into the dominant force in Europe

Analysis

Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

This season's Champions League has sparked a lot of debates over fixture congestion and squad rotation.

With the exception of finalists Arsenal, English teams found it difficult to reach the required performance levels to advance through the knockout stages. Liverpool haplessly crashed out in the quarter-finals, while Man City and Newcastle didn't even make it past the round of 16.

This English underperformance was, in large part, put down to players simply being knackered. Because the Premier League has become so hypercompetitive, Champions League teams can't play their backups domestically and remain truly competitive.

The Premier League is also much less accommodating of its European teams. Whereas Ligue 1 reschedules games to ease the burden on its clubs, English sides are afforded no such luxury. Ultimately, though, the English top flight is a victim of its own success.

Because of its absurd financial supremacy, which means that even middling teams can outbid European giants, every game is a slog. The floor of the average Premier League side is higher than the ceiling of most teams around the world.

PSG's squad management

Compared to back-to-back finalists PSG, the difference in squad management is stark. The Parisians have looked fresh and fine-tuned in the Champions League knockout stages because they have effectively treated Ligue 1 as an afterthought.

Luis Enrique basically confirmed as much ahead of what should have been a title-decider against RC Lens earlier this month, when he admitted that he was already thinking about Arsenal. In the end, the game mattered very little because it had been controversially moved.

What should have been the biggest game of the Ligue 1 season was a dead rubber as the Parisians had the title all but wrapped up, while Lens had to manage their squad because the rescheduling meant that they were forced to play three games in nine days.

Ligue 1 is stuck in an awkward position where PSG treating it as inconsequential is, strangely, positive. The Parisians going deep in Europe is good for the league, and if it leads to a title race back home because PSG play the kids, then that's even better for the division's attractiveness.

At the same time, though, if PSG end up winning Ligue 1 - as they often do - with just a B team, it reflects poorly on the league. This is exactly what happened this season.

Enrique has heavily rotated his side in domestic play. Incredibly, captain Marquinhos has played fewer minutes in Ligue 1 than in the Champions League this term. He started just 11 league games and went seven matches without playing at all between February and April.

Ousmane Dembele has started the same number of Ligue 1 games, though he admittedly struggled with injury in the early parts of the season. This, though, is also one of PSG's advantages: they don't have to run their players into the ground if they're not fully fit.

Dembele withdrew from PSG's final Ligue 1 match of the season after just 27 minutes due to some discomfort. He is now expected to be fit again for the final against Arsenal.

The likes of Ilya Zabarnyi, Lucas Beraldo and Lucas Hernandez have basically only played Ligue 1 football all season. They have held down the fort domestically, while the big guns have been used in the Champions League.

20-year-old Senny Mayulu played almost 1,700 minutes in Ligue 1, but just under 450 in the Champions League. Kang-in Lee played 1,500 domestically and 263 in Europe. For Goncalo Ramos, the discrepancy is even bigger: 1,300 to just 171.

The fact that only three PSG players played more than 2000 minutes in Ligue 1 is remarkable. By comparison, Arsenal have nine. Three of them played over 3,000 minutes in the Premier League.

Arsenal have five players who have played more than 4,000 minutes across all competitions. PSG have just one: Warren Zaire-Emery, who has had to step into the breach as a makeshift right-back to cover for the injured Achraf Hakimi.

It is no surprise, then, that PSG have looked incredibly fit in the Champions League. Their Ligue 1 domination - even in a season where Lens ran them close - has allowed them to perfectly manage their players for the biggest occasions.

Arsenal will be up for Saturday's final, but don't be surprised if PSG's fresh stars run rings around the battle-hardened but fatigued Gunners.