PSG invested heavily in the summer but are still relying on the A team

Luis Enrique wants to rest his stars for the Champions League but they keep having to dig out the team in Ligue 1

Luis Enrique said it was “typical” that Paris Saint-Germain only managed to see off newly-promoted Le Mans after his four changes around the hour mark. But it is also worrying and borderline damning.

Ligue 1 has felt like a side quest for PSG in recent years. Not only have the club succeeded in rearranging league games to aid their Champions League campaign , but their stars rarely feature in the domestic league. Ousmane Dembélé started just 12 Ligue 1 games last season, but that didn’t prevent him winning, contentiously, the player of the season award. He was not on the teamsheet on Saturday night when PSG hosted Le Mans, nor was Nuno Mendes. Both were rested. It’s only mid-October, but it is already clear where PSG’s focus lies.

It also informed their summer transfer dealings. PSG spent more than €150m, but none of the players brought in looked likely to dislodge the starters in their position. They are there to facilitate rest, not to shake up the hierarchy; when they feature you’re likely to hear the words “squad management”.

And as the players returned after the extended international break, those two words were very much in vogue. Saturday provided opportunities. Mika Godts, Maghnes Akliouche and Ferran Torres, who cost a combined €150m, all started. Further back, there were chances for Dro Fernández and Lucas Beraldo in midfield, and Lucas Digne, Lucas Hernández and Illia Zabarnyi at the back. This is their stage; players such as Willian Pacho, Fabián Ruiz, Désiré Doué, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Dembélé, Mendes and Vitinha have their own.

However, four of the first string had to be parachuted in against Le Mans. Beraldo had given PSG the lead from the penalty spot midway through the first half, but Le Mans posed questions of a defence that cannot really be described as makeshift, weaker, yes, but these are players played by choice, not obligation, and are often fielded on these nights.

Louis Mafouta dragged Patrick Videira’s side back into it with a first-time finish from a whipped cross. Luis Enrique was eulogistic about the work done by his opposite number, and rightly so. The newly promoted side have troubled some of the big guns in Ligue 1 and on a shoestring budget. The contrast in PSG’s 3-1 win was stark. As stated, there was €150m of attacking talent alone on PSG’s side; Le Mans’ best player so far this season has been Adil Bourabaa, absent on the night but signed for a mere €15,000 in January.

Around €100m of PSG talent made way an hour into the game. On came Kvaratskhelia, Ruiz, Doué and Vitinha. It was a long-range effort from Ruiz that was spilt into the path of Kvaratskhelia to score just two minutes after coming on.

Akliouche’s performances have been frustrating since he joined for €50m from Monaco, but he was the only attacker spared from Luis Enrique’s mid-game switch-up, and he justified the decision by scoring his first goal for PSG to wrap up victory.

PSG have won their last three league games but they have not been convincing in any of them. The summer transfer window was about constructing an alternate XI capable of winning the league at a canter.

That the big guns are being called upon appears to be an issue but, if PSG don’t replicate their European success this season, it won’t be because Kvaratskhelia, Doué, Mendes and so on were forced into a few more minutes in Ligue 1. It is will be because those players are not being pushed.

PSG’s motivation to go again in the Champions League was questioned last year, and they delivered an emphatic response. The presence of Bradley Barcola meant that four genuine world-class forwards were competing for three positions. His departure to Liverpool means Godts, Akliouche and Torres have to step up and push the starters. Torres’s performance against Le Mans was his worst in a PSG shirt; Godts hasn’t got going since joining; and while Akliouche “surprised” Luis Enrique with his performance, he lacks consistency.

PSG will probably make nine outfield changes for their Champions League match against Manchester City on Wednesday. The issues evident against Le Mans should not be a factor against Enzo Maresca’s side. But there is a feeling that PSG, more so than last year, are walking a tightrope. Luis Enrique’s squad is thin by design, but the players brought in to win Ligue 1 games are struggling to do that. It would, therefore, be a big ask for them to win a third consecutive Champions League. Luis Enrique will hope they won’t have to.

The overriding feeling for Marseille was relief after they beat fellow strugglers Troyes 2-0 to move out of the relegation zone. Bruno Génésio’s side lost four of their first five Ligue 1 games this season and went into the international break second-bottom. It had been a tough run of fixtures, with the losses to Monaco, Paris FC, Rennes and PSG, all of whom are riding high. Games against Troyes, Angers and Le Havre will give us a more accurate sense of Marseille’s true level.

On Sunday’s evidence, their level is not high and their ceiling is low. Even their own goalkeeper, Jeffrey De Lange, admitted they “weren’t good” against Troyes, who missed two glorious late chances and were only killed off with a 98th-minute penalty. Troyes have dropped into the bottom two, and while Marseille should avoid a relegation scrap, a vertiginous rise up the table looks unlikely.

Dário Essugo, on loan from Chelsea, made his first start and scored his first goal for Strasbourg in their 2-1 defeat at Nice. It is a big season for the Portugal youth international if he is to carve out a place in the Chelsea side. Jonathan Clauss scored the winner for Nice. Having failed to win a home game in Ligue 1 for almost a year, they have won two on the bounce.

For Strasbourg, there are legitimate concerns, and many of them: creativity, consistency and defensive solidity, among others. It hasn’t been an easy start for new manager Hugo Oliveira. His task of creating coherence from a mass influx of players over the summer is an unenviable one. Still, he is not meeting expectations.