Hakimi's Recurrent Paris Crisis: When the Defense Keeps Letting Paris Down
21 November 2025
PSG's Defensive Fragility Persists into 2025-26
Paris Saint-Germain, under Spanish coach Luis Enrique, is grappling with a stubborn defensive crisis right from the season’s start.
What the Le Parisien Report Reveals
Le Parisien highlighted the fragility of PSG's defense in a Friday report, underscoring how the backline looks exposed when key players are unavailable.
For the eleventh time this season, Enrique will need to reshuffle the back four against Le Havre on Saturday in Ligue 1’s round 13, as injuries rule out Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi for weeks, forcing the coach to deploy a less robust defensive unit.
The usual back four of Hakimi, Marquinhos, Willian Batshu and Mendes has started only five of 17 matches this season, contributing to a defensive stretch where the team has conceded 18 goals—two more than the same period in 2024-25.
Le Parisien also notes that PSG remains among the league’s best defensive outfits, tied with Marseille and Lens after 12 rounds, but at a rate of 0.92 goals per game they sit 22nd among Europe’s five major leagues.
The report adds that defense isn’t the only problem: the work off the ball is the least effective, with long injury lists to key ball-winners and playmakers hampering pressing and ball recovery.
Enrique arranges his attack based on the opponent, and the front line’s efficiency hinges on timing, pressure, and build-up. The forward trio—Dembele, a versatile Doy, and Kvartsakhreliya (Kvaratskhelia) when available—can threaten, but injuries have kept them from regular starts this season.
The paper also suggests PSG wouldn’t have conceded three goals in the 3-3 draw with Strasbourg on October 17 if that trio had been on the pitch, given the reduced pressure and the attackers’ lack of bite in those moments.
Le Parisien notes that Enrique publicly praises his defense’s solidity, yet he knows the team could be better once the two newcomers, Lucas Chevalier and Illya Zabarnyi, fully integrate with the style of play.
Chevalier and Zabarnyi are trusted with substantial responsibility and are being asked to absorb Enrique’s ideas, regain balance, and anchor PSG’s defense for the present and the future. It’s a grueling path for a duo tasked with stabilizing a back line that has stumbled early in the campaign.
Results for PSG in 2025-2026
PSG have eight league wins, one loss to Marseille (0-1) and two draws so far this season. They beat Nantes and Angers 1-0 in the opening rounds, then overwhelmed Toulouse 6-3, defeated Lens 2-0, and downed Auxerre 2-0.
Before the international break in October, they drew away to Lille (1-1) and at home with Strasbourg (3-3), briefly losing top spot before bouncing back with wins over Brest and Nice and a narrow victory over Lyon as they chase a fifth straight domestic title.
In Europe, PSG started five matches with four wins. They lifted the UEFA Super Cup against Tottenham on penalties after a 2-2 draw, then began their Champions League campaign with a 4-0 win over Atalanta, a 2-1 win at Montjuïc against Barcelona, and a 7-2 demolition of Bayer Leverkusen in Germany, before a 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in the fourth game.
Punchline 1: If defense is a joke, PSG’s backline is the one-liner that keeps being told on repeat—and somehow nobody’s laughing yet. Punchline 2: They say defense wins championships; PSG seems to be winning the award for most creative ways to concede goals this season. It’s comedy, with a very expensive cast.
