Pressure builds on PSG players, coach and director despite late win over Lille

W hen PSG were trailing Lille 3-2 with 15 minutes to play, coach Christophe Galtier was joined on the touchline at the Parc des Princes. Famed sporting director Luis Campos, who engineered Lille and Monaco’s recent title-winning squads, left his usual seat in the stands to bark orders and complain about decisions. Although known to be fiercely opinionated, Campos’ ire spilling over in such a public fashion is unprecedented. After three consecutive defeats in three competitions last week, pressure is growing on Galtier. Campos, it seems, feels it too.

Lionel Messi’s injury-time free-kick eventually won the game for PSG 4-3 but it did little to mask the team’s continued disjointed form, which has come at the worst possible time for Galtier. It had been a tough week, with PSG knocked out of the Coupe de France by Marseille, beaten 3-1 by Monaco in the league, and then – with Kylian Mbappé only fit for the bench – defeated 1-0 in Paris by Bayern Munich to put them on the brink of Champions League elimination.

The situation says more about Campos’ failures as a sporting director than Galtier’s struggles as a coach. Few other directors in world football would have appointed Galtier, who was always Campos’ only priority after the pair had worked together at Lille. Galtier heads a group of workmanlike but adaptable and quietly effective French coaches who have toured Ligue 1’s top half this century. His peers are the likes of Claude Puel and Rudi Garcia. They are experienced and strategically astute managers, but lack the flair, tactical innovation and overarching ideas to rival managers such as Julian Nagelsmann or Pep Guardiola.

Admittedly, Galtier’s charismatic persona and considered game-to-game strategy puts him in the