Blanc fearful of poor PSG start

Laurent Blanc is fearful of Paris Saint-Germain dropping points at the start of the season, despite Saturday’s Trophee des Champions win.

Blanc’s PSG side retained the French Super Cup with a 2-0 victory over Guingamp at the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was again the talisman for PSG, scoring both goals in the first half of a one-sided contest against the Coupe de France winners.

Despite the comfortable nature of PSG’s victory, Blanc is worried the champions could yet suffer setbacks in the opening weeks of the Ligue 1 campaign.

Thiago Silva, David Luiz and Maxwell have not featured in pre-season following their World Cup exploits, while Yohan Cabaye, Blaise Matuidi and Ezequiel Lavezzi are also somewhat behind schedule.

Blanc feels the absences of PSG’s World Cup participants could have a big impact on their fortunes at the beginning of the league season, which they open next Friday at Reims.

“The beginning of the season is as complicated as it was last season,” Blanc told beIN Sport.

“We will try not to give up too many points on the road but I’m happy with what the players have done so far.

“We are not physically ready. We have a squad that wants to win but the preparation has been more complicated than for other clubs because we do not yet have our full squad.

“We will in late August. In the meantime, I hope we do not lose too many points.”

Regardless of his fears, Blanc was pleased to see his side finalise their preparations for the new season by adding yet another trophy to their growing collection.

“We came here for the most part to win the Trophee des Champions,” Blanc added. “It’s done and it is a positive element of this tour [of Asia].

“Another positive element is that we continued our preparations, without lightening our practices with respect to today’s match.”