Blanc sticks by tactical changes

Laurent Blanc defended his tactics after his Paris Saint-Germain side were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw at Toulouse on Saturday.

The defending Ligue 1 champions have made an underwhelming, albeit unbeaten, start to the new campaign, and questions will once again be asked after they were forced to come from behind to take anything from their trip to the Stadium Municipal.

The under-fire former France manager Blanc has now used three different systems in the space of a week – following a draw against Lyon and a midweek win at Caen – and his players looked leggy for the majority of Saturday’s clash.

However, Blanc was adamant that his tactics were not to blame.

“I do not analyse the game through the system, but by comparing the PSG team to that of Toulouse,” he told reporters.

“Toulouse started the match better than us and we had problems.”

PSG had a host of key players missing – Ezequiel Lavezzi, captain Thiago Silva and top-scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic all absent.

But the Parc des Princes outfit still fielded a star-studded team including the likes of Edinson Cavani and David Luiz, although they failed to adapt to Toulouse’s high-pressure approach.

Alain Casanova’s side, unbeaten at home in the league so far this season, were in blistering form early on, and they were rewarded with an early goal when Wissam Ben Yedder opened the scoring after eight minutes.

Jean-Christophe Bahebeck snatched an equaliser for the visitors before half-time, but Blanc felt his side were always chasing the game after such an early setback.

“We gave them the opener,” Blanc added. “We did recover in the game.

“Even though the match is difficult, the boys gave their all, but we are not satisfied with not winning.

“We realise that when we are not in the best of form football becomes difficult, but we have a good team with great players.”