Vyacheslav Koloskov says Matvey Safonov should not be held responsible for Paris Saint-Germain’s difficult start to the new season, insisting the club’s problems are affecting the whole team.
PSG have collected only two points from their opening three league matches and recently suffered a 2-1 home defeat by Monaco. Their winless run now stands at four matches after they were beaten 1-0 by Lens in the French Super Cup before the league campaign began.
Safonov, the Russian goalkeeper, has featured during the difficult spell, but Koloskov said neither journalists nor the wider public had singled him out for blame. The experienced football official was speaking in an exclusive interview with the online publication Euro-Football.Ru.
“At least, nobody is blaming Safonov for PSG’s results at the moment. Neither the journalists nor the public nobody,” Koloskov said.
“So I would not link all three of these matches with some poor performance by Safonov. The whole team is not in good shape, that is the main problem. When a team is playing badly, it is difficult for one goalkeeper to stand up to strong opponents. Let us hope this run of bad results ends in the next match.”
The comments come after Luis Enrique’s side were beaten by Monaco at home, leaving the Paris club with just two points after three rounds of the championship.
Koloskov was also asked whether PSG’s poor beginning could be explained by a congested schedule and players not having enough time to recover.
“Here, you can speculate as much as you like. But to understand that, you need to be inside the team: did they recover in time or not? Why did the others recover? A lot of players from the French championship played at the World Cup,” he said.
His assessment was that PSG’s form could not be explained by the contribution of one player alone. Instead, the team’s collective level had dropped, making it harder for Safonov or any other goalkeeper to prevent defeats against high-quality opposition.
The result against Monaco was PSG’s second league match without a win in the opening three fixtures, following a draw and another unsuccessful result earlier in the campaign. The loss to Lens in the French Super Cup means the club have yet to win in any of their four competitive matches this season.
Koloskov expressed hope that the sequence would end in PSG’s next game, while cautioning against attributing their results solely to Safonov’s performances.