AS Monaco handed Paris Saint-Germain their second Ligue 1 defeat of the 2025/2026 campaign this past weekend in a highly anticipated contest, which saw Paul Pogba make his second appearance for Les Monégasques, a late cameo contribution off the bench.
Monaco’s win was built on a solid out-of-possession foundation, which frustrated Les Parisiens.
Sébastien Pocognoli’s side limited PSG to 1.26 xG, which is 0.75 lower than PSG’s average for the league campaign so far, while generating 1.0 xG of their own.
It was a tight contest which saw both sides largely limited to low-xG attempts and in which Luis Enrique’s side failed to really get out of second gear, ultimately leading to a loss which leaves PSG in second place, now trailing RC Lens.
This AS Monaco vs PSG tactical analysis shares analysis of the Sébastien Pocognoli tactics, which kept the European champions quiet at Stade Louis II on Saturday.
Monaco’s press, counterpress, mid-block, and low-block strategies under Sébastien Pocognoli were well executed, leading to their upset victory.
This tactical analysis explains the ins-and-outs of Sébastien Pocognoli’s out-of-possession approach, along with urgent areas of improvement for Luis Enrique’s side.
AS Monaco Vs PSG Formations & Lineups
The home side started in a base 4-2-3-1 shape with Lukáš Hradecký in goal behind Vanderson (right-back), Thilo Kehrer (right centre-back), Mohammed Salisu (left centre-back), and Caio Henrique (left-back).
Lamine Camara and Jordan Teze held down the central midfield for Monaco behind Takumi Minamino in the ‘10’ role.
Maghnes Akliouche and Aleksandr Golovin occupied the wide attacking positions, with Folarin Balogun up front.
Pocognoli made four changes to that starting XI over the course of the game.
Krépin Diatta replaced Vanderson in the 65th minute, and Ansu Fati came on for Golovin in the 72nd minute; then, lastly, Mika Biereth and Paul Pogba were introduced for Balogun and Minamino just before the 90-minute mark.
On the other side, Luis Enrique’s 4-3-3 was comprised of Lucas Chevalier in goal behind a back four of Warren Zaïre-Emery (right-back), Marquinhos (right centre-back), Willian Pacho (left centre-back), and Lucas Hernández (left-back).
Vitinha played at the base of the midfield just behind João Neves and Fabián Ruiz, while Lee Kang-in, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and Senny Mayulu were the front three.
Like Pocognoli, Enrique made four substitutions.
PSG made a double change at the 64-minute mark, bringing on Ousmane Dembélé and Quentin Ndjantou for Lee and Mayulu.
Then, Kvaratskhelia made way for Ibrahim Mbaye after 76 minutes, before Gonçalo Ramos came on for Fabián Ruiz after 83 minutes, but failed to change things for his trailing side.
AS Monaco Pressing & Counterpressing Vs PSG
AS Monaco’s press was intense, focused, and organised.
Their out-of-possession approach proved critical in ensuring victory over the reigning French and European champions.
Monaco’s pressing intent was evident from the very first minute of the game.
Their aim was fairly standard: To deter passes into the centre and force PSG backwards or wide in order to drive up intensity in those favourable areas, thus generating turnovers.
They succeeded in doing this throughout Saturday’s game thanks to their focus, intensity, and organised marking.
Figure 2 above shows an example of PSG getting forced out to right-back Zaïre-Emery, who immediately comes under high pressure with all near passing options effectively accounted for by Monaco players.
PSG manages to get the ball out to Mayulu, who is forced to drop quite deep but succeeds in dragging left centre-back Salisu out of the backline with him.
This represents an opportunity for PSG, with Fabián Ruiz (No. 8) free beside Mayulu centrally, with just the right centre-back, Kehrer, remaining at the back for Les Monégasques.
This is where a critical aspect of Monaco’s out-of-possession tactics comes into play: Tactical fouling.
The wily defender Salisu intelligently brings down Mayulu before he can play the ball to Fabián Ruiz (with Kvaratskhelia lurking dangerously on the other wing and just Kehrer back to defend).
This results in a free kick in a very non-threatening position, not a bad trade-off considering the ‘legal’ approach would likely have resulted in a fantastic opportunity for PSG.
Salisu isn’t even yellow-carded for this, so it was a great decision on his part, which allowed his team to get back behind the ball and reset.
Monaco pressed centrally from a 4-2-3-1 base with players prioritising threats ahead of them rather than behind them, thus limiting PSG’s short passing options in build-up as much as possible.
In Figure 5, Pacho has a slightly longer passing option in Mayulu, positioned beyond Monaco’s midfield, with the two advanced PSG central midfielders marked here.
However, he turns down the option, preferring to play it safe and go backwards to Vitinha.
As play moves on, Mayulu moves further towards PSG’s left side while Fabián Ruiz moves centrally.
Due to their position-oriented marking approach, Monaco’s central midfielder doesn’t follow Fabián Ruiz centrally; however, he takes up marking Mayulu, allowing Ruiz to go into the free space which had previously been occupied by Mayulu.
Now, there’s another issue, however, which is that Minamino has Ruiz in his cover shadow, so the passing lane between Vitinha and the Spanish midfielder is cut off.
As a result, Vitinha plays the ball back to Pacho, who’s now positioned wider.
Remember how we described Monaco’s out-of-possession aim: “To deter passes into the centre and force PSG backwards or wide in order to drive up intensity in those favourable areas, thus generating turnovers.”
That’s exactly what we see here.
When the ball reaches Pacho out wide, that’s when Monaco’s intensity increases; the result is that Minamino closes down Pacho’s attempted pass, forcing a throw-in deep and wide, which Monaco will definitely take as another opportunity to pin PSG out wide.
This passage of play provides further insight into how Monaco achieved their out-of-possession aim through intensity, focus, and organisation.
Monaco’s counterpressing tactics followed the exact same principles.
We can see an example of their counterpress denying PSG central, short passing options, forcing them wide, pressing intensely once there, and ultimately forcing a mistake in the video above.
PSG made some poor in-possession errors, which allowed Monaco to win the ball far too easily at times.
To sum it up, PSG players failed to receive on the half-turn quite often and took some unbelievably heavy touches, resulting in soft turnovers.
Figures 8-9 show one example, but there were several to pick from in the match.
In Figure 8, Mayulu drops to receive in midfield.
The forward takes an extremely heavy touch, which allows Minamino to easily dispossess him just on the edge of Monaco’s final third, giving Les Monégasques a great opportunity to run at PSG’s defence.
Instances like this were far too common throughout Saturday’s game.
These recurring issues prevented PSG from getting into a passing rhythm for much of the gam,e while they also handed Monaco repeat opportunities, increasing their belief that there was something for them in this game.
In that sense, PSG made a rod for their own back on several occasions.
AS Monaco Mid-To-Low-Block Tactics Vs PSG
Of course, against PSG, even at home, Monaco had to spend a decent bit of time defending deeper.
Les Parisiens kept almost 60% of possession in this game.
In the mid-block, Monaco’s principles remained quite similar to when they were pressing high, though their midfielders and attackers were a little bit more reserved in this phase, thinking about what was behind them a bit more.
Minamino effectively joined Balogun up front, creating a 4-2-2-2 shape which maximised Monaco’s presence in the middle of the park, denying deep-lying playmaker Vitinha short passing options, forcing him to dip into his passing range.
In theory, that’s not a problem for PSG as Vitinha possesses a wide passing range.
That’s where the next step is crucial: Monaco had to apply pressure fast once Vitinha spread the ball out wide.
In this case, left-back Caio Henrique is on Zaïre-Emery as soon as he receives Vitinha’s long ball, while Henrique’s teammates also crowd around to control potential short passing options, thus forcing PSG backwards again.
In the low-block, Monaco went back into their 4-2-3-1 shape, leaving Balogun up top as an outlet.
They remained very narrow in order to congest the centre of the pitch and deny PSG any joy in those valuable positions.
Things got interesting when PSG were forced out wide in this phase.
Again, Monaco emphasised applying pressure immediately on those wide receivers, but this would lead to gaps forming in the Monaco backline, which PSG attackers could exploit through intelligent passing and movement, which is well within their capability.
To deal with this, one of Monaco’s holding midfielders would drop into the backline to plug those gaps as the full-back stepped out.
This left Monaco with a temporary back five when the ball got back to the centre, which offered Monaco more protection in the backline but did offer PSG more space in the middle, potentially allowing them to get further forward and reach the backline more easily.
Once Monaco succeeded in forcing PSG backwards again, the midfielder would step back out, safely recreating a 4-2-3-1.
Thilo Kehrer was sent off in the 80th minute, leaving Monaco defending a man down for the last 10.
Their low block looked quite similar to Figure 14 (a 5-3-1) in those dying minutes, as Figure 16 shows.
The only difference was the lack of a passing outlet in the form of the centre-forward, as Monaco now needed all men back behind the ball to hold on.
Conclusion
We’ve outlined the out-of-possession aim and pressing principles to achieve that aim, which allowed Monaco to beat PSG on Saturday.
Individuals also performed their roles extremely well, winning individual duels and ensuring PSG would have a rough day.
Monaco won 76.47% of their aerial duels to PSG’s 17.65% (blowing their season average of 48.7% out of the water), as well as 63.24% of their defensive duels.
Individuals ensured that whenever PSG did find a way through, they were still denied, and they took their chances when they came.
Sébastien Pocognoli’s tactics still deserve immense credit for enabling those individuals to get their opportunities and shine on a major stage.
