Talking Tactics: New-look PSG thriving without Messi and Neymar

A new-look Paris Saint-Germain side are expected to ease to a third straight Ligue 1 title this season despite losing two global superstars.

The departures of Neymar and Lionel Messi this summer will arguably help the club improve the balance between substance and style.

We take a look at Luis Enrique's side to see what to expect from them this season.

Going backwards

Neymar won Ligue 1 five times out of six, and Messi lifted the trophy in both of his campaigns but their signings ushered in a period of relative failure for PSG.

The pair were recruited to win the Champions League and announce the French outfit as the best team in the world but failed to deliver on either count.

PSG have arguably gone backwards in the last six seasons, being eliminated from the last 16 of Europe's top-tier competition four times and receiving more mockery than praise.

Stories of fall-outs between players were hardly refuted by limp exits and a lack of desire when it counted most.

On their doorstep

To have fallen so short when the France national team has the best talent pool in world football reflects poorly on PSG.

The Ligue 1 champions have largely ignored academy graduates and homegrown French players, instead opting to indulge in lucrative Galactico additions.

Christopher Nkunku and Moussa Diaby were both sold off to fund higher-profile additions, while Paris-born duo N'Golo Kante and Paul Pogba slipped through the net.

That attitude seems to be changing, with France internationals Theo Hernandez and Ousmane Dembele recruited this summer and 17-year-old academy graduate Warren Zaire-Emery starting all three Ligue 1 matches so far.

Poster boy Kylian Mbappe has always been the exception and looks set to spearhead the new era under Enrique.

Main man

Mbappe's desire to be the undisputed main man will have been satisfied by the departures of Messi and Neymar — and a new contract in Paris is now a possibility.

While the chemistry between last season's front three never felt right, PSG's transfer strategy this summer seems to have been formulated to appease the France captain.

Not only have they signed one of his closest friends in Dembele, they have also recruited the type of out-and-out striker he wants to play alongside in Goncalo Ramos.

Losing Mbappe on a free transfer would leave PSG red-faced and they are doing everything they can to keep him at the Parc des Princes.

Future is bright

A youthful team coached by Enrique gives PSG a better chance of European glory.

They beat Lens 3-1 in their first match with Dembele and Mbappe in from the start, clicking into gear after two draws to start the campaign.

And former Ligue 1 striker Andy Delort, who regularly played against PSG during the MNM era, believes that they are now a better side.

He said: "It was obvious that the front three weren't defending too much.

"Their recruitment this summer is interesting. These are players who have a different state of mind. And they have Mbappe who, as we have seen again, is a phenomenon."

It marks the beginning of an era that should prove more fruitful than the last.