‘AS Monaco’s plight not Henry’s fault’

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) captain, Thiago Silva said Thierry Henry is “the least guilty” for Monaco’s desperate plight after the Ligue 1 champions inflicted a 4-0 defeat upon their beleaguered rivals.

Edinson Cavani scored twice in the first half and completed his hat-trick after half-time, before Neymar added a fourth from the penalty spot to maintain PSG’s 100 per cent league record this season.

Monaco are without a win since the opening day and Henry has picked up just one point from his four Ligue 1 games in charge since replacing Leonardo Jardim in October.

Silva offered a sympathetic view of Henry’s predicament and backed the former France forward to turn the club’s season around despite Monaco’s squad being ravaged by injuries.

“Monaco’s situation is complicated,” Silva told reporters. “People talk a lot about the head coach. But I think the coach is the least guilty of all this.

“For two years [since] they won the championship, players have left and they cannot easily replace them. This makes things harder, this replenishment.

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“Henry is going to have a lot of work to do to get the team back on the road to winning. If I’m not mistaken he has not won yet. But he has a history in football, a winning story.

“I’m sure he’ll do good things for this group and get out of this situation. But it will not be an easy situation, if I am not mistaken there are 12 injuries or more. It is a very difficult situation.”

Henry was critical of his side’s failure to take the chances that fell to them when the game was in the balance but pledged to continue working hard to reverse the club’s fortunes.

Monaco face a trip to Caen in Ligue 1 on November 24 before taking on Atletico Madrid away in the Champions League four days later as they seek a first win in over three months.

“We knew it was going to be hard against Paris,” said the 41-year-old. “We’re not looking for excuses.

“We played against a team of another level. When they have the ball it’s not easy.

“We could have put them in trouble at the beginning of the game. We had a big chance to get back to 1-1 and we didn’t even shoot.

“I will continue. It has not always been easy. We must stay positive. We play the game, we do not play anything else.”