Champions League final: How Luis Enrique stripped PSG of their stars – and made them better

France 24

3 days ago

When Kylian Mbappé made public his decision to leave Paris last season, ending the club's 'Galactico' era, Luis Enrique sounded unfazed by the loss of the world's most coveted striker.
'Our game does not consist in letting Mbappé do what he wants,' the PSG coach told Spanish reporters, in a typically blunt statement.
He added: 'That was the old philosophy (of the club), which never won a major trophy.'
In two seasons at the helm, Luis Enrique has added two more Ligue 1 titles and as many French Cups to PSG's rapidly expanding silverware, though he knows that neither qualify as 'major' trophies for the club owned by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI).
Champions League football is the real measure of success for a PSG coach, and the Spaniard has already improved on his predecessors' record.
After leading the French Champions to the semi-finals last season, the former Real Madrid and Barcelona player is now just one match away from the title PSG have craved for so long – and for which QSI has spent a staggering €2.1 billion in transfers alone.
Victory against Inter Milan in Munich would add his name to an elite group of two-club winners of Europe's most prestigious title, joining the likes of Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho.
Out with the old guard
Prior to his arrival, PSG were best known for their expensive Champions League fiascos, from the infamous 2017 'Remontada' in Barcelona to their home collapse against Manchester United two years later.
The Spaniard, who plotted the 'Remontada' on the Blaugrana bench, says he accepted the Paris job on one condition: that he be allowed to mould the team as he pleased, ditching the celebrity culture that gave top stars priority over football coherence.
'I never imagined myself coaching PSG because their policy was to attract the biggest superstars. But now they want to change,' he told the Spanish documentary filmmakers who followed him last season.
Luis Enrique arrived in Paris with a simple but firm mantra: no one head sticking out. He began by clearing out the old guard, starting with Neymar, the frustratingly inconsistent poster boy for PSG's bling-bling era.
He was equally unsentimental in parting with the club's longtime midfield anchor Marco Verratti, a darling of the fans whose purportedly poor lifestyle was incompatible with the stringent work ethos demanded by the new coach.
A fitness fanatic who once ran the legendary Marathon de Sables, a 155-mile race over six days in the Sahara, Luis Enrique introduced gruelling training sessions, strict tactical demands and an insistence on collective responsibility, with no player absolved of defensive duties – not even Mbappé.
When the star striker bowed out the following summer, fuelling talk of PSG's fast-declining star power, Luis Enrique sounded typically upbeat about the season ahead.
'I'd rather have four players who score 12 goals each than one who scores 40,' he quipped. 'It adds up to more goals overall.'
'No plan B'
After two years on the job, and as many transfer sessions tailored to his needs, Luis Enrique now has a squad ideally suited to his style of football, based on maximum possession, rapid movement and stifling pressing.
It's a style of play that brought him a Champions League title a decade ago as Barcelona's coach – but which hasn't always worked out for his teams.
His stint as Spain coach (2018-2022) famously ended in a World Cup defeat to Morocco that saw La Roja hold 77% of the ball, complete more than 1,000 passes, and yet manage only one shot on goal. Spain's attack was so blunted they even failed to score in the penalty shootout, despite the coach's assurance that each player had taken 1,000 penalties in practice.
As the former Spanish international Iago Aspas put it, 'Luis Enrique had a very clear game plan, and when plan A didn't work, there was no plan B.'
Earlier this season, PSG's Champions League campaign appeared to be heading much the same way as the French champions dominated games but proved unable to score. When the coach was quizzed about his game plan after a defeat to Arsenal in October, his reply came across as both arrogant and rude.
'I have no intention of explaining my tactics,' he answered tersely. 'You wouldn't understand them.'
Defeat in Munich a month later left PSG staring at an early exit, before a thrilling comeback win over Manchester City in January kicked off a triumphant tour of England that saw them overwhelm Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal in succession.
After the Reds' defeat on penalties at Anfield, Liverpool coach Arne Slot heaped praise on his counterpart for turning PSG into 'Europe's best'.
'Luis Enrique made an incredible team,' he said. 'So much pace, so much work rate, so much quality in the midfield.'
'If you don't defend, someone will take your place'
While critics have bristled at Luis Enrique's sometimes abrasive tone, his no-nonsense approach and entertaining, forward-minded game have helped turn the Parisian upstarts into a more likeable team, earning the respect of their peers.
The end of the superstar era has also nurtured the impression that the Gulf-funded outfit have become an ordinary club, when in fact they are still vastly outspending their rivals.
The names may be slightly less eye-catching than in recent years, but it's hard to see who else could have coughed up €70 million to sign Napoli's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the January transfer window.
The versatile Georgian international has come to embody the flexibility Luis Enrique demands from his players, his ability to shift seamlessly between attack and defence adding an element of unpredictability to PSG's game.
When asked to comment on the team's selflessness and abnegation, qualities so lacking in past seasons, striker Ousmane Dembélé gave a simple answer last month: 'The coach just kept telling us, 'If you don't press and don't defend, someone will take your place'. So, we all defend.'
Long mocked for his erratic finishing, Dembélé has morphed into a goal-scoring machine this season, racking up 33 goals in 45 matches – more than in the previous five seasons combined.
His transformation from mercurial winger to ruthless goal scorer owes much to the tactical innovations introduced by Luis Enrique, whose decision to place the versatile, ambidextrous forward at the heart of the Parisian attack has allowed him to make full use of his equally accurate feet.
Dembélé is not the only one to have hit the 12-goal mark, with Bradley Barcola (21 goals), Gonçalo Ramos (18) and Désiré Doué (13) also vindicating the coach's pre-season forecast. Add Kvaratshkhelia (6 goals since January) to the mix, and PSG fans will be hoping the squad's youthful, multi-pronged attack is too much to handle for the Nerazzuri 's ageing legs.
That's unless Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi can come up with an antidote for the Parisians' intoxicating game – and Luis Enrique has no 'Plan B' in store.