And to think that we only imagined Thomas Tuchel scrambling the tracks to make fun of prying eyes. Illegible, its installation carried out Monday evening on the lawn of Signal Iduna Park (2-1) was in reality a smoke screen aiming to protect the surprise of the following day. This improbable 3-4-3, in any case unexpected, to which he had, with the exception of the few minutes at the end of the match in Dijon last Wednesday in the Coupe de France, no longer used the kick-off of a meeting since April 30, 2019.
A last minute change, which the coach did not waste time justifying after the defeat "believing that it would take too long to explain". The reason for his reversal, the German technician had placed, before the match, at the level of the random shape of some of his executives. "To play in 4-4-2, we have to be in the best physical condition," he explained to RMC Sport. Players lack a bit of rhythm like Ney, Marqui, Kimpembe, Thiago… Now is not the time to try this system and go all-in ( Editor's note: risking everything ). "
Was it better to throw your troops into battle in 3-4-3? This is not really the opinion of Rolland Courbis who says "worried for weeks about the inspiration of Thomas Tuchel. The problem is not so much to change the organization, says the RMC Sport consultant, it is above all not to choose a phony scheme. Rather than the 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 that he worked for months, he preferred to invent another. You had to think about it! With his kind of 5-2-3, he was outnumbered even before kick-off. Together, it would have taken Gueye and Verratti to transform into Tarzan to win the midfield battle. But rather to put Marquinhos in 6 to help them, he preferred to align three central defenders to block the only Haaland. Paris could have worked on this scheme for six months, it would never have worked. "
"There would have been a lot more risk in playing in 4-4-2"
Convinced that "it is not during a match as demanding in terms of concentration, intensity and selflessness as an eighth finals of the Champions League, that suddenly you have to change everything", the former striker Frédéric Piquionne was surprised by the lack of responsiveness of the Parisian coach when faced with the difficulties of his team. "He did not change his system, nor the players when Paris took the broth, continues the former Stéphanois, now colleague of Courbis on the antennas of RMC. Gueye was not in his match, but was not replaced, Sarabia entered only a quarter of an hour from the end and that was the only change… It lacked adaptation! "
Gernot Rohr, the Nigeria coach, is however convinced that his compatriot has made the right choices. In 1996, when “his” Bordeaux with Lizarazu, Zidane and Dugarry pulled AC Milan out of Capello in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, he too “opted for a more defensive leg in the away match. "This is why" more than the system, which certainly did not favor offensive animation, it was for me especially the state of the troops which was faulty, he said. We must not forget that beyond injuries, Paris has played twice as many games as Dortmund since the start of the year. There would have been a lot more risk in playing in 4-4-2. A debate which will probably not close before March 11, date of the reunion at the Park.