PSG is built by playing.
Two weeks after the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino, the club of the capital seems to be in flux, ending the Thomas Tuchel era to enter fully into his new world.
At the end of little accomplished matches, he has just collected three victories (including the small 1-0 in Angers on Saturday) and a draw.
The new staff will now tackle the bottom, the hardest.
Two weeks to be ready in early February
It is an unexpected luxury.
PSG will start twice in seventeen days, before returning to a more infernal pace.
A match this Friday against Montpellier, an outing in Lorient to end January: with this lighter menu and a single trip, Mauricio Pochettino will be able to install his ideas and his method more deeply even if he should miss the week due to isolation. after being positive for Covid-19 last Friday.
The Argentinian wants to transform the brilliant individualists into a collective.
For now, the change is not now.
It is not obvious because it takes time, effort and new software from the players.
Some will adapt faster than others.
The goal of the staff is to reap the first fruits of its method in early February, for the trip to Marseille, the first big meeting of the year in the league.
Paris will then travel to Barcelona on February 16 in the round of 16 of the Champions League and this time, it will need a solid and offensive game fund to travel further in Europe.
Become a team
The training sessions will be organized over the next two weeks, in order to tighten the block (the team is already less cut in two than before) to start by better defending.
Since the start of the season, PSG has left too many opportunities for its opponents, forcing Keylor Navas to multiply parries.
But a big club goalkeeper is normally one stop per game according to the adage of theorists.
The ex of Real Madrid is well above this average.
The fault in particular, and the problem does not date from today, to the offensive players who retreat little or in an incomplete way, far from the demands of Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool.
Angel Di Maria excels in making believe that he defends the loss of the ball before disappearing after a few meters of effort.
Established in the last two games, Paredes goes to pole to hold in the middle.
/ LP / Olivier Corsan
“We knew, and it is more and more visible, that we must make them run, analyzed Saturday evening Stéphane Moulin, not far from a good blow with his Angers.
In particular their first defensive curtain that we had found relatively efficient in recent games.
It was much less this evening.
When we played on one side, then the other and managed to do it two / three times in a row, we felt that we could rush into the sides.
We knew that spaces were going to open up on the wings, and that's what happened several times, especially in the first half.
It involves defensive effort, and obviously these players don't play for that.
"
It will also be necessary to restore their morale.
Angel Di Maria and Kylian Mbappé have lost their football, for many months for the first, for a few weeks for the second.
At a time when Neymar returns with good intentions, that Mauro Icardi appears again a credible football player, Pochettino and his men will also tackle the offensive site, where talent will not be enough.
Already losers
Widely used under Tuchel, three elements gradually disappeared from the decor as the frames returned.
Mitchel Bakker is no longer number 1 at the left-back position, where Layvin Kurzawa is the coach's preference.
Juan Bernat is still far from the competition and the Frenchman has a boulevard in front of him.
In addition, he scored decisive goals as in Angers (1-0), a sign of a returning confidence.
In the middle, in the 4-2-3-1 drawn by Pochettino, Neymar is called to settle in playmaker and Marco Verratti lower, as before, with all these previous coaches, from Carlo Ancelotti to Tuchel.
There is still a place to accompany him to recovery.
After his hip injury on December 20 in Lille (0-0), Leandro Paredes has just followed up his first two tenures in 2021, relegating Gana Gueye and especially Danilo Pereira to supporting roles.
The Argentinian international appears to be in pole position in this hyper-competitive sector where Ander Herrera also sets off, not to mention Rafinha, regularly holder under Tuchel, but returned from the holidays with the Covid.
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Again, with only one game per week, the future choices of Pochettino will provide information on the new hierarchy of the workforce.
No more systematic turnover.
The new staff intends to work a system with the same eleven as often as possible.