Mauricio Pochettino recognizes having to adapt to “the enormous evolution” of PSG.
He asks for time and confides that Leonardo did not need to set him goals: “When you're at PSG, the responsibility is to win every match.
No need for him to tell me, it's in our DNA, to the staff.
"
How did you experience your first two months in Paris?
MAURICIO POCHETTINO
.
With great intensity!
In two months, we have had a lot of difficult times, because we have played thirteen official matches, with enormous intensity.
There was also the coronavirus, which we contracted within the management, at different times.
And the situation of the team, with a lot of injuries.
We had to adapt to a reality that was changing every day.
How did you find PSG, 18 years after leaving it as a player?
For the most part, it has retained the same features.
It is clear that there has been a change in almost twenty years
(with the arrival of its Qatari owner in 2011, Editor's note)
, for me too, moreover, I no longer have long but short hair (laughs) ).
The evolution has been enormous, but the most important is that the identity endures, it is something that a club must never lose.
When you arrived, did the sporting director Leonardo ask you to win everything, all the time, right away?
With Leo, we had a good understanding from the start.
When you're at PSG, the responsibility is to win every game.
No need for him to tell me, it's in our DNA, to the staff.
I also believe that a technical staff needs work, time, the players need to adapt to a new philosophy, and us to them.
PSG express newsletter
Our information on the capital club
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
In fact, in your press conferences, you don't like to talk about systems ...
4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-4-2 diamond, 3-4-3, we can use a lot of systems.
The most important thing, from these points of reference, is to find an animation, as well in attack as in defense.
This is the key.
You can draw a lot of drawings, arrows, write names, what you need is to see how the players move on the field, to find the best way to be efficient.
Unlike your predecessor Thomas Tuchel, you are active on Instagram, where you publish photos of your family, or walking around Paris… Why this communication?
I suffer from not being able to be in contact with people, not being able to shake hands or have coffee.
Social networks allow us to get closer, to sympathize too.
I created an Instagram account
(his first post dated January 1, 2021, Editor's note)
to show another side, and I like it.
I also understand that we are in a new era, we must be open to developments.
I have to evolve too.
The province of Santa Fe where you come from is the cradle of many coaches, Jorge Sampaoli, Marcelo Bielsa, Gerardo Martino, the current Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni… How do you explain it?
It's true that a lot of Newell's Old Boys coaches have come out.
The influence of Jorge Griffa and Marcelo Bielsa has a lot to do with it.
When there are educators of their level, their students learn well.
They are leaders, personalities who inspire people.
That's the secret, I think, their leadership, what they pass on.
Do you consider yourself a disciple of Marcelo Bielsa?
I am happy to have been around him but I do not see myself as his student, because I did not do my training as a coach with him.
I took another path, I was trained in Spain, in Las Rozas (the Spanish equivalent of Clairefontaine, editor's note).
Do you see yourself as an Argentina coach?
There are also other very good Argentinian coaches, young like me too.
It's a matter of timing.
Jorge Griffa told me that football will take me where football wants.
You have to be prepared for all eventualities.
I follow Jorge's advice to the letter.
