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After easily winning their ticket to the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday, against Real Sociedad (2-1 victory), the PSG players are finding their daily bread.
They host Reims this Sunday (1 p.m.), during the 25th day of Ligue 1. Despite two draws in a row in the league (Rennes, Monaco), they have a lead of 11 points at the top of the standings.
Barring disaster, the title of French champion is already promised to them.
The Rouge et Bleu have several jokers in their pocket.
To discover
Calendar and results Ligue 1
Ligue 1 ranking
In these conditions, it is difficult to find motivation against an opponent like Stade de Reims?
Luis Enrique does not hide behind his little finger.
“It’s sometimes complicated to find the motivation for a championship match just after the C1
,” admits the 53-year-old Asturian technician.
And to continue:
“We have some margin in the ranking.
I don't know if it's better or worse but you'll have to be focused because it will be a complicated match.
We want to stay alive in all competitions.
The titles are now at stake and we want to be competitive everywhere.”
In this case, the Parisians are still in the running in C1, but also in the Coupe de France.
They have a meeting with OGC Nice on Wednesday (9:10 p.m.), in the quarterfinals.
Logic would therefore dictate that
“
Lucho
”
, whose starting lineups are more unpredictable than the lottery numbers, would play against Reims.
This is still the most obvious way to maintain the same level of motivation and intensity within the group, even if it means losing raw talent.
Collectively, that doesn't stop them from shining, as the Rouge et Bleu demonstrated with a (very) fine performance against Losc (3-1).
It must be said that Luis Enrique can count on boys like Randal Kolo Muani, Gonçalo Ramos, Kang-in Lee, Manuel Ugarte and even Lucas Beraldo to make the mesh, individuals who would make any League coach drool with envy 1 normally constituted.
Also read: “We'll see depending on the weather”: Luis Enrique Mbappé's lunar response for PSG-Reims (video)
Paid turnover
Sometimes incomprehensible, mysterious, the perpetual turnover of Luis Enrique allows this: all the players are more or less in rhythm when they are called upon.
Beraldo is the perfect example, he who has continued since the start of the year, including in a left-back position which is not made for him.
But he played, gained confidence, made his mark.
And he was able to have a big match in San Sebastian last Tuesday, when Luis Enrique started him due to the withdrawals of Danilo Pereira and Marquinhos in central defense, in addition to those of Milan Skriniar and Presnel Kimpembe.
Note that said Marquinhos will still be missing this Sunday, against Reims.
“I need 23 players who say to me: 'where do you want me to play coach?'
I like players who are ready to sacrifice themselves for the team
,” notes Luis Enrique, also amazed by the adaptation of the 20-year-old Brazilian, recruited this winter.
“It looks like he's already a Parisian, that he's a player from the training center,” smiles the former coach of the Spain team. Despite his young age, his adaptation is incredible, it seems like he has many years in the professionals behind him,” he continues
.
Luis Enrique is also and above all delighted to see that the person concerned
“adapts well to (his) idea of the game”
.
By that, mean that it is compatible with his possession game.
Read also PSG: Luis Enrique's faultless performance against Real Sociedad
We try to be unpredictable for the opponent… but predictable for us.
Luis Enrique
An essential prerequisite which allows the Parisian coach to put in place sometimes surprising game plans, like Tuesday.
“My staff and I try to have the ball more than the opponent.
The way we occupy spaces depends on the match and we occupy them with one player rather than another, that's how we imagine the game. We try to be unpredictable for the opponent... but predictable for us .
As the months go by, our players have more knowledge about our game and what we are looking for.
But there is the plan, and then it is the quality of the players who make it implemented or not
,” deciphers Luis Enrique, more verbose on this type of subject than when questioned about Kylian Mbappé.
Asked whether the native of Paris, author of a double on Tuesday, will start against Reims, he answers this:
“We will see depending on the weather, if it is hot or not.”
Lunar.
Still, to have maximum latitude on a tactical level, Luis Enrique must involve his players as much as possible in a match.
This involves turnover.
Still and always.
And in this case, against Reims, this could, in addition, make it possible to field hungrier players than those who started against Real last Tuesday.
Players who must prove and who know that the hierarchy is not as established as in recent years and that they have their chance to impose themselves, like Bradley Barcola, holder since December, or Vitinha, sometimes snubbed at the start of the season.
Read alsoPSG: “Persistent pain in the Achilles tendon” for Marquinhos, again forfeited against Reims
A sham score on the first leg
Note that Reims had given the Rouge et Bleu a hard time in the first leg, despite what the final score might suggest: a 3-0 victory for PSG in Champagne.
It took great Mbappé and Gigio Donnarumma.
“
The score did not reflect the physiognomy”
, admits Luis Enrique, describing, for this Sunday,
“an interesting match to correct certain things, to press in a coordinated way, to defend the wider balls well… It will be difficult”
.
The kind of trial run that can't do any harm with a view to the Champions League at the start of April.
“We will be among the eight best teams in Europe this year but the objective is to be among the four best and to continue to be competitive
,” insists Luis Enrique
.
We must reverse this negative pressure around the club.
It must push us to the contrary.
I want the supporters, the players, the club to have this desire to be part of the four best, we will see what happens in the draw (March 15, Editor's note), but no fear or pressure.
We have never won the Champions League, so we only have desire and ambition.
We must not imagine ourselves inferior to any other team.
The beauty of football is that it is unpredictable.
We don't know who will win it.
We simply want to improve our level.”
It’s going through Reims this Sunday.