At the Parc des Princes,
The caricature is that a duel between Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique is not measured by the final score but by possession of the ball. Don't try to understand, it's like that, written in the code of honor of the Catalan school nourished by Johan Cruyff's total Football. And in this game, Wednesday evening in the Champions League, PSG reduced Manchester City to nothing with 63.1% of ball possession, compared to only 36.9% for their opponent. “They were better, we have to accept that,” admitted Guardiola, a fine player.
The affront is great but the greatest coach of the 21st century has already experienced worse: in 2016, for his first year with the Skyblues, his players only held the ball 34.7% of the time against FC Barcelona. The Blaugranas coach? Luis Enrique, of course.
Guardiola jealous of Luis Enrique's false nine
Football being what it is, the Citizens found a way to lead 2-0 after the locker room without really understanding how. Well yes, because Luis Enrique almost dug his own grave by encouraging his sheep to be bold in his half-time talk. “The words were to dare a little more. I wanted my players to let loose. » Nuno Mendes, whose chronic defensive weakness is there to remind us that he is a trained winger, took the instructions a little too seriously, not helped by bad luck, this child of misfortune placed the ball in the feet of 'Haaland, who, as is his job, passed by to push it into the back of the net.
Wednesday evening, Pep Guardiola was not far from complaining about having a pure nine professional in his starting XI: according to him, it was because Paris did not have one that he was able to dominate the debates. “They had more players in midfield and that’s often where you win games. We couldn't manage that. With their false 9, they managed to have an extra player in this position. » Funny when we know that the authorship of the concept belongs to him.
-Pressing and rapid transitions, Guardiola's poison
The other aspect of possession, namely pressing and counter-pressing, were to the advantage of Luis Enrique's men, more ambitious in their raids without the ball and pushed, let's say it, by an extremely present 12th man who either from the first moments of the match, or when he started to get carried away with the reduction of Barcola's score. “We had a state of attack and constant pressing,” underlines Enrique. Recovering the ball as quickly as possible was a challenge that went beyond a simple squabble for possession. For Manchester City, it was the only way to protect themselves from repeated attacks from PSG. Their failure in this area led to a predictable catastrophe, according to the Catalan technician. “They are faster, so we had to defend by having the ball and it's impossible if you don't play like that. »
The icing on the cake, Paris excelled in rapid transitions and supported where it hurts, namely the slowness and athletic shortcomings of certain citizen players. Blessed bread for Bradley Barcola and Désiré Doué on the goals 2-1 and 2-2. “Their game in transition was much too fast for us,” Guardiola bowed once again.
Not Enrique's best match at PSG
The worst part of all this? It wasn't even Luis Enrique's best match at Paris Saint-Germain. “I think in terms of intensity, the one we lost in Munich was also very intense. We had a man less and what remains is defeat. » “We lost matches that we did not deserve to lose and where we had a lot of opportunities,” recalls Achraf Hakimi. Fortunately today luck was on our side. » Possession, too.
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