Arrived at PSG with the desire to "win with style", Mauricio Pochettino struggles to convince since he is on the Parisian bench.
If the team displays a completely honorable balance sheet, the game of Paris Saint-Germain leaves many cautious observers.
With the many summer recruits to integrate into his project, the Argentine coach is asking for time.
For the moment, Doha grants it to him, but until when?
A few days before his team's trip to Leipzig in the Champions League, after a schizophrenic victory - an abominable first hour of boredom and an unexpected start at the end of the game - torn off against Losc, Leonardo came to kick a few behind. For the sports director of PSG, "limits have been crossed" in criticism against coach Mauricio Pochettino. “To hear some people talk about it, we have the impression that the coach no longer understands anything, that he does not know what is a back end,” he sprinkled in the mixed zone.
Without necessarily feeling targeted, little scribblers that we are, we willingly place ourselves in the sights of the Brazilian.
It has been weeks, not to say months, that we wonder about the identity of the game of this team and the philosophy of its coach (Here or there, for example).
If there were only us, again, but from Obraniak to Giuly, via Rothen and Thierry Henry, it is a whole squadron of consultants who attack with a dive the style of play of PSG.
Wrong?
They are the worst team under QSI.
You got nothing.
It doesn't look like anything week after week collectively.
You don't even understand what they want to do.
They are there, on the ground, and that's it.
They are there, what.
- Mathieu Faure (@matfaure) October 29, 2021
A mystery game identity
On the basis of the basic observation, we do not have the impression of being missing the point, however.
Isn't it Pochettino,
himself
, who trumpeted that, in Paris more than elsewhere, it was not a question of winning but of doing it "with style", before turning over his jacket and saying the exact point. opposed to the
JDD
a few days ago?
The players themselves agreed after the game against Leipzig.
Mbappé: “For the moment, we are not playing well but we are winning.
I think we have to play better to win more calmly.
"
Verratti: “It's not enough to have great players.
There are only great players in the team, but the team that will win the Champions League is the one that will have the best collective.
This is what we have to find as quickly as possible.
"
Even Leonardo, in his defense of Pochettino, has a double talk. “It's true, we don't play well. We know it. He's looking, we're looking, "he admitted on Friday. For his part, the Argentine assures him, his team knows where they are going. “The project, we have it, the ideas, we have them, we know how to develop them. We are in a phase where we prioritize certain aspects of the project, but the identity is clear, the philosophy is clear, ”he repeated Tuesday at a press conference. “What do you want?” Luis Fernandez annoys when asked about the gap between the words of the coah and what we see on the ground each week. That he come in conf and that he shoot his players? No, he protects his group, that's the role of coach in a big club. The main thing is that he says it in private to the players, the rest ... "
Another former member of the house, Guy Lacombe also wants to show solidarity with the Argentinian.
“We are always very, very severe with the PSG coaches,” he smiles, remembering his time in Paris.
We were for Tuchel when he left and I found that quite unfair, and for Pochettino, I would say it's a bit the same.
He is a recognized trainer.
There are a lot of problems in the game, it's undeniable, but it would be dishonest to ignore the difficulties of the context, with high quality players but notable differences from a physical and / or adaptation point of view. .
"
"Finding a balance in the game takes time"
Thereupon, the most beautiful mustache in French football scores a point: while Messi has resumed shifted after his hectic summer, most of the Parisian backbone (Neymar, Marquinhos, Di Maria and Verratti) have not taken the drive to workout until August 6. Not to mention that, with so many rookies, it takes a while for the mayonnaise to set.
“The workforce was significantly altered last summer, and not by just anyone, but it takes time to find a balance in the game and complementarity between the players, ensures Lacombe.
You have to succeed in creating an amalgam, a unity in the style of play and that, it does not happen in two shots of pot spoons.
"If he readily admits to asking" a lot of questions in relation to what has been produced on the ground "since the start of the season, Eric Rabésandratana simply wonders if the problem is not deeper.
"When we observe the passage of Emery, Tuchel then Pochettino,
we say to ourselves that this is the story of all the coaches who have moved to PSG in recent years.
Do they have the ability to put things in place?
Do the players adhere to the tactical and physical way of working, to the required investment in effort?
I'm not sure of it.
Isn't it ultimately more the problem of the players, or the management, which slows down the impulses of the coaches a little, than that of the coach?
We are entitled to wonder.
The metamorphosis of Thomas Tuchel since his arrival at Chelsea seems in part to attest, it is true.
When will we see a three-way defense at kick-off?
But some of Pochettino's choices, such as the positioning on the right side of a Leo Messi who no longer has his 20-year-old guibolles, are still puzzling. “He may not yet be in the best position, agrees the new coach of Madagascar. Messi, we have to give him total freedom. You place him at the start, but, afterwards, you give him the keys because he is the one who goes, who must organize the whole game. All the players around him must put themselves at his service, there is no no secret, but this is not what we see on the ground for the moment. "
Mbappe who launches Messi as if we were in 2015,
Messi who launches Neymar as if we were in 2016,
Pochettino who makes Messi eat the line as if we were in 2014 ...
There is nothing that goes in the direction of football in this team
- Pierlo (@Piierlo) October 24, 2021
The positioning of the Pulga is all the more mysterious as it seems to restrain Achraf Hakimi, who dares less tumble on the right side than he did at the start of the season. Rabé, always: "We see him less because we block his corridor… Hakimi needs to have space in front of him, so leave it to him!" Mendes is the same, even if he is not a great defender, in the offensive phase he knows what he is talking about, he hits, he overflows, he creates imbalances. The game of PSG must be oriented more on the sides, for the moment it is playing against the tide. "
This is also the lesson of the last Parisian matches against Leipzig and Lille: as soon as the team moved to three behind, the Parisian game has changed. Luis Fernandez: “At that point I saw a team playing ball, I saw a consistent system of play and I think the coach will draw the conclusions in the future. "" Whenever PSG is in difficulty, Pochettino manages to solve the problem, applauds Guy Lacombe for his part. If we analyzed the results of PSG at half-time, good ... But over a whole match, I would say that Pochettino put his foot down, he showed that he was able to react. "
This is perhaps the most visible sign of the Pochettino touch, after all. When, last season, Paris never managed to reverse the match after having conceded the opener, this year, he went to put in the art of the remorada (five victories after being led to the mark). "It is certainly no stranger to the great physical preparation at the start of the season, dear to this coach," notes the former Monaco coach. But, by offering Pochettino a team of Avengers, the Emir of Qatar certainly expects something other than a PSG reaction, forced to constantly adapt to the game of his opponent. "It's going to come," Fernandez wants to believe. You have to leave it alone and give it time. »We are willing to make this effort,but will it be the same for Doha? It's not as if patience was the primary virtue of Qatari owners ...
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Mauricio Pochettino