PSG will face their former coach Carlo Ancelotti with Real Madrid in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Since the departure of the Italian, four coaches have taken over without ever finding the winning formula in C1 with Paris.
All of them, however, left a lasting mark in their own way.
PSG-Real, Ancelotti versus Pochettino.
The pitch looks like a bad movie starring Matthew Mc Conaughey before he became a real actor.
The hunk at the height of his hype, just before his forties, who questions the meaning of life and reviews his past and future exes.
“We still had two crazy years with Carlo”.
“Lolo, that was solid”.
And so on.
While waiting to find out if PSG will definitely find love with Zizou next summer, we take a look at the complicated relations between Paris and its coaches in the QSI era, keeping only the best moments.
The charm of Carlo Ancelotti
Perhaps it's the delightful accent, that inimitable circumflex eyebrow, or the always well-felt humorous traits.
In the keepsake cabinet, the Italian coach remains on the top shelf, the only one dusted from time to time.
There is the construction of a great club, of course, by these small daily details: a cook dedicated to the first team at the Camp des Loges, the GPS beacons in training, the sandy mound very fashionable at the era for dreaded physical exercises.
But Ancelotti and Paris, it remains above all a formidable human adventure, with a coach connected to his players like no one else.
An anecdote among others: Ibra who shows up furiously in the locker room after a classico: “I have never played in a team that only plays against”.
Carlo who responds tactfully: “And I have never played with a center forward who did not keep a ball”.
Big smile from the Swede and a conquered group, who does not hesitate to invite his coach for a barbecue or an aperitif.
The end of the story leaves a bitter taste: the great coach arrived before the big club, and PSG would have benefited from thinking before upsetting him for an ultimatum on Christmas Eve.
“The club lost confidence in me and I lost confidence in him,” Carletto said nicely.
A year later, he won the C1 with Real.
This same C1 that Paris is still waiting for ten years later.
The beautiful game of Laurent Blanc
It's called nostalgia.
The kind of stuff that we can't stand anymore at the moment T, but which we remember with a tear in the corner of our eye a few years later.
For PSG fans, this "thing" is the mandate of Laurent Blanc (2013-2016).
Many supporters today praise the way in which the President made their beloved team play with 11 titles at stake (record for a Parisian coach).
Compared to the random roster of stars regularly offered by his successors since the summer of 2017, the tactics at Lolo, which included managing a Zlatan's ego, indeed often looked like a masterpiece.
Well, up to a certain point… The 3-5-2 never tested before being inaugurated during a C1 quarter-final return to Manchester City, one evening in April 2016 – with a surprise return to grace from Serge Aurier after a dark story of Periscope – turned to the belly and precipitated the fall of the coach to the stirrer.
The former coach of the Blues has not really recovered since, as evidenced by the four and a half years of inactivity followed by a failed passage to Al-Rayyan, cut short on Sunday by the leaders of the Qatari club.
But PSG has never looked like such an oiled collective since his departure.
Unai Emery's masterclass
Often, when we take stock of the Basque coach at PSG, we remember two things: the title of champion of France lost in 2017 against a stratospheric Monaco and the pitiful elimination against Barça in the round of 16.
But, good Samaritans that we are, we preferred to remember the furious match against the Blaugranas, at the Parc des Princes (4-0), perhaps the best match of a French club on the European scene since a very long time ago.
Kimpembe who puts Messi in his back pocket for his first match in C1, Rabiot who teases the ankles of Catalan midfielders, Di Maria who pulls out all the stops.
It was a very, very big Paris, capable of deploying a physical dimension behind which Tuchel then Pochettino kept running without ever finding the click.
“Emery is worthy of the greatest, explained the Algerian Sofiane Feghouli in
Le Parisien
just after the meeting.
A tactical recital.
The credit goes to him!
It is to be studied by all future players and coaches.
“Fifteen days later, everything was forgotten, but we will have vibrated Unai.
Thank you for everything.
The gegenpressing of Thomas Tuchel
Attackers who make defensive efforts, midfielders who harass their opponents so much that Marlène Schiappa asked herself the question of opening a toll-free number, a collective intensity... It was good, it was beautiful, this counter-pressing against the loss ball made in Thomas Tuchel.
"It's the best chance to get the ball back very quickly and our players like to have the ball and a lot of possession," explained the man who now coaches Chelsea.
If you don't play with high pressure after losing the ball, it's not possible.
When you don't press high, it's not possible to play against a disorganized team.
»
In fact, we especially saw this gegenpressing during the first six months of the German in Paris and then during the Final 8 in Lisbon which led PSG to the final of the Champions League.
The rest of the time, too little collective cohesion, individual exploits to get Paris out of trouble, and rather incomprehensible player choices (yes, like Danilo in central defense and Marquinhos in the middle).
The German is however the one who came closest to the supreme Grail, before him too, to materialize the following year in another club.
Mauricio Pochettino's PSG fiber
PSG supporters regularly complain that players and coaches do not have the PSG fiber, the famous "love of the shirt".
For Messi, Icardi, and company, it's veni, vidi, vici, and then nothing else.
So what better than a former club player, between 2011 and 2003, who becomes the coach to give back?
We could already see Maurice kissing the crest, tattooing the Eiffel Tower on his pectoral and crying when he heard “Ô Ville Lumière” resounding in the Park.
“This club has always held a special place in my heart, the Argentinian did not waver when he made his arrival official.
I keep wonderful memories, especially of the unique atmosphere of the Parc des Princes.
We will also do our best to give our team that combative and offensive game identity that Parisian supporters have always loved.
Well, a few months later, we are still looking for the combative and offensive game identity of PSG.
And also the love of the club.
But what matters is the intention, right?
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Carlo Ancelotti
Mauricio Pochettino
Laurent Blanc
PSG
Sport
Champions League
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