PSG – Atlético: the Luis Enrique style is debated in Spain

The scenario is terribly cruel for Paris Saint-Germain, but in the end, no one is really surprised. Beaten on the gong at home by Atlético de Madrid (1-2), the capital club can only blame itself. Because once again, his offensive inefficiency played tricks on him. You only have to look at the statistics of the match to realize this: 22 shots to 4, 93 attacks to 23, 6 corners to 0, 803 passes to 280. PSG dominated the Colchoneros… on paper . But in the end, it was the Spanish club that walked away with the three points, leaving PSG in 25th place in the C1 standings and therefore potentially eliminated.

This new poor performance logically put Luis Enrique on the front line. But once again, the Spaniard came up with lunar justifications to try to explain this umpteenth failure on the European scene. Because for the former Barça coach, everything is quite clear: his team played better than Atlético, but the lack of offensive efficiency ruined everything. His reaction to Angel Correa’s winning goal says a lot about his frustration. “ The way we conceded the goal was a joke. » We cannot blame Luis Enrique by saying that the match would have been different if Paris had been able to convert one or two of its chances. But the fact is that with “ifs”, we could remake the world.

Luis Enrique persists

Asked about Luis Enrique’s statement on the Madrid knockout goal, Jan Oblak showed compassion with the Spanish technician. “ I understand it perfectly. When you don’t win a match in which you attack, you have chances… and you lose it at the last second, it’s difficult to assimilate and accept. This has happened to us too often. » On the Atlético side, in any case, no one has denied the Simeone version of DNA, namely that of a team that is not always attractive and knows how to keep its back before planting a banner. “ This is what we want, we can’t walk away from it, we’ve been building this for twelve years and we can’t walk away from it », Confided El Cholo after the meeting.

This morning, as is often the case the day after C1 matches, Luis Enrique’s style is annoying. Used to criticizing the Parisian coach on the microphone RMC SportDaniel Riolo did not fail to add a layer. “ I don’t see a player progressing under Luis Enrique. Vitinha is an 8, not a 6. Fabian Ruiz is a ghost with PSG, Barcola is good in the league and does not yet have the level in C1, Dembélé is good at eliminating an opponent, but to score, there is no no one left, Asensio no longer exists. (…) He brought nothing to PSG apart from inventions and lunar press conferences. »

“ I prefer less aesthetic football to football that pretends to play the violin »

In Spain, this case also divides. Many especially remember the Luis Enrique version of Roja. The one who displayed ultra domination in possession of the ball, endless chances, but very few goals scored. “ I reaffirm my words. I prefer football that is less aesthetic, but closer to the football I always remember, to football that pretends to play the violin and ends up being a village brass band. I prefer Cholo “, declared journalist Nacho Peña at the microphone of Radio Marca. But others, like our colleague from FilesIvan Vargas Sanchez, believe that Luis Enrique is doing better things at PSG than with Spain, but that he only lacks the success of his offensives.

“ Although Luis Enrique’s style at PSG is quite similar to that of the Spanish national team when he was coach, I think there are things that differentiate them. In the Spanish national team, there was a lot of “horizontality” in the game, while Paris Saint-Germain has a more vertical game in attack. In my opinion this is due to the type of players he has, because in Spain there was no player as unbalanced and fast as Dembélé in his era (since then Spain has got back Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams ). Even if Luis Enrique wants it to be the players who adapt to his ideas, he knows what type of players he has in each position and that is why there are variations depending on the players he has in his team. arrangement. To summarize: Paris Saint-Germain are more expressive in attack than La Roja could do under their command and yesterday, the only thing they lacked was the goal, because they created a lot of dangerous chances . In my opinion, Luis Enrique is a sensational coach. » The Luis Enrique case has not stopped talking. But one thing is certain: we cannot count on the Asturian to deny his principles.