At the Parc des Princes,
The life of Paris Saint-Germain supporters is anything but a long calm river. It would rather be a succession of rapids. But at least he experiences strong emotions. All the time. Whether in the deepest of depressions, as was the case last year with a team and a coach who never knew how to keep the beautiful promises of the summer, to the point of no longer provoking anything other than the disdain and indifference of his fans, or in joy, as was the case on Saturday evening, against Lens, with this great victory (3-1).
In a few weeks, with great revolutions at all levels (a change of coaches and eleven recruits), and after two draws as promising as they are incomplete, against Lorient and Toulouse, PSG has finally been able to offer its public something so rare in Paris lately: champagne football, smiles and mistletoes in the lower abdomen. Hope for a brighter tomorrow, too. We can even say it, the PSG version Luis Enrique was officially born this Saturday evening, facing a Lensoise team which we will remember that it prefers to die open mouth rather than derogate from its principles of play.
“There was too much of a gap tonight between the two teams”
What must also be welcomed, even if on the accounting level the accounts are not there after three days (one point taken out of nine possible). Thus, it was with a very high block and an almost individual marking on the three Parisian attackers, Asensio, Mbappé and Dembélé, that Franck Haise’s men attacked the match. Initially with some success. “We were rather consistent in what we wanted to do in the first period, with a desire to prevent Paris from leaving, greeted the artesian coach after the match. But then there is this first goal which arrives. In the second half we opened up a bit but against this team, if you open too much, it goes too fast, and for us it was too fast. There was too much of a gap tonight between the two teams. »
After a purring first quarter of an hour, PSG quickly took the lead and the chances multiplied on Samba’s goals. With its two TGVs on the sides, Mbappé and Dembouz, established for the first time this season at home, Paris has enough to put all the defenses of Ligue 1 at Berroca. Their coming into play in Toulouse had already hinted at what everyone already knows: that this team is not the same with the doublet of the French team on the ground. This was confirmed against Lens.
A collective and no longer a sum of individuals
But beyond these two individuals, it is above all a collective that imposed itself on Saturday evening, and that is the real revolution to be underlined with a marker in the history notebook. Luis Enrique: “All the coaches want very high level players like Mbappé and Dembélé but it’s not only thanks to them. We also won thanks to Asensio, Vitinha, Warren, Marquinhos, Skriniar, Danilo when he entered, Lucas, everyone. All the players are important, we are a team. “The new kid Manuel Ugarte, mon-tru-them recovery Saturday night, does not say anything else:” I believe that a team is being born and today we demonstrated it.
“They play well and they release the ball well, they have gained in intensity in the physical duels, as we have seen in the transition phases. This is where they hurt us the most, it is on this axis that they have improved, ”noted Lensois Morgan Guilavogui, passing through the mixed zone after the meeting. Compared to this ersatz team that wandered around without the slightest collective coherence last year with Galtier, Luis Enrique’s PSG really played as a team, as a whole, with clever moves and overruns of functions essential to unbalance the opposing defenses .
Like a metamorphosed Vitinha, who yo-yoed between a high point position in the middle three, and a left side slip to compensate for Mbappé’s freedom of movement. “To attack against Lens, you need breadth and depth. We had to fix the opponent to give freedom to Kylian Mbappé because that’s how we like him. This is what we managed to do thanks to this role of Vitinha, ”appreciated the former coach of La Roja.
A devastating transition game
He is said to be addicted to the game of possession, “Lucho” also managed to make his team shine in the transition phases, like there too the magnificent first and second Parisian goals, in a touch of the ball, with a large projection in the opposing area. If we happened to vibrate at the start of last season in this same stadium, it never took shape in a lasting way. Saturday was perhaps only the first game with the standard team at home, but we felt in the players and the coach a real desire to play together, to make the effort for each other and never to fall into this false rhythm and this sufficiency which has been the hallmark of PSG in recent months.
“What was not lacking tonight was the temperament of my players, underlined Enrique in a post-match press conference. What I remember is the audacity of the players, especially when we were faced with their high pressing. There was Champions League rhythm tonight. I liked the courage of my players, we created a lot of chances against a team that defends very well. “If the majority of the teams that populate our good old Farmers League will not play with the same audacity as the Lensois and it will be necessary to find other levers to bend the defenses, with such a character and such a collective, Paris has enough to look at yourself in a mirror again. Which is already a huge improvement compared to last season.