It is a Mauricio Pochettino satisfied with the result and the mentality of his troops who presented themselves to the press after the difficult victory against Lille (2-1). The Argentine coach in particular praised the moral virtues of his group, commented at length on his changes during the match and in particular the enthronement of the three-way defense and also gave news of Messi.
Is it the character of your team that you are prioritizing tonight?
“Yes, I think it’s no accident that the team responds this way in the face of adversity. It says a lot about his mentality, his character. Of course we want to win and win in the best way, with the greatest possible goal difference. The process makes us suffer but the team is doing what they have to do. And she does good things when needed. It can’t be a coincidence to win ten games out of twelve (in the league). The team deserves it even if it is not with the margin that everyone expects and that we hope too. But yes, I’m happy with the mentality and character of the team. It’s a positive thing that must be maintained if we are to win big things at the end of the season. “
How do you explain the double face of PSG in this match? Is it the system change per hour of play?
“During the first half when the game plan was to have control, knowing that Lille are a team that have very fast defense-attack transitions, we may not have had (sufficient) control to allow our offensive players to be more peaceful when it comes to managing the ball in the opposing party. Before each of our losses of the ball or each recovery of Lille, they too easily came to endanger us. Sometimes you play with that feeling, that feeling, when (the danger) is not as big as it looks when you analyze it (cold).
In the second half, we were much better, the best team even. It allowed us to be calmer and better build the collective game in the possession phase, especially with the result that followed. The team was forced to offer a lot more play. But I think that in the first half, it was perhaps more a problem of feeling, of confidence than of performance. But yes, from an external point of view and sensation, I agree with your analysis. “
Why did Leo Messi come out at the break?
“It was a precaution. We made the decision to release him with the medical staff. We hope he will be available for the game against Leipzig. “
PSG has won several games in the last five minutes. It seems that it is the individualities that compensate for the collective shortcomings …
“(He cuts it off) But just before your analysis, your colleague said that the last 30 minutes had been collective. So you don’t agree with each other? (He smiles and cuts the reporter again) No, I didn’t speak of concerns, no I didn’t speak of shortcomings… (he seems annoyed) ”
Okay so my question is, “what mistakes are you most concerned about”?
“I answered the first question but I will repeat it then. In the first half, we failed to control the game, especially the quick transitions for Lille. Lille are a team that plays with a very compact block, very tight, to cause errors for the opponent and quickly find their attackers to recover the ball. We couldn’t handle these situations in the first half. That’s why I’m saying I understand this feeling that we didn’t make a good opening act. We managed that better in the second half, by offering more peace to our offensive players to develop a much smoother team play and create a lot more chances. “
Does this solidity pass through the use of a system with three central defenders from the kick-off? We saw that Danilo fell back in the second half, but can we see more of a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3?
“Yeah, I think every game has its game plan. A lot of times it works the way we work it, and sometimes it doesn’t, like it did today at the start (of the game). It is the absolute responsibility of the person talking to you. It is obvious that this game plan depends on our intentions and the analysis of the opponent. It doesn’t always work, but we are happy to have a very strong squad of players who can offer other registers and ideas to the team and allow us to plan during the game. So, yes, that may be an option in the future, an option that we have to work a lot more to develop it because the system that we have been working on so far is a different system. But it must be an option. Over time, we hope to have this flexibility of being able to either start or change during the game to go from 3 or 4 defenders. It is important that the team can play in different registers and compositions in the future. “
You win one last time in the last minutes. It’s great for the gameplay scenario, but aren’t there things you can do to make games easier?
“Yes, there are always things to improve as we explained earlier in this conference. Maybe the game plan we prepared didn’t work, but we adjusted it and it worked better afterwards. And we had the opportunity to win. Ultimately, as I said the day before the match, in football the most important thing is to win, and then to play well because that is our philosophy and our idea. We are winning, and we know we have to improve in the game. I completely agree with you. We have to win with wider scores in the future and with much better performance. “