PSG: humor, attacking football, pressure… Luis Enrique received orally

2023-07-05 20:40:08

Luis Enrique has followed in the footsteps of Carlo Ancelotti and no PSG lover can blame him for such great patronage. Entering this Wednesday in the press room of the “Campus PSG”, the new training center of the club, the Spanish technician dropped a “Hello” before sitting in the front row. The new Parisian coach still had to wait for his president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, 2h45 behind the initial schedule because of a plane, to speak first before facing a room full of a hundred journalists.

Like the Italian coach in January 2012 in the auditorium of the Parc des Princes, Luis Enrique first spoke in French before delivering his thoughts in Spanish. They are like that the great coaches from institutions stronger than the PSG: a certain sense of respect for the one who employs you and the country which welcomes you. It’s a form of class and Ancelotti and Enrique had it, from the outset for their first speech.

“If we think we can’t play offensively, we don’t come to PSG”

In the language of Molière, the former coach of La Roja split a few words agreed in such circumstances. ” Good morning. First of all, I want to thank the club, the owner, the president and the sporting director for the confidence placed in me, unfolded the native of Gijón, 53 years old. I’m delighted to be here and I hope I can repay that confidence with important trophies. I don’t speak French but I started to study it. Thank you so much. Behind the trainer look for the woman: it was his wife, perfectly bilingual, who gave him his first text in French.

Luis Enrique has signed for two years with Nasser Al-Khelaïfi’s PSG. LP/Olivier Arandel

The sequel, for 20 minutes, will be much more instructive in substance, humor over form, advancing themes that some of its predecessors had avoided. Luis Enrique summed up his style and his philosophy with two axioms: attacking football and the psychology of the footballer, that human paste he has known for forty years.

In terms of play, he did not split hairs: “Offensive identity is non-negotiable. If we think we can’t play offensively, we don’t come to PSG. My job is to get the best out of my squad individually and collectively. »

It was moreover more a question of delighting the public at the Parc des Princes than of winning the Champions League in the speech of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and, to a lesser extent, of his new coach, as if the communication had changed. A desire to remove the pressure which does not change the objective: the players sign with PSG to lift the C1, not Hexagoal.

“I love this pressure, I love this mission”

The ex-Barcelona midfielder still reassured the worried: he is not just arriving for the 12th title of champion of France. “I love this pressure, I love this mission. Wonderful pressure! There are dozens of teams that have this experience, he will say about the C1. But that doesn’t mean we can’t reach their level. Being ambitious is positive in life. We can’t see everything around us and not be ambitious. »

VIDEO. “I study French”, the first speech of Luis Enrique, new coach of PSG

So much for the ambitions and the way to get there. But Enrique will above all discover the life of coach of PSG, this triangle of Bermuda which sent to the bottom Christophe Galtier, Unai Emery or Mauricio Pochettino, the last ones sitting on the ejection bench of the Parc des Princes. Here, the slightest difference in com ‘you undermine a season and a credit. “It’s going to be fine with the media because I don’t understand French at all,” he laughs.

Here, the stars dominate, above managers, coaches, staff, hygiene and collective behavior. PSG embodies sovereign individualism. Enrique promises to succeed thanks to his past, which imposes more, it is true that most of the coaches passed here since Carlo Ancelotti and Laurent Blanc.

“Because of my experience, I was five and nine years at FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, I coached big clubs, I had a locker room full of stars at Barça, I feel good with the players , he explains. Players are selfish but smart. They know perfectly well that if you are there to help them, they are committed to you. He has already made people want to follow him anyway.