The evidence was confirmed this Thursday noon during the press briefing preceding the trip to Ajaccio and, as expected, PSG will maintain a four-man defense on Corsican soil.
Will the 4-4-2 diamond be renewed with a possible turnover in Ajaccio?
CHRISTOPHER GALTIER. There may be freshness, I’m still thinking. Everyone thinks it will be easy for PSG but we were in big trouble at Reims… We’ll play four behind, that’s the only information I can give.
Do you agree that Marquinhos is better and that his game has evolved recently?
Marqui is a very important part of our team. He had to assimilate a different role from what we were able to offer him in previous years, in a three-man, very central defense. We have seen automatic anticipation with some problems in depth management. He was able to quickly rectify the situation, better position himself. He had difficult matches like the rest of the team, but he is a player who plays every match and inevitably, with the sequence, you can get tired. He is the player who manages depth the most for us and that means doing a lot of runs, but I think his mistakes were mainly related to this very important pace. He has a lot more benchmarks in a four-man defense, it is also important for him to have Marco (Verratti) in front of him, with whom he has been playing for several years.
What kind of coach does your son Jordan Galtier aspire to be and is there a chance he will work alongside you in the future?
It will be a special moment for a father to see his son on the bench on the other side. It will quickly be necessary to abstract. He is a boy passionate about football who did not have the career he hoped for in relation to his qualities. He did not pass and quickly projected himself on a career as an educator. His career led him to be Olivier Pantaloni’s assistant, he is an independent boy. He has references that are other than those of his father. He studies a lot, he analyzes a lot. Will he ever be head coach, I don’t know. An assistant coach must be a real added value and I insist on that. Will we work together? He is very young and I have already trained a lot, so I don’t know.
How do you explain that Neymar, suspended this Friday, has played so many games this season?
One, he has no problem. And two, it performs well. He arrived physically ready at the start of the preparation, determined to have a good season. He is serious and fit. There is no secret in football, if you pay attention to your body and put rhythm into the sessions. From the moment he is physically well, he can avoid contact, which allows him not to have injuries on the joint level. On a muscular level, he can chain the matches.
Is your team’s weak offensive performance at the moment because your team is perhaps more predictable?
It’s possible, even if I don’t think we were very predictable in the Marseille match. Even if they had a good match, we had a lot of situations and a bit of bad luck, like the free kick from Leo (Messi). The goalkeeper (Pau Lopez) was elected among the best players of the game. That does mean something. Afterwards, for the previous matches, I agree with you, we had few situations, but during the victory at Lyon for example, we had a lot of situations and the opposing goalkeeper had also performed well. It is important to create situations, it is preferable to score more also to make rotations but with the sequence of matches we can be less fair.
What are some players like El Chadaille Bitshiabu missing to integrate the rotation?
“Chad” is a player with incredible potential who came back to the squad very late due to a muscle injury during preparation. He didn’t do the internship (in Japan). With the club, we pin a lot of hopes on him. If there had been a thought to continue playing with three, he would have had this opportunity, but it is not because we have gone to four that he cannot play. The requirement of result, facing teams who want to achieve the match of their season, also implies putting in more experience.
What about the promising Warren Zaire-Emery who has not played for some time?
These players, if they were in other clubs, we would have seen them more often on Ligue 1 grounds. They face significant, incredible, even very high competition. They learn every day during the sessions through technical quality. This allows them to grow too. Warren is working very well and we may see him tomorrow.