The Parisian coach took stock after the sluggish victory against Maccabi Haifa on Wednesday, at the Sammy-Ofer stadium, during the second day of C1.
Maccabi Haifa : «Surprised ? No. We had analyzed Maccabi, a team that was both very well organized, with talented players and a lot of vertical play. A team that put a lot of intensity, as it had done against Benfica (0-2 defeat) and in the preliminary rounds of the Champions League. So I was not surprised. There was a wonderful atmosphere. Not at all surprised in fact: they are a very good team, very playful, very intense and which caused us a lot of problems in the first period.»
PSG’s reaction to adversity : «It is a line of work. In the first half, we had very important frank situations, face-to-face, we missed things technically. It may also be linked to a lawn that is totally different from what we usually see, without saying that it is not good, but it was catching. Whether for Kylian (Mbappé) or “Ney”, the last gesture was difficult. There was some confusion, that’s not the right term, about how to defend with the team block. There was the desire to press quickly from the three attackers. Our defensive block was much lower which gave a lot of space behind the backs of our three forwards and therefore a lot of difficulty on our two midfielders, our pistons couldn’t come out like they usually do and that made the first period difficult. Maccabi created situations and Gigio Donnarumma made important saves. We concede a goal on a ball exit error. We were in trouble because there was far too much distance between our three offensive players and our team block. It was totally different in the second half. We were much better organised, with a very important balance to avoid going through the same thing again as before the break. We won the ball where it was needed, we put our game down and we had a lot of favorable situations. We scored goals in areas that were clearly identified, with each other moving. But the midfield was less isolated because our attacking three went lower and our team block stayed a bit higher. The team block was therefore more compact and we recovered many more balls in the density.»
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Stroke of fatigue : «No. There are also opponents who work on us as we do on them. I already talked about it during the break but I’ll come back to it in pictures on how you have to be organized to avoid catching waves. It was a bit the case against Brest (1-0), it was a lot the case against Maccabi in the first period. This is a very important line of work. Unfortunately, we have few sessions to work on. These are sessions that require intensity but playing every three days, we can not put it. We will use the video to be much more precise on the positioning when the opposing defenders have the ball.»
sufficiency : «No way. My players did not take this match quietly. The defense was in difficulty only when we suffered a lot of waves with a lot of opposing players who threw themselves forward. There was a quality of crosses that we had identified, an athletic presence in the surface. We were cut in half, we couldn’t even win the second ball and it was wave after wave… It made this first period complicated even if we were lucky enough to come back tied at the break. It was much better in the second half. Impressive atmosphere for the players? It was a big Champions League atmosphere. It’s always nice to play in stadiums like that. But the players are used to it, they have no slack in preparing for matches, except that we have to quickly identify, and we already know, what went wrong so that it doesn’t happen again. .»
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Neymar’s yellow card : «I asked him to be very calm. He had just scored a very important goal for us. A magnificent goal. After speaking with the referee at the end of the match, he considered that there was a little too excessive celebration on the part of “Ney”. I think it’s a very severe yellow card.»
Fortunately, we have these three attackers, very high level players.
Christophe Galtier
Neymar’s game : «The three who scored are called Messi, Mbappé and Neymar… Fortunately, we have these three attackers. They are very high level players. There may be frustration for “Ney” in the first period, as for Kylian: they had frank situations that they could not conclude. “Ney” gave us back a very important balance in the second period by working a lot in the team block and with the midfielders, which made this second period much more successful than the first.»
Achraf Hakimi and the whistles of the Israeli public : «He didn’t start simply because he had just played eight out of nine matches, and not in relation to the environment and what had happened two years ago at the Champions Trophy (Hakimi had been whistled in Tel Aviv because of his open support for the Palestinian cause, as last July, editor’s note). I wanted freshness on the right lane.»
The investment of the “MNM” : «It’s not a problem of investment, it’s that they quickly let go because behind, it didn’t follow, or perhaps because they were pressing in isolation. There was a renunciation that came too quickly in the first period, and not a lack of desire. We talked a lot about it during the break, which was devoted to this positioning. This is why there is a big difference between the two halves. They wanted to recover the ball as quickly as possible when they must be the first to hinder the first raises. From the moment we were cut in two, there was renunciation, that meant a lot of racing backwards. They are attacking players, who have so much talent and who want to be very high quickly. We talked about it, we worked a lot on it during the break. When the balance was a lot better and everyone was closer together, it made the second half a lot better. It’s not a question of bad will, but of giving up too quickly, but linked to a bad way of pressing to recover the ball.»
Statements taken at a press conference