“It’s frustrating because we dominate this team from start to finish. They have nothing. We need to finish our actions better. We have way too much action for a Champions League match. We are the players, it is not the structure, the organization. We need to be more diligent in front of goal. We have to kill the match. We must win the match by a wide margin”. These words are those of Kylian Mbappé after the draw (1-1) against Newcastle in the Champions League this Tuesday. In this meeting, PSG actually had numerous opportunities to score. But each time, the attackers lacked precision in the last gesture, like Bradley Barcola who missed 4 clear chances. So obviously, this Saturday, when presenting himself at a press conference before the match against Le Havre, Luis Enrique knew that he was not going to escape these questions.
The Spanish technician, as usual, did not attempt to justify himself or explain why PSG had difficulty finishing against Newcastle. Quickly on the defensive, he did not particularly appreciate the first question mentioning a finishing problem for his team. “(laughs) It’s funny. If we have a finishing problem, what do the other teams have? A team which scores 3 goals per match, which creates 10 chances per match… If with that, we have finishing problems, what do the others seriously have? Football is a game of mistakes. I would be concerned if we didn’t create chances. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s football, it’s life. Please, you need to have a little intelligence. If we have a concern about that, what do we say about others?he first said rather sharply before continuing.
“If people like my game more or less, it doesn’t matter to me”
“Of course, the first one to have to score is the player. But I’m never going to criticize a player for that, for a finishing error. As I will never criticize my goalkeeper for a hand mistake. That’s football, there are mistakes. You’re inspired, that’s good. You’re not inspired, it’s more complicated.” Raised again a few minutes later on this same subject, Luis Enrique sent the question: “you can say whatever you want”, he said coldly with a big smile. The journalists, taken aback after these first responses from the coach, tried to delve deeper into the subject by evoking in particular the parallel between Parisian domination with the ball and the chances created. The question referred to PSG being more effective when it has less possession. But here again, Luis Enrique did not appreciate it at all and made it known to the journalist concerned.
“You wonder if, tomorrow, we won’t be dominant? Seriously ? Want to bet? I ask you the question, do you think we will dominate? Why wouldn’t we have possession of it tomorrow? We have 70% possession on average this season. I do not understand your question. What’s important, winning with my style? I don’t understand your question and I don’t agree with it. If we are dominant, we will be able to win the match. To dominate is not to have many chances. This is perhaps the vision of the supporter or the journalist. As a coach, I would like to only have the ball in the opposing camp and attack. I only want to be in the opposing camp because that means the opposing attackers will be far away. If we like my game more or less, I don’t care.”explained the former Spain coach.
Luis Enrique and statistics
Finally, Luis Enrique did not escape questions concerning the statistics of his attackers either. If Kylian Mbappé is the top scorer in the championship and the club with 17 goals since the start of the season, no other player can keep up with his pace or score regularly with Paris. But the Spanish technician, in addition to not liking being talked to about PSG’s finishing problems, also hates being told about statistics. “The problem in football is that we just look at the stats. There are sports where stats are not important. Dembélé, if we look at his stats, we can say that he is not a good player. However, Ousmane is the one who creates the most imbalance in the world. If you want to look at the stats go there but it’s not data that I use. I would like them to score more but that’s not what I’m going to watch. (…) I would like to have three Mbappé who score in front yes. Last year the goals were distributed between the three monsters in front. Mbappé anyway, he will always score 40 goals per season. But we don’t depend on him. Finally, we depend on him, because who wouldn’t depend on Mbappé? But there are many players who have scored this season with PSG. If we removed Mbappé, we would not have another player who scores 17 goals, but we would have several players with 5-6 goals perhaps. It doesn’t worry me.”
To end this lively press conference, Luis Enrique wanted to defend Bradley Barcola, targeted by criticism after his missed opportunities against Newcastle. For the former Barça coach, the young 21-year-old striker does not have to be ashamed of his performance. “For Barcola, criticism at PSG, all the players will know that. It’s a demanding club. What I can say about him is that he is a player with a lot of personality, he is very young, he creates differences with dribbles and he gets into the box for scoring chances. This is part of his learning process. Football is a game of mistakes. The other day I watched a video on YouTube where Michael Jordan said he missed 9,000 shots in his career. The most important thing is to dare to shoot otherwise you don’t score.” That is clear. This press conference will not have marked the reconciliation between the journalists and Luis Enrique who continues to take on the role of shield for his team when it is under fire from criticism.
