All about the next opponent: Interview with Paris expert Arthur Verdelet

What is the situa­ti­on with the French cham­pi­ons from Paris ahead of tonight’s show­down? We spo­ke with jour­na­list and PSG expert Arthur Ver­de­let about it.

With the Red Stri­pe: Hel­lo and thank you for taking the time to ans­wer our ques­ti­ons. PSG has won Ligue 1 for the past three years and is curr­ent­ly the dou­ble win­ner in France. Once again, the team has a big lead over Mar­seil­le. How do you see their chan­ces of defen­ding the title?

Arthur: PSG is inde­ed well on track to defend their Ligue 1 title, given their 10-point lead over OM. This PSG team may not always win, but they never lose in France, whe­re­as their com­pe­ti­tors (Mar­seil­le, Mona­co, or Lil­le) are unable to main­tain con­sis­tent per­for­man­ces. So, it is impos­si­ble to keep up with their pace.

In the Cham­pi­ons League, howe­ver, they are fight­ing on Wed­nes­day to stay in the com­pe­ti­ti­on. Why can’t PSG repli­ca­te their dome­stic per­for­man­ces on the inter­na­tio­nal stage?

Paris has suf­fe­r­ed from a signi­fi­cant lack of effi­ci­en­cy and is likely pay­ing the pri­ce for the youth and inex­pe­ri­ence of their squad in big matches. This was evi­dent against Giro­na (1–0 in the clo­sing stages), as well as against PSV Eind­ho­ven (1–1) or RB Salz­burg (3–0), games that Paris could have won. This lack of pre­cis­i­on in finis­hing, com­bi­ned with defen­si­ve mista­kes or goal­kee­per errors, has left Paris with their backs against the wall. Against Arse­nal (0–2) or Bay­ern (0–1), they couldn’t com­pe­te. Howe­ver, the win against Man­ches­ter City (3–2) offers a glim­mer of hope.

Both clubs fai­led to win over the weekend. VfB lost in Mainz, while Paris only mana­ged a 1–1 draw against Reims. Do you think this has any signi­fi­can­ce for Wednesday’s match?

No, not par­ti­cu­lar­ly. Against Reims, Luis Enri­que res­ted some key play­ers who are plan­ned to start on Wed­nes­day. Once again, Paris lacked that spark, that cer­tain some­thing in attack or mid­field to secu­re a win. Howe­ver, in my opi­ni­on, the game was coher­ent and reassu­ring.

What would an eli­mi­na­ti­on mean for the club?

It would, of cour­se, be a huge dis­ap­point­ment for PSG and their manage­ment. Howe­ver, the pro­ject now seems dif­fe­rent and more long-term. Pre­si­dent Nas­ser Al-Khe­lai­fi has repea­ted­ly empha­si­zed that Luis Enrique’s future does not depend on this. I’m curious to see what hap­pens.

How is Stutt­gart view­ed in Paris?

It’s a young, rather exci­ting team that seems to play attrac­ti­ve foot­ball. I like your coach’s phi­lo­so­phy. In France, we are also kee­ping an eye on Antho­ny Rou­ault, Enzo Mil­lot, and for­mer Ren­nes play­er Fabi­an Rie­der, who is final­ly flou­ris­hing this sea­son. Howe­ver, PSG does not seem worried at all and is very con­fi­dent.

Do you see a risk that both teams might sett­le for a draw, which would see both of them pro­gress?

No. At least, I hope not. Enri­que repea­ted­ly empha­si­zes that he wants to win ever­y­whe­re and at all times.

Regar­ding Paris’ coach: What’s your opi­ni­on on Luis Enri­que, and how does he set up his team in terms of for­ma­ti­on and tac­tics?

He is a coach with a clear game plan who demands 100% com­mit­ment from his play­ers, even if that some­ti­mes upsets part of the squad. He had a toug­her peri­od in Novem­ber and ear­ly Decem­ber, but he mana­ged to hand­le egos and lis­ten to his play­ers. He wants to keep pos­ses­si­on as much as pos­si­ble and win the ball back quick­ly when lost. Paris almost always plays in a 4–3‑3 for­ma­ti­on, buil­ding up with three defen­ders in pos­ses­si­on. Haki­mi has a lot of free­dom in this sys­tem. Men­des has also been given more free­dom over the weeks, but he is sus­pen­ded for the upco­ming game and will be repla­ced by a more defen­si­ve play­er.

Whe­re do you see PSG’s strengths and weak­ne­s­ses?

I’d say PSG is an exci­ting team that is still deve­lo­ping but still lacks con­sis­ten­cy. Luis Enri­que wants to estab­lish con­stant ball pos­ses­si­on and total con­trol of the game for 90 minu­tes, but Paris has recur­ring lap­ses in con­cen­tra­ti­on. The pres­sing has impro­ved signi­fi­cant­ly this sea­son, and ever­yo­ne participates—unlike last sea­son. If you don’t con­tri­bu­te, you don’t play.

PSG’s strength lies in its unpre­dic­ta­bi­li­ty and the nume­ri­cal advan­ta­ges crea­ted by its full-backs, espe­ci­al­ly Ach­raf Haki­mi, when they push for­ward into attack. I also belie­ve PSG is at its best and most secu­re when it uti­li­zes the pace of its atta­ckers in coun­ter­at­tacks or quick sur­ges for­ward. While this some­ti­mes con­tra­dicts their inten­ded style of play, it is neces­sa­ry.

Regar­ding weak­ne­s­ses, the per­sis­tent lack of effi­ci­en­cy stands out this sea­son, along with avo­ida­ble goal­kee­per errors (Don­na­rum­ma against Arse­nal, Safo­nov against Munich). Even though the goal­kee­per gene­ral­ly per­forms well, such mista­kes can cost them a match. Defen­si­ve­ly, the team must remain focu­sed, and the midfield—which is often phy­si­cal­ly out­mat­ched in duels—needs to impo­se its­elf more.

Paris has a squad full of stars. Who could make the dif­fe­rence on Wed­nes­day?

I’m torn bet­ween Brad­ley Bar­co­la, who has recent­ly retur­ned to form and was decisi­ve against City after a dif­fi­cult spell, and Ous­ma­ne Dem­bé­lé, who has been scoring regu­lar­ly sin­ce Decem­ber (13 goals this sea­son). They are PSG’s two main thre­ats and play­makers. Howe­ver, I would choo­se Bar­co­la, who might final­ly be expe­ri­en­cing his long-awai­ted breakth­rough.

Final­ly: Your pre­dic­tion for the start­ing lin­e­up and the result?

4–3‑3: Don­na­rum­ma – Haki­mi, Mar­quin­hos (cap­tain), Pacho, Her­nan­dez – Vitin­ha, Zaï­re-Eme­ry (or Ruiz), Neves – Bar­co­la, Dem­bé­lé, Doué

I pre­dict a 2–1 win for PSG. I am quite cer­tain they will score, but they strugg­le to keep a clean sheet this sea­son.

Note: This inter­view was trans­la­ted from Ger­man via ChatGPT

Pic­tu­re: © Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

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