Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique has been heavily criticized by French football expert Jonathan Johnson in the latest edition of his exclusive Daily Briefing column.
PSG were all over the place last night in a 4-1 defeat away to Newcastle United in the Champions League, and Johnson did not hold back with his analysis of Enrique’s poor tactical choices.
Writing in today’s piece, the journalist stated that Enrique’s decision to play just two in midfield and four in attack was a suicidal move, while he added that the Spanish tactician could surely have worked that out with just a bit more of a look at how Eddie Howe’s side have played this season.
“I was impressed by Lens’ resolve (against Arsenal), and the fact that they didn’t try to do anything too different, whereas in PSG’s case you have to question why Luis Enrique decided to only go for two central midfielders and four attackers when any minimal amount of match preparation would have shown that that was a suicidal approach,” Johnson wrote.
PSG have generally under-achieved in the Champions League down the years, despite being pretty dominant in Ligue 1 for the last decade or more, and if this result is anything to go by, they’re not any closer to fixing their hoodoo in this competition.
Newcastle will be delighted, however, to have made such a strong start to a very difficult-looking group, taking four points from their first two games and sitting top of the pile at the moment.
PSG had many and much better formation options 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1 (christmas tree), and even a 4-3-3. 4-2-2-2 or 4-2-4 is experimental or novice formations. Luis Enrique is showing to be not much better than Christophe Galtier. In any good and stream football team, you just don’t try to play from the back through the middle but through the sidelines. What is going on PSG. For over a decades they have not learned to defend with their teeth and nails yet. They keep making the same dumb mistakes at the back.