Ten years have passed since Luis Enrique won the Champions League with Barcelona. If he repeated the performance with Paris Saint-Germain, only Ernst Happel and Jupp Henyckes would have passed a longer waiting to lift the famous trophy for the second time.
Luis Enrique would raise the victory into an elite club. But there is a more specific statistics that asks an intriguing question about his estate: PSG has already completed most dribbles in a Champions League season since its Barcelona side of a decade ago.
Is this a clear Luis Enrique idea? It seems too much a coincidence that the two teams with the most dribbles can be managed by the same man, many years apart and with completely different staff. It suggests something that his style owner is.
There is certainly a freedom to his PSG who masks an impressively coached outfit. They have an early-rich keeper who is growing up, complementary center backs, flying full-backs and a midfield trio that now see their reputation rise in line with their enormous talent.
The speed for them is striking, a fluidity of movement that seems so natural for his ambipedal attackers. Ousmane Dembele has the season of his life. Bradley Barcola and desire Doue Excite. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has made them better.
This is football that is somehow both accurate in passing, but at the same time Freakish fast quickly. “He plays with false no. 9 to create superiority and to create those overloads in midfield,” Oscar Garcia tells Sky Sports. It is the Luis Enrique Way.
“He likes that his team plays their football in the opposition half with short steps, with everyone involved in the structure and with everyone who presses the team. It is a fantastic team to watch. You can see that this PSG team is a Luis Enrique team.”
It is a pointed comment from a man who knows him well, a former teammate of Barcelona, ​​but also someone who understands that it was not always the case with PSG. Oscar was the head coach of Stade Reims when Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe de Roost ruled in Paris.
“At that moment we played against three fantastic players and when you have those players, it is clear that most people talk about them, about the opportunities they create, the goals they score and what they do as individuals instead of as a team.”
Just like Luis Enrique, Oscar played with the Brazilian striker Ronaldo in Barcelona. He understands that exceptions can be made. “You cannot treat all players the same. There are one or two that you can treat in a different way because they can decide games for you.”
He adds: “In Barcelona he won titles with those players.” That is a reference to the fact that Messi and Neymar were part of Luis Enrique's Barca in 2015. “There is not only one way to win. But the most important thing is that a coach builds a team.”
In other words, Luis Enrique lost Mbappe in the summer – finally leaving for Real Madrid in a long time and for the time being at least failed transfer – but he found something else in the process. “Certainly, he prefers this team,” says Oscar, smiling.
“Because you can see that it is Luis Enrique's team. He enjoys it much more. There is no big star now. The star is the team, the star is the coach. The better your players, the better the possibilities, but you still have to build a team.
“If you don't build a team and you only have individuals, it is much more difficult to win titles, because during a game you have to work as a family. I work for you and you work for me. If players don't work for the team, it is much more difficult.”
Oscar and Luis Enrique became teammates when the latter joined Real Madrid at Barcelona. He was not completely confronted with the levels of Vitriol that teammate Luis Figo would last later when he went the other way – think of the head of Pig on the field – but it was tense.
Luis Enrique spent five years in Madrid and even scored in a famous 5-0 win over Barcelona, ​​but would later claim that he had no good memories of his time there. He did not feel appreciated, not even respected, only really flourished in a Barcelona shirt.
In Catalonia he spoke about coming home and became an adopted son of the region. “When he arrived, he looked like he had been there for a long time,” Oscar recalls. “He became an idol for the people.” He scored five times against Real Madrid and celebrated the party.
It reveals something about his personality: “He has a great character, a strong character. Now, as a coach, he is similar. He is very positive, brings a lot of energy. It used to be with his teammates. Now it is with his team. He is training while he played. Very, very intensely.”
Comparisons with Pep Guardiola are of course in view of their career trajectories. “Possession is of fundamental importance,” Luis Enrique once said, although the PSG man on the field and above that the PSG man is considered all the more ridiculous. Guardiola calls him immediately, honest and hardworking.
“I think the styles of their teams are very similar,” says Oscar of his old teammates. “The most important philosophy is the same.” Now Luis Enrique has added a well -known turn, the extra intensity in attack – with and without the ball – that could become his trademark.
The victory over Arsenal, a team that defeated them in the group stage in October, clearly illustrated that. “I assessed that game and saw how far our game has come,” said the PSG head coach of that first meeting. “We are better now. We are a more complete team.”
And more a Luis Enrique team.
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