PSG – Real Madrid: “The most important thing for Pochettino in Paris is not tactics, it’s harmony”

It has now been more than a year since Mauricio Pochettino arrived at PSG. Do you feel his paw?

Guillem Balague: It’s true that his style, the way his teams play was really identified in his previous teams. Then he decided to join PSG. But you have to know if PSG’s priority is football, if PSG gives the necessary space to coaches and players. I think that’s the most important thing for a football club today. It is obvious that at PSG, we cannot work like at Tottenham. So, logically, he had to adapt. Now his main goal is to figure out how to get the best out of such good players who have cost so much. Because, obviously, you have to make them all play.

Is it the profile of these players that prevents him from offering the same game as Tottenham?

GB: Yes, he has players who are obviously very different from those he had with Southampton or Espanyol if we go back further. People need to realize this. Sometimes they just watch the last game and get mad at the way the team is playing. But they must understand that putting together the football of Neymar, Messi and Mbappé takes time. They must also understand that there are plenty of players who were among the best of their previous teams, Sergio Ramos, who was even captain, Georginio Wijnaldum or Gianluigi Donnarumma, to whom you have to say: ‘you can’t be a leader here because it doesn’t happen like that here. We have to deal with all that too.

Is it impossible to put in place its precepts at PSG?

GB: In his previous teams, there was a lot of physical work. I insist, a lot. But here, the key word for the best players is not physical work but rest. There is a mountain of things to change but each change takes time. Now I ask a question: Which coach could take charge of PSG to make it play well? I believe the answer is “none”. Because these are different ways of understanding the game. For PSG, the most important thing is to win, to be competitive. From what I see, they are.

They gave up their Cup crown recently though…

GB: The Cup, let’s talk about it. Look at Real: they are eliminated in the Cup. Look at Barça, look at Atlético, it’s the same. Are these teams also harshly criticized? No, since it is not the priority of the club. For me, more than the criticisms of the coach, there is a lack of analysis of the DNA of PSG as a club. We can’t put everything on the coach.

Listening to you, would there be a kind of fatality for any PSG coach?

GB: Everything can change but it all depends on the context. It depends on the balance of the workforce. If a club has seven left-backs or eight midfielders, well… With two players per position, I think it’s possible to progress. I have the impression that this PSG is a team with incredible individuals who have failed to create the synergy necessary to play well together, in addition to being effective.

In his speech, you never feel the urgency or the negative points in his remarks. It is voluntary ?

GB: You speak of urgency. We are analyzing a team halfway through its season, which is still in the race in the Champions League and dominates the L1. For me, the key is to understand that there are a multitude of factors to take into account: the rest necessary for the most important players and therefore the most in demand, a way of understanding the club and of directing it which is different from what he has known in his previous teams, with perhaps a smaller space for the coach. With all this context, the priority for Pochettino is not tactics, it is harmony. That is to say, to ensure that everyone gives the best of themselves in this team because they are happy elsewhere. It is from there that the differences are made, especially in the big matches, it is there that we see the necessary balance, the work accomplished etc… Everything starts from harmony.

The Messi example

Hence his sometimes meaningless press conferences?

GB: To achieve this harmony, you have to be positive. But I repeat: calm down! The reviews are really intense, it’s only February…

That’s also PSG…

GB: But what do people want? That PSG plays super well in every game, winning them all, with Messi scoring hat-tricks in every game? The Messi example is relevant to take into account the context: He changed teams and cities for the first time in his life since he was 11 years old. He stayed a month and a half in a hotel, he was injured twice, he had to go to Argentina, he had the Covid… In any job, there would also be consequences to all that. It’s normal. And imagine the pressure: everyone wants change NOW. This sense of urgency surprises me a lot, I’ve been hearing these criticisms for months without necessarily understanding them.

He arrived with a very fine reputation in Paris. Do you think this Parisian episode can damage its image?

GB: I think some might think so. But I believe Manchester United, the richest club in the world, still want it. So, in my eyes, the damage is less. It is true that it would be better for him that we appreciate his work, that we realize the mission of making PSG play well in this context. But look at other examples, Manchester City or Liverpool. These teams have initial ideas, projects, they choose their coaches, their players according to this idea. PSG made another choice. They managed to reach the Champions League final, let’s not forget that. But to have more harmony, you have to add other things. Things that PSG have not necessarily considered very important so far.

We also have the feeling of a misunderstanding with the press. To each specific tactical question, Pochettino explains that it would take hours to discuss this and responds with banal phrases, without necessarily going into detail..

GB: I’m going to ask you another question. For you, is it important for a coach to tell you things about tactics? Is it very important to his work, unimportant?

It’s still part of a coach’s job in 2022…

GB: We agree. But that’s not what he’s going to be judged on in the end. His job is to create the best harmony and sometimes press conferences can damage that.

His coming to PSG was also a test of whether he could manage a star squad. Will he succeed?

GB: We have to wait to know the answer, first of all. But we must clarify something: this technical staff is one of those people who understand that everything that happens in life is a way to test their knowledge, their reactions, their intuitions. The experience they are currently living is exceptional, very positive for them. Having the opportunity to train Ramos, Wijnaldum, Donnarumma, Marquinhos, Mbappé, Messi, Neymar: who can feel bad about that? How to make everything work? There is no book that explains it, that gives answers. It is a book that is written every day.