“Universal energy” : the concept, halfway between personal development and the Jedi thought dear to the saga Star wars, guides Mauricio Pochettino’s career. For the curious, the new coach of Paris-Saint-Germain gave his definition in 2016 at the bend of a press conference in Tottenham, his previous club. “I believe in universal energy. Everything is connection in life. Nothing happens by chance. Everything is the consequence of something else ”, he then develops.
Before the trip to Marseille, Sunday February 7 at 9 p.m., at the end of the 24e Ligue 1 day, the 48-year-old Argentinian is still struggling to pass it on to his players, this strength, a month after his arrival. His PSG even lost all connection to Lorient, on January 31, with two goals conceded in the last five minutes for a defeat (3-2) against the 18e of the championship.
Without forcing his anger, the former club defender (2001-2003) did not like the content of a meeting with the aftertaste of those of the last weeks of Thomas Tuchel, his predecessor landed on Christmas Eve . “This makes us realize that if we are not at 100%, this kind of disillusion can occur”, he conceded to the journalists present at the Moustoir stadium.
PSG have already suffered defeat five times, a record at this stage of the season since the arrival of the Qatari owner in 2011. As a direct consequence, Lille and Lyon are ahead, respectively, by three and one point. The two even see themselves as Monaco, champion in 2015-2016. But nothing yet to undermine the rather substantial credit of Pochettino.
Training the hard way
The rule is known. The landed (Tuchel, therefore) has almost all the faults and his successor, a lot of virtues. Pochettino is still there, the state of grace in short. Just before the damage in Lorient, the echoes from Camp des Loges described a group conquered by the Argentinian, affable and polite, but who, as a perfect disciple of Marcelo Bielsa, promised toil and sweat to his troops.
“The warm-up is very thorough, it is equivalent to training with Tuchel”, thus entrusts to The team an internal source, which describes Neymar and Mbappé involved as never before in the defensive efforts, it seems. Pochettino even managed to impose morning sessions on a group – the Brazilians in the lead – rather in the afternoon.
To tell the truth, the work ethic of this farmer’s son is not the invention of journalists. From Barcelona Espanyol to Southampton via Tottenham, his former players all agree on the demand for the character and the intensity of the football advocated, as spectacular as it is energy-consuming. With Pochettino, it is the promise of a PSG – easy to caricature as a lazy king in recent years – more generous, with players less careful about the number of kilometers traveled and, therefore, less dependent on the inspiration of the day. of a Neymar.
“Aggressive and beautiful, it’s compatible”, assures Leonardo to France Football, about “Game identity” that he imagines seeing Pochettino set up. For a bit, the sports director would already be won by “Universal energy” of the “Gaucho”, whose candidacy was mainly pushed by the president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, the Brazilian being a supporter of Massimiliano Allegri.
Of course, seven games (including a draw to start at Saint-Etienne) are not enough to lead or judge a revolution. But has the former Spurs boss already started it? Yes, he has changed certain habits, upset the balance and even, angry at the leaks on the positioning of Marco Verratti, started a “mole” hunt, thus reviving a house tradition.
Trompe-l’œil victory against Nîmes
But you have to take a magnifying glass to see notable differences with the Tuchel era in the game. Take the victory against Nîmes (3-0), Wednesday at the Parc des Princes. PSG, deprived of Neymar, suspended, above all dominated the dunce of Ligue 1 thanks to two inspirations from an Angel Di Maria found (a goal, an assist for Pablo Sarabia) before managing and conceding 15 shots in the second half . Not really a sign of a big involvement.
The content was far from “The permanent requirement” claimed two days earlier by Pochettino at the microphone of RMC Info. “I think that’s the secret: demanding the maximum from us, regardless of the competition we play or the team we are going to face”, has developed the one who prefers to communicate in Spanish while waiting to unravel his French.
For the moment, the speech mainly attacks the intentions, with this famous “Intensity” dear to the “bielsist” current. But in the organization, the technician leaves aside his traditional 4-3-3 for a 4-4-2 which allows him to align the fantastic four (Neymar, Mbappé, Di Maria and a Mauro Icardi preferred to Moise Kean, excellent interim under Tuchel). Faced with Montpellier, very quickly reduced to ten, the quartet gave an almost too easy recital (4-0).
It was before the relapse in Lorient. Pochettino knows what he is exposing himself to with this very offensive system, a source of headaches for a Tuchel incapable of forming a religion on this subject. If he continues with this pattern, he will have to convert, and over time, his four artists – Neymar and Mbappé in particular – to the essential defensive efforts in the Champions League, including the meeting of February 16 with the eighth-final going to Barcelona is already trotting in people’s minds.
In this sense, the trip to the Stade velodrome for the Clasico falls rather well for the Parisians. Far from being the last to give of himself against OM when he was a stopper with long hair, Pochettino has also announced “That it will be necessary to play thoroughly for ninety minutes, like a Champions League final”. Always a question of energy.
