Fewer injuries, more players involved… Since his arrival at the capital club, the Spanish coach has managed to implement a new strategy for managing playing time which is bearing fruit.
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A fourth match in 12 days. PSG resumes its journey in the Coupe de France, Wednesday March 13, with the reception of Nice in the quarter-finals (at 9:10 p.m. live on France 3 and france.tv). Traditionally, this competition is the one chosen by the coaches of the capital club to rotate and allow executives to save money. But this time, Luis Enrique does not seem to be taking the same direction.
All substitutes against Reims on Sunday, Kylian Mbappé, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Ousmane Dembélé have already been able to breathe in Ligue 1, where PSG is going it alone. Leader with 10 points ahead of Brest despite three consecutive draws, the reigning champion is in an armchair. No doubt a reason for the Spanish coach to favor the Coupe de France, a trophy which eluded the club during the two previous editions.
Luis Enrique wants “20 starters”
“We suffered our only defeat against them in the league. Until five weeks ago, Nice was our direct opponent to win Ligue 1. It’s a very motivating match”, Luis Enrique projected in a pre-match press conference on Tuesday. For the moment, it is difficult to criticize his strategy. His PSG is on a highway towards the title of champion of France, can still win the Coupe de France and is still in the running in the Champions League.
Despite the media whirlwind caused by his management of Kylian Mbappé’s playing time since the revelation of his departure at the end of the season, fueled by his conflicting attitude towards the media, Luis Enrique does what he was asked to: launch a new era after years of failures and a weariness that had become heavy. Who says change of era says change of strategy, vision and prism.
At the start of the season, the day before Lyon-PSG in September, the technician warned: “I want 20 starters, not 11, 12 or 13. With 20 or 22 starters, we will be ready for all competitions. You will get to know me and you will see that the status of starter and substitute does not exist”. The Asturian is not the type to field the same team which wins match after match and to make adjustments when a malfunction appears, like his predecessor Christophe Galtier.
Mbappé more preserved than sanctioned
Since the start of the season, he has made an average of 4.3 changes between two starting 11s with an upward trend since the start of 2024 (5.6). Enough to involve more players. There are 19 of them who have had at least one start this season, which is already one more than last year with 15 fewer matches on the program. Above all, playing time is less taken up by the heads of the gondola and much more distributed. In 2023-2024, only two players started at least 80% of PSG matches (Mbappé 86% and Donnarumma 84%), compared to six over the entire 2022-2023 season (Donnarumma 96%, Ramos 84%, Marquinhos 82). %, Messi 82%, Mbappé 80% and Vitinha 80%).
Obviously, the new situation of Kylian Mbappé, who only played 155 minutes out of a possible 450 in his team’s last five matches, monopolized all the media attention. Honest but no less provocative, Luis Enrique justified himself by saying he wanted “get used to playing [sans lui]”. The Spaniard gave another element of response to the reduction in his player’s playing time on Tuesday.
“We study every little detail for each player on a daily basis. All matches are important, but we have to control the players’ playing time, especially for those who are very explosive like Ousmane Dembélé or Kylian Mbappé. They have incredible speed which involves risks”, he explained at a press conference. It is clear that the calculations are correct.
Apart from the first match of the season, missed because it was dismissed by the club for its refusal to extend, not a match went by without Kylian Mbappé’s name being written on the match sheet. He experienced no physical problems, even when his ankle turned widely in the violent tackle of Brestois Lilian Brassier in February. Same thing for Ousmane Dembélé, although he is a subscriber to the Barcelona infirmary. The latter was sometimes preserved and never missed two consecutive meetings.
More management, fewer injuries
In total, only three regular players have suffered a muscle injury that has caused them to miss several games this season: Marquinhos, Lee Kang-In and Marco Asensio. Taking care not to count once again bone injuries, which are by nature imponderable, there were 10 in this case last year (Kimpembe, Mendes, Hakimi, Mukiele, Danilo, Ruiz, Verratti, Sanches, Mbappé and Messi) .
Imanol Alguacil, the Real Sociedad coach, had identified another advantage in controlling Kylian Mbappé’s playing time and learned it the hard way. “If he plays, he will be even fresher”, he declared between his outing against Monaco and the double scored by “Kyks” in the round of 16 second leg of the Champions League. Despite the hype caused by his recent outings and appearances, Mbappé remains the player most used by Luis Enrique this season. And he has played more than last season to date (2,836 minutes to date compared to 2,574 as of March 11 last year) by playing one match less than last season.
Among the star players of European football, he is even the one who displays the highest ratio of matches played in full when he is not unavailable (81% – better than Erling Haaland or even Harry Kane). His status as vice-captain was never in question either. Enough to temper the idea of an affront or downgrading of the top scorer in the history of PSG, who is only discovering a new management of his playing time which could even prove beneficial for the team. France with a view to Euro 2024, or even the Paris Olympic Games.