Chapter 433: Setting off fireworks in front of the hotel will not win the Champions League!

Author: Ant who loves watching football

In fact, since Paris Saint-Germain lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League group stage, Blanc's life has become increasingly difficult.

Because this means that they can only finish second in the group, and then face the stronger first place in the group in the knockout rounds.

And when they were unlucky enough to draw Chelsea, who was the least trivial to mess with in the first place in the group, Blanc's pressure increased.

Because club chairman Nasser no longer cares who you are playing, he only has one hard target, which is to require the team to make a breakthrough in the Champions League, at least to enter the semi-finals!

As for the results in the league, it is just a tack on now. Even if you can remain undefeated, even if you can win the championship eight rounds ahead of schedule, it won't work!

This is mainly because since Qatar Group took over Paris Saint-Germain, it has failed in the Champions League quarter-finals almost every time and has always been blocked from the top four of the Champions League.

Therefore, Nasser is determined to create the best Champions League record in the team's history this time, otherwise, the coach will be fired!

The question is, is it that easy?

To advance to the semi-finals, you must first advance to the semi-finals.

And if you want to enter the quarterfinals, you have to pass Chelsea...

But Blanc also knows that the upcoming two Champions League knockout rounds of the top 16 will really determine his fate at Paris Saint-Germain.

Last season, he led Paris Saint-Germain to win four championships: Ligue 1, French Cup, French League Cup, and French Super Cup, monopolizing all domestic championships;

But because he was eliminated by Chelsea in the Champions League round of 16, Nasser did not give him a good look.

This season, Blanc also hopes to complete the domestic quadruple crown for the second consecutive season, but this will not satisfy the appetite of Paris Saint-Germain's top brass.

Therefore, if you want to prove yourself and keep your job, you must beat Chelsea!

"To beat Pan Yi's Chelsea, there are only two ways of thinking."

In the coach's office at the Paris Saint-Germain training base, chief assistant coach Kamara is giving his suggestions for the knockout rounds.

Kamara is a member of the old Paris Saint-Germain team. He played for Paris Saint-Germain for many years as a player.

He joined Paris Saint-Germain from Saint-Etienne in the summer of 2007 and played for the team until his retirement in 2015.

Since retiring in 2015, he has been serving as the assistant coach of Paris Saint-Germain. In fact, he has never been able to change the head coach of Paris. He later also worked with Emery, Tuchel and others.

It is precisely because he is a famous player in Paris and has a very strong relationship with the players. The players affectionately call him "Papus", so he has always played an important role in the coaching staff.

"Which two?" Kamala continued:

"One is to play pass and control, try to keep the ball at your feet, and then beat Chelsea through patient organization."

"But to be honest, we don't have any advantage in this aspect. In the Premier League, Manchester City and Arsenal, which have always been known for their ability to control the ball, find it difficult to take advantage against Chelsea."

"In today's world football, perhaps only MSN + Habaib's Barcelona can play like this with Chelsea. There may be another team, and that is Guardiola's Bayern."

"And our players are still far behind Chelsea in terms of ability in this area."

The current midfield of Paris Saint-Germain is mainly composed of Matuidi, Motta, Verratti, and new aid Di Maria.

As for the forward line, there are tall centers like Ibrahimovic and Cavani.

Speaking of technology, they are definitely pretty good.

But it is still unrealistic to say that it can reach the level of Barcelona at its peak and play fearsome passing and controlling football.

It's even more impossible to switch to a pass-and-control style in front of Pan Yi's Chelsea.

"The other way is to focus on defense and wait for counterattacks like other teams do."

Except for a very few teams such as Barcelona and Bayern, most teams that met Pan Yi adopted the latter style of play, but there are differences.

For example, some teams will try to take the lead in attacking, disrupt the opponent's position, and then defend and counterattack, while others will concentrate on defending, stabilizing their position and then counterattacking, or they may really set up a team and just try not to lose.

The ball, not the score.

In short, it's the same set of ideas, but the playing methods are diverse.

Blanc knew in his heart that although Kamara gave him two ideas of play, he was actually leaning towards the second one.

Does he have a choice?

He had a head-to-head confrontation with Chelsea last season and knew the opponent's abilities very well.

A year has passed, and the basic lineups of the two teams have not changed much.

Paris has added Di Maria and is a bit stronger, but Chelsea has Harry Kane, Goretzka, and the sudden emergence of Mbappe...

It feels like Chelsea's enhancements are even greater, and the richness of tactical changes is also greater.

However, if Paris Saint-Germain chooses to play defensive counterattack, can it defend it?

Although Blanc didn't say it explicitly, everyone in the coaching room understood the worries in the head coach's heart at this moment.

It can even be said that all teams in the world will have such worries when they encounter Pan Yi's Chelsea.

"Even if we fight counter-attacks, we cannot give up all control to Chelsea. Countless games tell us that when playing against Chelsea, the midfielder must suppress the opponent."

Blanc thought for a while and said.

The last team to not lose to Chelsea is Arsenal.

At that time, Wenger adopted a tactic of competing with Chelsea in the midfield but being careful not to overwhelm them all.

Although they failed to score a goal, this tactic also curbed Chelsea's offensive firepower and eventually achieved a draw.

Of course, it is not easy to play back and forth with Chelsea in the midfield.

The most commonly used formation of Paris Saint-Germain this season is the combination of Matuidi, Motta and Verratti in the midfield.

Among these three, Motta is often asked to play as a single defensive midfielder, while Matuidi and Verratti form an inverted triangle position in front of him, playing the duties of two central midfielders.

The problem is that from the perspective of Motta playing as a defensive midfielder, he is capable of dealing with the teams in Ligue 1, but once he encounters a strong team, it will be difficult for him to be effective, and he will be easily suppressed by his opponents.

Losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League group stage was like that.

At that time, Real Madrid's three midfielders, Kroos, Casemiro, and Modric, all focused on suppressing Motta, which also made Paris Saint-Germain's midfield not run smoothly and eventually lost.

Facing Chelsea, Pan Yi will definitely do the same, which will be a big challenge for Paris Saint-Germain.

"Then withdraw Di Maria and use four midfielders to correspond to Chelsea's three midfielders. Maybe that will work," Kamara said.

Everyone also thinks this is a good method.

Since Paris Saint-Germain has two of the world's top centers, Cavani and Ibrahimovic, when using or-1, it is often difficult for these two great forwards to coexist;

Even if they coexist, Cavani will be asked to play as a winger. To be honest, it is a bit of a waste of his center forward attributes.

But if you kick, then there is no such problem.

But this will also create another problem, that is, when playing with a four-man midfield, Paris' midfield defense will indeed be good, but the offensive effect will be compromised.

Mainly because Ibrahimovic and Cavani are actually a bit repetitive in terms of functions.

They all belong to the kind of forwards who can be a fulcrum in the frontcourt and a terminator, but compared with traditional wingers, their breakthrough and passing abilities are of course inferior.

Blanc is certainly aware of his team's problems, but what he cares more about is whether he can stop Chelsea's attack?

Although it sacrifices the team's offense, using four midfielders to suppress Chelsea's three midfielders is not a bad thing.

——

"Paris Saint-Germain is currently suffering from the problem of having too many stars in the frontcourt."

At the Cobham training base, Pan Yi was also conducting a pre-match tactical analysis meeting with the coaching staff.

"Paris Saint-Germain has such a problem. They always blindly pile up superstars, but fail to effectively exert the effect of the combination of players."

This is really an old problem for the Paris team.

I really have money, but I really don’t know how to spend it.

From the first day they took over the team, the problem of strong offense and weak defense has not been solved, nor has the problem of too large a gap between the main players and substitutes.

In Pan Yi's previous life, Paris formed a super luxury attack line of Neymar + Messi + Mbappe. If this team claims to be second in world football, no team would dare to claim to be first.

But what about their midfield?

In addition to Verratti, who has always been there, the others are Soler, Pereira, Vitinha, Ruiz...

To be honest, I don’t even know who they are from Ligue 1.

The same is true for Paris in this current timeline.

In addition to world-class forwards like Cavani and Ibrahimovic, the forward line also has powerful players like Lavezzi and Lucas Jr. as substitutes.

The main midfielder of Motta, Matuidi, Verratti and Di Maria is pretty good, but what about the substitutes?

On the defense line, only the main center back Thiago Silva can be considered world-class. The 21-year-old Marquinhos can only be said to be okay, while the full-backs only have Kurzawa, Maxwell, and Van der Wiel.

This level.

The main goalkeeper Siligu, to be honest, is just like that, otherwise he would not be able to join the middle and lower reaches of Serie A.

How could a team that aspires to perform in the Champions League end up in such a situation when building the team, and it has not changed for many years?

It can only be said that Paris Saint-Germain does have problems in its high-level operations.
To be continued...