Luis Enrique shapes PSG for sustained success as side travel to Etihad on Wednesday
Paris St-Germain manager Luis Enrique has structured this season with the challenge of sustaining success in mind as his side prepare to visit the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday; PSG enter the trip as back-to-back European champions who could become only the second team to win three successive Champions Leagues this season and are seeking a third straight league title.
Johan Cruyff’s maxim that the hardest thing in football is winning after winning, a maxim Luis Enrique admires, underpins the approach the coach has taken since arriving at PSG; the team also have a deliberately managed start to the domestic campaign. Luis Enrique’s squad began the season with three wins, two draws and one defeat in Ligue 1, and after a slow opening last term he expressed confidence that results would follow, asking recently: "Do you want to bet against us?" When PSG announced his new contract they also confirmed fresh deals for Joao Neves, Fabian Ruiz, Willian Pacho, Lucas Beraldo and Senny Mayulu.
Continuity in the technical staff has been notable since Luis Enrique joined in 2023. Assistant Joaquin Valdes, who worked with Luis Enrique at Barcelona B, handles personal communication with players and appears regularly in news conferences; Rafel Pol remains the strategist and second in command. Training methods have changed little in three years — players are shown limited video analysis but a large pitch-side screen and two cranes give coaches elevated views to correct play.
Depth of squad is the principal change Luis Enrique has leveraged this season, allowing rotation without a drop in performance. Ousmane Dembele was not included in the squad for the 3-1 win over Le Mans and Lucas Digne was omitted earlier in the campaign; the coach often rests his usual starters for high-profile opponents so they arrive at those matches refreshed. Against Le Mans he deployed eight players who would not start the bigger matches and, with the scoreline balanced, introduced four of his 'stars' to secure the victory.
The attacking group has been reshaped following the departures of Gonzalo Ramos, Bradley Barcola and Lee Kang-in. Paris correspondent Dani Gil of COPE said: "Barcola could not be given the minutes he wanted, they had won everything and been paid well for it, and the club could do with players who were hungrier. "Mika Godts and Ferran Torres fit that description. Neither has yet won at club level what the departed players won." Barcola’s flashes of quality previously convinced Liverpool to pay £123m for him.
Ferran Torres’s season narrative is emphasised in the club’s overhaul: the summer signing endured a difficult psychological period, rebuilt his mental strength and now calls himself 'the Shark'. Having scored the World Cup final winner for Spain, Torres has netted seven goals in France and, according to the reporting, feels genuinely wanted at PSG; the piece adds that "in a Luis Enrique side the star is Luis Enrique, and the forward is content with that." PSG also beat Arsenal as they retained the Champions League in 2026.
Luis Enrique has combined external signings with promoted academy talents to preserve a club identity beyond marquee departures. Four homegrown players — Warren Zaire-Emery, Senny Mayulu, Quentin Ndjantou and Ibrahim Mbaye — featured in the Champions League last season; the club’s new campus, opened in November 2024 after a 350m-euro investment, unites the professional teams, the men's and women's academies and the school on a single site. The coaching method is driven from the first team downward, with frequent meetings among youth and senior staff; Yohan Cabaye speaks often with director of football Luis Campos and deputy director Olivier Gagne, and Campos, Gagne and Luis Enrique attend youth league matches when possible.
The recent international break illustrated the integration policy: only four first-team players remained at the club while 16 academy players were away with national teams, and Luis Enrique spent the three weeks working with youngsters on the training ground. His relationship with the media is deliberately distant — when asked what he had done during the three-week break he said "it was of no interest to anyone" — and he maintains limited contacts with two or three Spanish journalists while enforcing no off-the-record conversations, no coffee with reporters and no one-to-one interviews in France; he initially answered in Spanish but now replies in very good French. Pep Guardiola, who was Luis Enrique’s team-mate at Barcelona from 1996 to 2001, will be present at the Etihad and the article notes the Premier League’s charges against City could be raised there; the reporting says there will be a meeting between them, that the PSG media team has no plan for a coordinated response, and "My sense is that he will stand up for him." The piece concludes: "Expect the same Luis Enrique: sharp, managing the pressure and comfortable at the top."
PSG’s next confirmed fixture is the trip to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, where Guardiola will be present; the match represents the immediate test of the season-long plan Luis Enrique has put in place.
