Luis Enrique has transformed PSG by doing it his way: Could the Spaniard now be the best coach in Europe?

4 May 2025, 13:21 | Updated: 7 May 2025, 18:08

Ten years have passed since Luis Enrique won the Champions League with Barcelona. If he is to repeat the feat with Paris Saint-Germain, only Ernst Happel and Jupp Henyckes would have endured a longer wait to lift the famous trophy for a second time.

Victory would elevate Luis Enrique into an elite club. But there is a more specific statistic that poses an intriguing question regarding his legacy: PSG have already completed the most dribbles in a Champions League season since his Barcelona side of a decade ago.

Is this a distinctly Luis Enrique idea? It seems too much of a coincidence that the two teams with the most dribbles could be managed by the same man, many years apart and with completely different personnel. It suggests something peculiar to his style.

There is certainly a freedom to his PSG that masks an impressively coached outfit. They boast a precocious goalkeeper coming of age, complementary centre-backs, flying full-backs and a midfield trio now seeing their reputations rise in line with their vast talent.

The speed ahead of them stands out, a fluidity of movement that seems to come so naturally to his ambipedal attackers. Ousmane Dembele is having the season of his life. Bradley Barcola and Desire Doue excite. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has made them better.

This is football that is somehow both precise in its passing but freakishly fast at the same time. "He is playing with a false No 9 to create superiority and to create those overloads in midfield," Oscar Garcia tells Sky Sports. It is the Luis Enrique way.

"He likes his team to play their football in the opposition half with short passes, with everyone involved in the build-up and with everyone pressing when the team loses the ball. It is a fantastic team to watch. You can see this PSG team is a Luis Enrique team."

It is a pointed remark from a man who knows him well, a former Barcelona team-mate but also someone who understands it was not always so at PSG. Oscar was the head coach of Stade Reims when Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe ruled the roost in Paris.

"At that time, we were playing against three fantastic players and when you have those players it is obvious that most people speak about them, about the chances they create, the goals they score, and what they do as individuals rather than as a team."

Oscar, like Luis Enrique, played with the Brazilian striker Ronaldo at Barcelona. He understands that exceptions can be made. "You cannot treat all players the same. There are one or two you can treat in a different way because they can decide games for you."

He adds: "At Barcelona, he won titles with those players." That is a reference to the fact that Messi and Neymar were part of Luis Enrique's Barca in 2015. "There is not only one way of winning. But the most important thing is for a coach to build a team."

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