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Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondent
Luis Enrique doesn’t care what you say about him. Actually, he does. The former Barcelona and Spain coach prefers it when you insult him. At least that is what he claims at one point in a new documentary series which follows his first year at Paris Saint-Germain.
The documentary, when translated from Spanish, is called “You have no f—ing idea.” Luis Enrique actually came up with the title himself after PSG’s UEFA Champions League group stage defeat to Newcastle United last season as criticism rained down on him in the media.
“The more s— and mud there is, the better I feel,” he says in one of the show’s three episodes. “[The media] see four forwards and think: ‘How do they fit if there are only three places in attack?’ Do whatever the f— you want. When I see this rubbish analysis I crack up. You could call this documentary: ‘You have no f—ing idea.’
“I don’t want to be perfect or liked by everyone. In fact, I prefer people to speak bad of me.”
His wife of 27 years, Elena, sitting alongside him, does not enjoy the scrutiny her husband has been subjected to — and at times welcomed — during a playing career which took in both Real Madrid and Barcelona before coaching at Camp Nou and for the national team. But she is accustomed to it now.
It makes for fascinating viewing as he opens the door on a season in which Kylian Mbappé left PSG, Luis Enrique came up against old teammate Xavi Hernández’s Barça and ended with European disappointment but domestic success.
Laying into Xavi’s ‘long-ball football’
The analysis of Xavi’s Barça is brutally honest. Luis Enrique played alongside Xavi at Camp Nou and later coached him, winning the treble in 2014-15, but he makes it abundantly clear he knows Xavi “the teammate, the player… but not the coach.” After revealing that Barça sounded him out to replace Xavi before the Catalan side won LaLiga in 2023, he deconstructs their playing style ahead of the Champions League quarterfinal meeting between the two sides last season.
“Barça are not an especially good team in defence,” Luis Enrique says. “The key for me is who is going to have the ball more and in that area of the game Barça have not been a guarantee in two years under Xavi. They are not a team that dominates; they are not a team that keeps the ball.”
Not even a 3-2 defeat at Parc des Princes in the first leg changed Luis Enrique’s analysis.
“The idea that Barça were better is a lie,” he says. “It is completely false. Barça played long balls all game. If you are pro-Xavi, they were looking for the third man. If you are a normal analyst, it’s long-ball football, like Eibar. They broke a record for long balls, I think [goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen] went long 24 times.”
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Turning Barça tie around
PSG came back in the second leg in Barcelona, winning 4-1. Three of the goals came directly from Luis Enrique’s game plan, illustrated to his players in a prematch team talk: leaving Ronald Araújo free, taking advantage of the space Barça left on the edge of the box and getting Mbappé to buy in to leading the team defensively.
“This gentleman is called Araújo — a top-level player, no doubt about that — but the player with the most problems,” Luis Enrique explains. “Every time he gets the ball, close his passing lanes rather than [pressing him].”
The space afforded to Araújo allows him to help create Barça’s opening goal, but he’s then sent off after putting himself in trouble with a stray pass. PSG then take advantage of the space left by Barça outside the area at corners and benefit from Mbappé’s work rate.
“Look at how they defend: five players around the same player,” Luis Enrique said in the team talk. “Accumulation. A lot of bodies in the box. We’re going to have chances outside the box.”
Vitinha, unmarked, made it 2-1 with a strike from 20 yards after a set play.
After the game, Luis Enrique played down the effect of Araújo’s dismissal, saying Barça “weren’t going to beat us with 11 or even 12 men,” but revealed the toll the tie took on him and his Barcelona-based family: “I hope I don’t have to face Barça again in the next 10 years.”
Mbappé as Michael Jordan
Mbappé’s roll in the Barça comeback was key. He scored twice, once on the counter-attack after defending a space in his own box as Luis Enrique had instructed.
“I read you like Michael Jordan,” Luis Enrique says to the now Real Madrid attacker in a one-on-one meeting before the second leg. “Well, Michael Jordan grabbed his teammates by the balls and defended like a son of a b—-.
“You’re a phenomenon, world class. But that’s not enough for me. I need you to lead when it comes to pressing and defending. Do you know what we will have then? A f—ing machine. That’s what I want from you in these two months you have left [with PSG]. I want you to go out in style.”
Previously, Luis Enrique had addressed Mbappé’s distaste for defending and how he had been indulged in the past, explaining how he is a “super-normal kid” but that the star players of previous PSG sides “were treated like Gods.”
He insists he would never have taken on the job with the front three of Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar — having had great success with the latter two at Barça — and had an optimistic take on PSG’s Mbappé-less future.
“If having the best players guaranteed trophies, PSG would have eight Champions Leagues — and they have zero,” he says. “PSG would never have been an option for me with the previous policy of signing superstar players. The PSG with Neymar, Messi, Mbappé … no chance.
“I would like [Mbappé] to stay. He’s the cornerstone of the team. We defend in a way to avoid him tiring and attack to give him freedom, but the moment he leaves, the team becomes the cornerstone. I think we can be even better next season.”
Unique energy
“Energetic” and “crazy” are two words used by others to describe Luis Enrique in the documentary. He does not stop. A fitness freak with the body of a Tour de France cyclist, an alarm on his phone reminds him to do some form of exercise every 30 minutes.
Around the PSG training ground, he can be spotted exercising on benches between media duties, using the table in his office mid-analysis to stretch and dipping in cold-water plunge pools. “You have to move every half an hour — all the muscle groups,” he says.
In the morning, rain or shine, he will be pacing around the training pitch barefooted, a practice know as “grounding.”
“I have been grounding for more than a year,” he explains. “I had allergies and other problems. I had to stop cycling at one point. Since I took up grounding, it all disappeared. That connection with nature… I love it.”
Lessons in life and loss
PSG’s Champions League semifinal defeat to Borussia Dortmund is put into perspective when compared with the loss of Luis Enrique’s daughter, Xana, who died of bone cancer aged nine in 2019.
It gives a futile feeling to sporting success and failure — and especially headlines describing matches as “life and death” — even if Luis Enrique defines himself by his competitiveness. The loss to Dortmund set up a strange end to the season for PSG, with Ligue 1 already wrapped up. The title celebrations were awkward, firstly because they came after a defeat and secondly because it was Luis Enrique’s first league triumph since Xana died. He used to celebrate with her on the pitch.
“I have not cried over a game and I never will,” he reflects at the end of an up-and-down first year in Paris. “We had three league games left and a cup final [after Dortmund]. The league was already won. Yet you have to motivate the team; motivate yourself.
“[Losing 4-1 to Toulouse] on the day of the trophy lift ruined the celebration. It’s the league title I have celebrated the least. I don’t have a single photograph with the trophy. I was so angry. Competitiveness defines me. So, for me, it was a s— day. And, on top of that, I said to Elena, ‘I miss Xana, this was always Xana’s day.’
“You will say, can I consider myself fortunate or unfortunate?” Luis Enrique continues. “Well, I consider myself fortunate. Very fortunate. My daughter Xana lived with us for nine wonderful years. We have thousands of memories of her, videos and all manner of incredible things.
“On a physical level she’s not here, but she is spiritually. Every day we talk about her and we laugh and remember her. I think Xana can still see us. And how do I want Xana to think we lived through this?”