Qatar/UAE vs EuropeThread title should be changed to the athletic divide between PSG and the rest of Europe.
How has this athletic divide opened up with the PL vs rest of Europe?
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
It's interesting to note how individual mobility is becoming probably the biggest determining factor in the sport
PSG won because they are a team built on galactic speed. Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes, Hakimi, Doué, Dembele and Barcola are all lightning bolts from the sky, and while Vitinha and Neves don't have exceptional pace over long distances, they *are* extremely explosive over short ones, with ultra fast reactions. Fabian doesn't have that kind of explosiveness, but his long stride still allows him to cover a lot of ground fairly quickly and he's deceptively fast over longer runs. Kvara has extreme agility and lateral quickness, and is both fairly explosive over short distances and has good pace over longer runs
I think it is rather telling that it was Arsenal who matched best against them - the one team capable of matching speed vs speed with their defence(Saliba, Lewis-Skelly, Timber, Rice and Thomas were able to keep up with PSG's speedsters) and midfield(Rice and Thomas and Odegaard) and from there, they could overwhelm PSG with their size
PSG won because they are a team built on galactic speed. Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes, Hakimi, Doué, Dembele and Barcola are all lightning bolts from the sky, and while Vitinha and Neves don't have exceptional pace over long distances, they *are* extremely explosive over short ones, with ultra fast reactions. Fabian doesn't have that kind of explosiveness, but his long stride still allows him to cover a lot of ground fairly quickly and he's deceptively fast over longer runs. Kvara has extreme agility and lateral quickness, and is both fairly explosive over short distances and has good pace over longer runs
I think it is rather telling that it was Arsenal who matched best against them - the one team capable of matching speed vs speed with their defence(Saliba, Lewis-Skelly, Timber, Rice and Thomas were able to keep up with PSG's speedsters) and midfield(Rice and Thomas and Odegaard) and from there, they could overwhelm PSG with their size
It’s been Liverpool’s plan for years, their transfer strategy has been the equivalent of searching for the quickest players in FIFA and trying to sign them. It’s that raw speed more than strength, and then once you have the speed work from there and sculpt a player.
Salah was known as a speed merchant in his youth without having well rounded games at all, but then learnt the rest as he went along and had the pace with it. Van Dijk not as outstanding without the pace for a man that tall. Pacho for PSG was a signing along those lines. Mendes could be inconsistent but incredible pace, now the rest is coming together for him.
Villa did better against them than Arsenal I thought.
Absolutely true! Klopp's Liverpool was very much built on this and it's what made them so good. Real Madrid have been going the same route as well, just with much less regimented coaching that didn't take advantage of it to the same degree
Yep. And I think the most eye-opening moment wrt PSG this season was watching VVD and Konate just drown agaist the pace of PSG's forwards
They didn't but Villa approached the tie very differently. They parked the bus in Paris specifically to minimize the impact of PSG's speed - the same speed that got PSG a 2-0 lead at Villa park in 20 minutes - and in the second leg they got a huge assist from PSG just disconnecting from the match once they went up 5-1 on aggregate. Still, it was their pace - particularly Rashford's, that created them the most problems
I think there's two distinctly interesting things going on with PSG for me:
1. They start games at a blistering pace and maintain it for around 20min-25min before switching to a more base possession game with a large recovery phase baked in. We used to do this under Fergie, but not with such a concerted plan and we learned that from Juve and Real doing it to us. Enrique is using an amalgamation of extremely oppressive short burst sprinting from the front 5 with very clever deep runs from the fullbacks in all the chaos. Further, there's a concerted plan to go after the weakest link in the opposition chain.
It's like a shoal of piranhas at feeding time - I mentioned it vrs Arsenal, but against an older, slower and less athletic team, it looked even more stark. If you can't withstand that initial onslaught, you're absolutely fecked because they'll be a goal or two up and you will be chasing the game whilst they both recover and use their superior technique to keep you honest
2. Everything they are doing has a purpose and they've trimmed all the fat off the cut of meat with keep ball for keep ball's sake. Like a boxer or fighter who is a counter striker and wants you to commit to something they've baited you with so that they can launch at you whilst you're wide open.
This refining and micro pointing of athleticism and strategy looks like the culmination of numerous styles being curated by a new leader in the field. Haven't been paying much attention to Enrique as a coach and strategist, but what he's cooked up is an evolution, and the scary thing is that that team is still young enough to refine it further and become more deadly in the final third. Their failing at the moment is their finishing, but they are so good at controlling the game that they don't much have to worry about another 4-5 chances following whichever one they've flushed.
Their use of athleticism is actually extremely impressive and marrying it with the technical quality and rapier-like plan to attack weaknesses is a modernisation I can actually get on board with. Between them and Barca, there's hope yet that brute force football will not prevail and will eventually be taken back off the agenda for clubs going too far down that rabbit hole.
The counter point is that Arsenal were successfull in playing brute force football against them, and they prevailed in that tie thanks to a combination of wrong pressing scheme/execution by Arsenal in the first 20 minutes of the first leg, a wonderstrike by Dembele, two giga performances by Donnarumma, and the luck of the bounce(Fabian's goal vs Saka missing an open goal for example), while Arsenal spent 160 minutes out of 180 dictating the terms of engagement
Arsenal are one of the most physical sides, not just stamina but a lot of power and height, they really rely on bullying their opposition sometimes. It did work well, but they lack technical ability and like City have struggled at times because of it.
None of it would have mattered if they didn't have the speed to keep up with PSG though. PSG's pace was still very much a threat for them on the counter, just not a game breaking one like it was for Liverpool
Also while Merino's presence limited their attack, it greatly enhanced their ability to press high. Arsenal could press them high and not lose duels, which ground PSG's build up to a stop. Dembele's absence in the second leg helped a lot though
They absolutely did keep up with psg's pace, none of their goals came from pace.
Yes, that's I said
United is the opposite, we've built a squad of horrifically slow players.
It's funny actually how behind the times United continues to be. When everyone else is investing into physical players with pace, we tend to stay away from this type of player