This would be my main concern. He’s got to the pinnacle of his career with Spurs, and since he was sacked from there it’s all been downhill.
If he can get his mojo back he could be tremendous, otherwise we’re better off with a manager who has to hit those heights and has something to prove.
how so ? He's lost 2 games this season
I think at gunpoint I'd take Gana Gueye over Fred, but those 2 and Herrera are basically identical quality players and if there's a big difference I'm not smart enough at watching football to see it. All of them were slightly better 3 years ago, I know that!
No quibble with your midfield but Iniesta only started half the games that year. Iniesta made CL team of the season but so did Rakitic and he was also in La Liga team of the season (Busquets in both) so the Iniesta/Rakitic slot probably would have come down to a manager's preference and opponent since Rakitic was running like a madman at the time and Iniesta was obviously better in possession as he was Iniesta. Rakitic definitely felt more indispensable since he did 1.5 jobs as a normal RCM in a Barca trio and also a RW half the time constantly overlapping with Alves starting to show his age and Messi coming inside a ton and just running less already. Rakitic was like Ramires but good at football around then.
It's funny, when people look back at Croatia making the World Cup final they won't think it was as surprising as it was because Modric, Rakitic and Brozovic was among the best non-Spain midfield trios of the century so far along and arguably the best non-Spain one if you think Deschamps was a tad past it in 2000 or dock Italy's 2020 Euro midfield (a foursome really because Locatelli was so vital as a reserve) for not being able to outplay Spain in the semis though they were fantastic apart from that.
I get your point, between those 3 it's a toss up and basically depends on personal preference.
About Rakitic, Rakitic at that time was world class and one of the best midfielders in the world, no doubt about it. It can even be argued that Rakitic back then was better than Veratti is now, he could do everything. Which was my main point. People mention this PSG team as if it's at a similar level to that Barca or the Madrid 3x ucl winning team when in fact, it's nowhere near them in terms of overall personnel. Messi was also in his prime at that Barca team and the current Messi (although still a world class player) is a shadow of that player.
PSG fans expect to win the UCL with this team and play tiki taka possession style football with one world class midfielder and barring Neymar a front 3 that don't do much off the ball work. I, unlike others here think Neymar isn't the problem and think his off the ball work is very underrated, I think he averages the 2nd most distance covered in the whole team this season. But when Messi looks like he doesn't care half the time, Mbappe's dreaming of Madrid and a very over rated mediocre midfield it's not hard to see why they aren't putting in the performances, although they are still winning. I struggle to see a manager in the world that can win the UCL with this team playing beautiful possession based football, it's going to have to be 3 at the back or a hit on the counter, quick transitional, direct passing use Mbappe tactic. PSGs fans main grievances with Poch is his style of play, even if they do get Zidane he's not exactly going to turn them into prime Barca.