I’m up early to tell you that this Barça team still can’t handle an exchange of blows with Paris Saint Germain. It catches my attention how Luis Enrique is able to get top-level stars to get involved in defensive work, in pressing up, in retreat… And that they still have air in their lungs to launch very vertical attacks, to finish all the plays with danger and to dominate in this way a team that, for the moment, is playing in LaLiga in Spain.
It surprises me because it has won the last two Champions Leagues and successful coaches say that the most difficult thing is to motivate a team that has already won everything. Well he gets it.
Luis Enrique is an enormous coach, fortunate for PSG, who saw all the big stars of recent years come through there, but who only managed to win in Europe when the Asturian put that dressing room in order.
What happened in Paris is that Barça got their feet on the ground, but I have the impression that, although they lost the game, they did not lose confidence, because Rodri’s rest is explained by the fact that they will play the Clásico on Sunday.
On the other hand, Real Madrid plays Leipzig tonight and should win with any lineup. He has the opportunity to rest, to try positions, to give minutes to the less common… He can do whatever he wants, because he will be measured by what he does at the Camp Nou, not by what he does tonight.
Until the playoffs arrive, the new format of the Champions League allows for setbacks. But Madrid would never be allowed to finish the month of October nine points behind Barça. That would no longer be a stumble, it would be a trip from which Mou may not get up.
