by Ousmane Dembélé is right behind you and far ahead where Luis Enrique has always imagined him. At the end of Paris Saint-Germain’s destruction of Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Club World Championship in New Jersey, the coach declared his No. 10 for the best player of the season “by far”. Not so much for the 35 goals and 16 templates, but for something easier. So simply It took a decade. But then Didier Deschamps said his national team manager at France that it is “a little habit of him”.
Well, it Was. If there is a portrait that defines the PSG team, which may be 90 minutes before winning, a picture that it can be embodied and Dembélés Transformation, it can be this recording of it, which were aligned on the edge of Inters area in the final of the Champions League. Toes on the line, his eyes narrowed and fixed on Yann Sommer like a leopard that is ready for falling, a sprinter that listens to the weapon. It is a scene that was relentlessly repeated, the opponents made another episode prey in Metlife on Wednesday. “I told him a lot, he told me,” said Madrid’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. “I get to think for half a second.”
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Related: Mbappé is in Dembélés Shadow in Real Madrids Forceless Shambles | Jacob Steinberg
That was half a second more than most others. The semi -finals were practically decided in nine minutes, and PSG scored twice. Madrid made mistakes both times, Raúl Ascio and Antonio Rüdiger allowed the ball to escape them: not much, but enough. Both times Dembélé was vigilant, at lightning speed on her, sneaking and then: Bam. As Antelope tells of David Attenborough before you realized what had happened, Madrid’s defender became finished. “Scary,” said Jürgen Klinsmann.
“They didn’t even let the interate breathe for a moment,” said the Germany World Champion, who analyzes the tournament with the FIFA -Technical study group. “They suffocate from the first second; they climb onto the pitch and climb on you. The two goals were made against Madrid, but they were forced. It is a high press with such energy, so aggressive that it is scary.” And it starts with Dembélé. “I would give the balloon d’Or to Mr. Ousmane Dembélé, as he pressed,” said Luis Enrique after the final of the Champions League. “The leads a team. “
“I wasn’t always like that,” admits Dembélé.
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He was always different: explosive, completely two foot, unpredictable. There is a reason why Thomas Tuchel, his trainer at Borussia Dortmund, wanted him in Chelsea, the last opponent on Sunday. Also a reason – as well as despair after Neymar’s departure to PSG, Barcelona spent 145 million euros for him. One reason why Xavi Hernández had insisted that he was able to become the best player in the world in his position, and Dembélé’s contract expansion Hisa made the first priority when he arrived at Camp Nou as a coach.
But that was 2021 and a rescue mission: Dembélé was in Barcelona for four years and what was Moments that had existed were too short, injuries were received without exception, and the feeling that he didn’t really take care of as inevitable as it might be unfair. When Dembélé left two years later, the anger about the way he did not go about the fact that he went: there was talent, everyone knew that, but the truth was that he was largely irrelevant and that they did not complain that he had his departure. When he went philosophically during the battles for his contract and denounced “extortion”, the people wondered where this personality suddenly came from. When President Joan Laporta said he was better than Kylian Mbappé, it was just like Laporta. Most of the time people laughed.
It turns out that he is right. In the semi -finals too this season too. “If he doesn’t win the Ballon d’Or, that is the problem of Ballon d’Or,” said PSG’s President Nasser Al-Khelaifi, which he would likely, but Dembélé was a revelation. Moved into a central position, he achieved more this season than in the previous five. He achieved against Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bavaria, Arsenal and Manchester City. His role was decisive in the Champions League final and in the semi-finals of the World Cup. He was Ligue 1 the top scorer. You shouldn’t buy Ballon d’Or winner, you should do it, said Luis Enrique, and maybe he has it.
Should PSG beat Chelsea, you will join a respected list of the European Elite -Europa – Celtic, Bayern Munich, Barcelona (twice), Ajax and PSV – to have won every men’s competition in which you took part during a season. Celtic won five trophies in 1966-67 and won the domestic heights, the Glasgow Cup and the European Cup. PSG can match this balance. Linfield from Northern Ireland won all seven domestic tournaments in which they took part in 1921-22 and 1961-62. Barcelona (2009) and Bavaria Won (2020) won “Sextuples” in various seasons. Ervin Ang
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Dembélé benefited from the system and benefited from the system. As much as a system, it is an ecosystem, a collective culture, equally simple and complex. Style, age, environment, chance, everyone counts, partly through circumstances, timing. “Last year I became empty because Kylian took everything again,” Dembélé joked when he collected his price for the player of the year in France, True Words said in a joke. “He did everything himself,” said Luis Enrique, but in the heart is a trainer who brought “Extreme Principles” in Vincent Kompany’s words.
“The trainer has changed many things,” said Dembélé.
Despite the warnings, Luis Enrique believed in Dembélé from the start. In Barcelona, Gerard Piqué joked that the team’s WhatsApp group is a practical memory for a child is “always late”, and Deschamps said that Dembélé should be “careful” in his time measurement. But even in private conversations in which others feared that the Frenchman could not use the intensity required by a manager, they honestly wondered whether he was too lazy, and it was unlikely that he could offer the necessary obligation, the trainer was convinced. There could be criticism for others, but there was always a defense from Dembélé. Yes, it could be – as he is sometimes on his own planet, but there was a player in it.
“Dembélé has always been a phenomenon,” said Luis Enrique. “The thing is, you have to go deeper to get the best version of Ousmane.”
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Be Version. Aggressive, relentless, hunt everything. “It is not just the goals or the decisive passes, it is his general effect that the team gains trophies,” said Luis Enrique. “He showed that he is a step above. He is our best player, someone who can make the difference because he has beliefs.” It is this part of his game – rather the collective contribution than the individual, the press and not the goals – to which the trainer returns repeatedly.
Nevertheless, they do not exclude each other; In fact, they are mutually dependent. Dembélé is supervised, hugged, trustworthy and made it important to feel important and about his obligations, the demands to inform about his obligations. For a trainer who is extremely strict who likes to work with young players because they are faster, hungry and almost more formable, it is also a matter of letting go, complicity. About warmth and support. With Dembélé, who is one of the elders at PSG at the age of 28, the relationship is particularly close.
Until the joke stops. “The best I did was to let him out against Arsenal,” said Luis Enrique after having felt the need to punish his player. “I had to make a tough decision, but I thought it was the best for the team and I would do it a hundred times. We had to say difficult things.
“Ousmane is a leader, but in what he does, not with words. Did you see how he pressed?
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If you press like this, you are also closer to the goal and the chances: the intensity is higher, the triggers show more sensitive, but the total scenes are reduced and if you can rob the ball in these positions, everything is opened. PSG play with two full-backs who join the rotation and movement through the midfield, players who carry the ball all over the field, and the strikers who are all dribblers-“Dribbler are scarce, but we have five of them,” said Luis Enrique. This creates an environment that works for the players, especially for Dembélé.
“You have a false 9, a wide player, two foot who can walk both sides who has freedom and mobility to find space pockets,” said Portugal coach Roberto Martínez. “[But] If you analyze Dembélé, you don’t have to start with him at the end, but at the beginning. PSG works so hard to put players in front of the ball and give flying lines by. People talk that they work from the ball, but it is also: players offer to receive, not to understand, to continue moving, to offer, not to spend, continue to move. They are relentless. You have a high volume of high -quality opportunities and work incredibly hard for it. It is a lot of work, a lot of belief, an extreme faith and players who love to play like that. “
They love it because it pays off so that it maintains itself and strengthened with every win. And then there is something simple: fun, pleasure, commitment. “It is very easy to find the words to say it, but it is more difficult to actually do it. [yet] That is the key to everything we do, “said Luis Enrique. Klinsmann said:” As a striker, it is a system that you love. It is fascinating, because it is also about chemistry: you can only play this kind of football if everyone, everyone, is only one who does not do it as soon as you commit and do not get into the faces of people. “
Why do the players buy an idea, why does Dembélé do things that he didn’t have before? Because of everything and because he alike It. The man who was always the last one who arrived is always the first, so sharp, so quickly, so lively that other footballers see him come until he is gone.
