**Some of the wilder hyperbole around Paris-Saint Germain’s wonderful Champions League masterclass to crush Inter Milan claimed Luis Enrique has re-invented the game.**
The Parisians first ever European Cup on Saturday night was a triumph for their classy Spanish coach and his young squad who, if they stay together and stay hungry, will rightly be the benchmark for the elite game for the rest of this decade.
What joy to see precociously talented youth grasp the enormous opportunity in front of them on the biggest club stage with a fearless freedom of expression.
The clinical edge and composure of players like young attacker Desire Doue on the right, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the left flank, was pure box office entertainment.
The 19-year-old Doue set up Achraf Hakimi to open the scoring, and scored twice himself to become only the third teenager to score in a Champions League final after Patrick Kluivert and Carlos Alberto.
A fourth duly arrived in the closing stages of a Munich pummelling when substitute Senny Mayulu rifled home a fifth goal to complete the rout. The look of incredulity on his features, as he wheeled away to celebrate with team mates and delirious fans was in sharp contrast to the palpable shock and disbelief on the Italian faces.
But has football entered a new age? And what, if anything, does this remotely have to do with Norwich City and their incoming head coach Liam Manning?
If you accept the gulf in player quality, and the limitless financial backing from their Middle Eastern owners, but simply strip it back to Enrique’s tactical fundamentals, there are clear parallels with how Manning views the game.
Luis Enrique led PSG to a memorable Champions League win in a 5-0 victory against Inter Milan _(Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)_
PSG have the technical brilliance, yes, but so do the clubs they had to navigate a route past to the final before dismissing Inter. That raw material flourished within an athletic template and mentality built on a voracious appetite for work out of possession.
It was not slavish control of the ball, or even territory, in the manner of the great Barcelona side Pep Guardiola built which dominated Europe’s elite for a spell, and the Spanish national side repeated for a number of tournament cycles.
It was just a relentless, high tempo, high energy brand of football that even at 4-0 up on Saturday night saw Kvaratskhelia closing down the Inter keeper like his life depended on it, and then turning in the other direction to halt a counter from Denzil Dumfries that required a 50 yard burst deep into his own left back channel.
When the margins are so fine towards the top of the professional game, when the edge so difficult to find, the increasing volume of big data, and crucially its interpretation, is fast becoming the new frontier in professional football. There are only so many systems in the 11-a-side game, and ways coaches can adapt accordingly.
But PSG are the visible symbol of perhaps a shift to valuing footballers who are more inter-changeable, less positional-focused and, like Kvaratskhelia, comfortable haring back as much as forward, as he did to aplomb for the fourth goal. We might be witnessing the era of the ‘specialist’ being usurped by a higher premium now placed on multi-purpose, multi-positional, game intelligent individuals.
Enrique’s PSG have perfected a dynamic mix of high-pressing, attacking football, where the focus is on quick transitions. The priority is winning the ball back high up the field and raiding with a clinical intent.
Bristol City cashed in on Norwich City mistakes in a 2-1 Championship win in March 2025 _(Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)_
Manning’s Bristol side last season in the Championship had the second highest percentage of touches in the final third in the division. Narrow that down further to the 2-1 home league win over Johannes Hoff Thorup’s much more deliberate, and in its watered down second half of the season version, pedestrian style at Norwich, back in March, and that game was decided by a Robins’ goal sourced in a rapier transition from central midfield, and pressing Jose Cordoba inside his own defensive third.
Norwich had more possession that night at Ashton Gate, and more chances, but Manning’s side were ruthless, economical and in keeper Max O’Leary had one of the best in the league.
Study any of Manning’s public pronouncements in the past around his preferred style of play and you will see many of the same attributes now thrillingly encapsulated in the PSG brand. High tempo, high energy are a given, wrapped around a competitiveness that underpins a focus on mentality rather than any philosophical devotion.
Some have chosen to view his pending arrival in Norfolk as a clear departure rather than a continuation of the Thorup strategy. There appears to have been an acknowledgement inside the football club the next head coach needs to harness a pragmatism rooted in achieving more consistent Championship results than simply developing a bespoke style of play.
Go back to the most successful periods in the Stuart Webber/Daniel Farke cycle, and when they got it right the sense was Norwich had positioned themselves ahead of the football curve in this country outside the Premier League. With others desperately striving to catch up.
If Manning’s outlook is more in synch with the prevailing currents now swirling around the professional game, and embodied in stylish fashion by the Parisians at the very top, then his appointment might be less a break from Thorup as a bid to break from the pack.