“We pressed them all the time, we created chances from the beginning, we dominated the ball.” Luis Enrique’s words came from a coach who had just seen his team dominate a Champions League final, achieving a record five-goal winning margin in the process.
They provide a pointer as to how Paris achieved their stunning victory on Saturday, overwhelming Inter with their energy and intensity. To shine more light on their display, UEFA’s analysis unit – working together with the UEFA Technical Observer Group members present at the final – have focused on two aspects in particular: their aforementioned pressing, as well as their exceptional fluidity.
“We saw a group of players working as a team, understanding the game and interchanging positions,” explained Rafa Benítez. “They were dynamic, rotating with real quality – they receive the ball, go up against defenders, and play in between.”
Setting the press
To start with their press, Luis Enrique said after the match: “How Ousmane Dembélé defended in this final is how you lead a team.”
The Paris centre-forward did an outstanding job leading the press, as reflected by the graphic above which shows him ranked first among the Paris players for pressing actions in the final third with 14 – four more than the second-ranked Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Champions League final performance insight: Paris pressure
According to Avram Grant, this collective effort to press with such unceasing intensity sent an important message that “if you are not working as a team, you will not win titles.” Dembélé set the tone at the top of the pitch, with his team-mates swift to follow, as displayed in the first clip in the video above in which the striker eventually closes down Yann Sommer, forcing the goalkeeper into a long pass which goes to Nuno Mendes. “We had difficulties to build up,” said the Inter goalkeeper, “but we have to say they [had] good pressure.”
In the second clip Dembélé is seen closing down Alessandro Bastoni and then Francesco Acerbi in turn, and we see the whole Paris team pushing high into the Inter half. “When Dembélé goes to the goalkeeper, the team as a whole are always making ground behind him as well, and that helped them keep the game compact,” said Michael O’Neill.
With the graphic above, we see the high-intensity output of each Paris player and again Dembélé leads the way, having sprinted nearly 1.2km. Right-back Achraf Hakimi’s role pushing high up the pitch – both on the inside and outside – is reflected by the fact he sits third on the list with 899m covered.
To return to Dembélé, Luis Enrique said he “ran for three players” while, among the UEFA Technical Observers, Roy Hodgson highlighted the sheer speed involved: “Forwards will do that, but to do it at that speed and then get back again is very impressive.” This is underlined by the graphic below which shows that he ended the game with the most sprints (63) of any Paris player. Again, Hakimi is ranked high – second with 47, just one ahead of Kvaratskhelia.
Relentless Paris mentality
The mentality of the Paris team stood out too on Saturday night. Here was a group of players mirroring the intensity of their coach, as is showcased in the second video below, which presents a passage of play in which they lose the ball several times but react well at each point – with a regain from João Neves, a duel won by Willian Pacho, and another piece of high-speed pressing by Dembélé.
Champions League final performance insight: Doing the basics
Inter coach Simone Inzaghi observed that Paris were first to all the second balls and summing up their mentality, Rui Faria described the champions as “humble off the ball and arrogant with the ball”. He elaborated: “On transitions, they are strong when they lose the ball, recovering the ball well. They’re all there ready to defend.”
Rotation, rotation, rotation
The other outstanding theme of Paris’ performance was their fluidity – that constant rotation of positions which has caused their opponents problems throughout the season.
In The Zone: Paris' dazzling fluidity
Champions League performance insight: Paris' constant rotation
The first clip above begins with an example of the movement of the Paris forwards and midfielders when pressing, before we then see Paris build the play with Vitinha dropping to join the centre-backs to give them a 3v2 against the Inter forwards. We see also here an illustration of Sir Gareth Southgate’s observation about their ability to “exploit the space at the side of the midfield three”.
The second clip is notable for several details, starting with how Vitinha, nominally the holding midfielder, drives forward like an attacking midfielder – another example of his side’s mobility. “Although Vitinha is normally the deeper one, he doesn’t just play as a six,” said Southgate. “All the midfield players can receive under pressure and turn and they can play – they can be a ten, they can be an eight, they can be a six.”
Vitinha was dynamic in the Paris midfield against Inter in the Champions League final
Vitinha was dynamic in the Paris midfield against Inter in the Champions League finalUEFA via Getty Images
It is also significant how Dembélé drops deep into his own half, connecting with Vitinha in the one-two from which the Portuguese springs into Inter territory. Dembélé had performed a similar role in the round of 16 victory at Liverpool and Rui Faria saw a reluctance, particularly in the first period, on the part of the Inter centre-backs to follow Dembélé – a factor in Paris achieving a numerical superiority in the middle of the pitch.
“The Inter midfielders needed to deal with the three midfielders of Paris-Saint Germain and then Dembélé coming deep and one of the full-backs coming up too,” said Grant, while Frank de Boer observed them overloading specific areas – “you saw them on one side with all midfielders and Nuno Mendes or Hakimi” – and this is certainly evident in clip one above.
Coaching considerations
On pressing
Kris Van Der Haegen, Coach education director at Belgian FA: “You need to have the right mentality to do this. The individual is hugely important but football is still a team sport and everybody needs to play his part. As a coach you can train your players so they’re physically ready to do this, but the mentality depends on the individual.
“We educate players in this from a young age as part of our development philosophy. We play high press all the time. We say, ‘Guys, we want to make you ready to play the most difficult football’ and that means playing really high and being ready at the back to play 1v1 to deal with that space. This way we try to develop not only the mentality to press, but also players who will be the very best in decision-making on the defensive side, regarding positioning and 1v1s.
“Up to U14s, our players play 5v5 or 8v8. If it’s a 5v5 we say to the four outfield players, ‘Where is the ball? Attack the ball with two or three players.’ It's already teaching them in an unconscious way the principles of counter-pressing – overload the ball area to win it back.”
Luis Enrique highlighted Ousmane Dembélé's pressing as a mark of leadership
Luis Enrique highlighted Ousmane Dembélé's pressing as a mark of leadershipAFP via Getty Images
On mobility
Phil Church, Senior Professional Game coach development lead at English FA: “I’d start by going back to the basics – receiving and passing skills and ball manipulation. This means working on specifics – body position when moving into line with the ball; body shape to receive it; different parts of the foot to receive it.
“Then you look at passing accuracy and passing speed as this approach involves a variety of passing techniques. Playing in rotations, you might have to play around the corner quickly with the outside of your foot, whereas if you're receiving the ball, you might be able to ‘punch’ a pass.
“From there, I’d suggest working with players on scanning. They need to know where the space is, where the players are and where the ball is. So they have to be constantly looking and checking and we have to teach that. Are they turning their head? Are they turning their shoulders? Getting the right body position is important. From that point, it’s about giving them an understanding about moving with each other from congested areas into space or vice versa and you might build that up in simple pairs, then in threes. For example, in a 3v3 if somebody takes their first touch in a particular direction, what does that mean for the other two to create space to receive a pass or take a defender out the way?
“I don't think there's anything wrong with starting this at a young age because ball manipulation, passing, receiving are key skills. It's the same for passing and moving. Once they've passed it, can they find space further up the pitch to receive another pass?”
Kris Van Der Haegen: “To be able to rotate like that, you need to understand the game very well. You want to attract the opponent towards the ball and then play out of that space. Often young players go towards the ball and move into the vision of their opponent but there’s a key phrase they use in Spain when coaching this – “a la espalda” – which literally means ‘behind the back’ but which I’d translate as 'on the blindside of the opponent'. That’s where I encourage players to move and to ask for the pass to go.”
On changing positions
Phil Church: “Players should be taught the ‘brilliant basics’ so they have an opportunity to play in different positions. This means if you can pass, receive, dribble, drive, if you can press and tackle, if you can shoot, if you can run with the ball over distance, then actually you've got a chance to play any position and you might be better at some than others. For example, if you've got passing accuracy and your ability to receive and play forwards on one or two touches is brilliant, maybe you could play as a more central six or an eight or a four, something like that, but not too early. People can play multiple positions, and I don't think early specialisation is a good idea.”