Now in his sixth season, Paris Saint-Germain defender Marquinhos is a senior man despite being just 24. This year, he’s enjoying life under a third different coach. Interview…
After Laurent Blanc and Unai Emery, Thomas Tuchel has taken charge and brought with him a happy-go-lucky attitude that the players discovered when they asked him to sing an initiation song following the Trophée des Champions.
Marquinhos told This Is Paris: “There were a lot of people that had done their initiations before him, it was getting late and he said: ‘if we win, I will do it in the changing room.’ We won and as soon as we got in the changing room, we wanted the coach to sing, but he wasn’t there, he was in the press conference, so we decided to go and pay him a visit. He took it really well. He teased us a little, saying ‘don’t worry, I’ll get you back in training tomorrow’.
Tuchel: “Very intelligent”
“He is very intelligent. He knows exactly how to manage the squad, the team and he knows the right balance. He can be happy with us, but he also knows when he needs to be tough and work us hard. He has already done it a few times and even if I’ve only been back three or four weeks, I know him quite well. He is happy to let the squad joke around and have fun, but when it’s time to work we work!
“He wants to have a maximum of two or three touches by the players, especially in defence and midfield. We have to play simply and look for space because we know that here in France teams defend a lot. They have very strong defensive plans when they play against us and if we aren’t quick enough, if we don’t turn defence into attack quickly enough, the space will disappear. That’s what we work on in training. We train with two or three touches to play quickly. In the attacking third, the players have a little more liberty to do what they want.
“When we defend, the forwards have to work and be close to us and when we attack, we have to support them. Above all, we have to reduce the space between the lines as much as possible so that they are not comfortable when they have the ball, when they win it back. As soon as we lose possession the coach wants the whole team ready to press high and try and win the ball back.”
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