Luis Enrique and the relentless pursuit of control on and off the pitch | OneFootball

Luis Enrique’s career has been driven by an obsession with control, across the pitch and in management, forged by exacting standards and old scars.

On 20 January, after a 2-1 Champions League defeat at Sporting Portugal, he vented that they lost because football is a rotten sport. According to L'Équipe, the outburst reflected an ambivalent relationship with a game he has served for almost half a century.

From Roma to Barça to Spain and now Paris, his blueprint barely shifts. He is the technical boss and demands protagonist football, heavy possession, pressing and positional play, conditions set on arrival in Paris after he had not pursued Chelsea’s approach under owner Todd Boehly weeks earlier.

He refuses to be passive and will walk if boundaries are crossed. He is said to have left Barcelona in 2017 when executives encroached on his domain, and has tended to exit on his own terms.

That stance traces back to early setbacks, twice rejected by Gijon’s academy and at 18 by Barcelona, and to episodes that hardened his mistrust. In 1996 he smashed a Marca photographer’s camera before he apologised and repaid him, and earlier at Real Madrid he endured ridicule over a radio jibe about his haircut.

His method demands total commitment, late team selections, strict weight checks and punctuality, with ultra-detailed instructions, which can create friction and not every spell has brought success. A youthful, star-light PSG has proved receptive, and now Marquinhos and his team-mates must show the bite remains.

Source: L'Équipe