Mauricio Pochettino has been in charge at Paris Saint-Germain since early
January and the Champions League evisceration of Barcelona is his most successful result to date.
Pochettino developed a reputation at Southampton and Tottenham
as a high-pressing, attack-orientated coach,
and he’s inherited a gifted playing squad that seems to suit his game methodology.
So how is Pochettino moulding PSG and what has he changed?
Under Thomas Tuchel, PSG pressed heavily. Tuchel was tactically flexible, using a
variety of formations, but was generally consistent in preferring four at the back.
He played a positional style, in which the full backs pushed high,
players were encouraged to occupy spaces between the lines, and Neymar – the club’s
recording signing – was invited to drop off and use his ability to beat defenders.
Under Pochettino, those star players might present a challenge.
He is a domineering personality who demands total loyalty, and his success at Tottenham
was predicated on developing younger, more pliable players and maximising their potential.
At PSG, his group is clearly very different. In the past, Pochettino has
proven intolerant of ill-discipline and quick to ostracise players who don’t tie the line.
Which is to say nothing of his punishing training schedules. The former Southampton
midfielder Jack Cork once said that a player needs ‘two hearts’ to play for Pochettino.
Dani Osvaldo, the former forward, was even more descriptive.
“He makes you suffer like a dog, and at the time you hate him for
it” he remembered. “But by the Sunday, you’re grateful, because it works.”
Time will tell if PSG’s superstars agree.
Pochettino has consistently favoured a 4-2-3-1.
He wants his players to press high and he favours a back four,
as it offers the most natural pitch coverage both horizontally and vertically,
while retaining its solidity even as players push out to press.
Pochettino’s mid and low blocks look like a 4-4-2, with the 10 pushing up to support the
striker as the first line of defence, while if a full back is dragged out of position,
a midfielder will drop off to cover. There is a concerted effort to push the opposition out wide,
where darting presses from the wide players, backed by a central midfielder,
look to smother the opposition and deny passing lanes infield. Typically, Pochettino’s sides
defend in short bursts of vigorous activity before falling back into their defensive shape.
In attack, Pochettino generates a lot of width from full backs, while building possession
from the back and having players dropping in between the lines to manufacture passing options
for the deeper players. Further forward, the No.10 – when used – is less of a playmaker
and more an aggressive runner past the striker, who would often be encouraged
to drop off. This was the basis of Dele Alli’s partnership with Harry Kane at Spurs.
Forward players were also encouraged to drift wide for flat, driven switches of play from
one flank to the other, intended to unleash an advancing full-back on the far touchline.
This kind of movement meant that previous Pochettino teams rarely had a genuine focal
point in attack, relying instead on rotations, with the wide attackers
moving infield and coming short or making runs behind, while the striker and 10
were also versatile. At their best, Tottenham would produce a measured build-up up from deep,
before short combinations at speed would free runners beyond the defensive line,
while the full-backs maintained width and offered options on the overlap.
There are a few similarities between the two coaches’ styles of play.
In particular, the use of full backs, the pressing, and the attacking rotation.
This is not surprising: Pochettino has been influenced by positional play,
but as someone who learned from Marcelo Bielsa, has a greater emphasis on aggressive pressing
than some positional play coaches. Tuchel is from the German pressing school,
but has adopted possession-based, positional play perhaps more than any other German coach.
But Pochettino is already putting his stamp on PSG,
while benefitting from the fact that certain facets of his style already suit the squad.
In terms of systems, he’s stuck with a four-man defence, but used a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, and 4-3-3.
Leandro Paredes and Marco Verratti have been crucial, allowing PSG to progress the ball
centrally in the first phases of build-up which creates space in wide areas. When fit,
Neymar has also had a role here, dropping off quite deep to threaten with the ball at his feet,
or as a complement to the other attacking players, with balls through or over the defence,
or into wide positions. This then results in a lot of pull-backs low across the box,
which is something Pochettino has clearly emphasised.
PSG have also been attacking more directly, playing more progressive passes,
and with a slightly quicker rhythm than the side coached by Tuchel.
Whether that’s truly a tactical shift, or just a symptom of how
performances tailed off before his sacking is hard to say; it is noticeable, though.
At their least effective, Tuchel’s teams can be quite sterile in possession
and it appears that Pochettino has targeted that tendency,
encouraging more direct, incisive and – ultimately – riskier football.
And it suits the forward line, where Icardi has worked well as a focal point in the box,
but around whom the other attacking players can be positionally fluid.
Pochettino’s solid midfield base of two or three affords cover and can get the ball quickly towards
players like Mbappe, who is also thriving under Pochettino on the right or left flank.
When a new coach takes over, it’s hard to say how much effect they have unless there is a drastic
tactical shift, which is increasingly unlikely at the top level of European football anyway.
There are clearly some similarities between Tuchel and Pochettino which have smoothed his
transition into the job. But his emphasis on a slightly more direct style has yielded benefits,
not least the destruction of Barcelona at the feet of Mbappe.
The early signs are positive for Pochettino,
but this is a job with a lot of pressure and heavy expectations. Pochettino’s tactics and
style of play will only be one element of what causes him to succeed, or to fail.