Laporta: PSG now plays Barcelona’s game under Luis Enrique

Paris Saint-Germain has adopted the possession-heavy pressing system that defined Barcelona‘s most successful era, a tactical shift club president Joan Laporta credited directly to manager Luis Enrique ahead of their Champions League clash at the Parc des Princes.

“The footballing dynamics of his teams have something of the original Barca style,” Laporta told L’Equipe. He pointed specifically to PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Luis Campos for backing the Spaniard. “PSG’s success has arrived with Enrique and he won because he gave it his personality. And when he decided to shake things up, boom!”

Enrique installed himself in Paris in 2023 following Christophe Galtier’s departure. The move represented a sharp pivot from the individual-forward strategy built around Kylian Mbappé toward collective positional play. Enrique has publicly outlined plans to neutralize Barcelona winger Yamal by monopolizing possession — a defensive mechanism rooted entirely in the Catalan methodology he managed between 2014 and 2017.

That three-year stint yielded nine trophies, including the 2015 treble. His current PSG squad operates on identical structural principles: high defensive lines, inverted fullbacks, and midfield overloads designed to suffocate opponents before they reach the final third.

The tactical alignment arrives as the boardrooms end nearly a decade of hostility. Relations fractured in August 2017 when PSG triggered Neymar’s €222 million release clause. They deteriorated further after Lionel Messi signed with Paris as a free agent in 2021, prompting legal threats from Catalonia.

Those disputes are closed. “With Nasser, I think I can say that our relationship is one of friendship,” Laporta said. “There is a lot of respect. He manages the ECA sensationally, as does PSG.” Al-Khelaifi currently chairs the European Club Association, positioning him as a central figure in ongoing UEFA format negotiations.

Hansi Flick’s Barcelona lead La Liga domestically but face financial restrictions imposed by the league’s salary cap rules. The Champions League fixture functions as an external audit of the squad’s progress. Laporta also used the interview to defend the Spanish league’s governance, praising LaLiga president Javier Tebas for resisting outside pressure on domestic regulations.