{"id":79956,"date":"2025-02-06T17:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=79956"},"modified":"2025-02-06T18:04:40","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T15:04:40","slug":"psg-a-better-team-in-post-mbappe-era-says-luis-enrique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/psg-a-better-team-in-post-mbappe-era-says-luis-enrique\/","title":{"rendered":"PSG a better team in post-Mbappe era, says Luis Enrique"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reuters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Runaway Ligue 1 leaders Paris St Germain have been better in attack and defence since striker Kylian Mbappe moved to Real Madrid last year, coach Luis Enrique said before they host third-placed AS Monaco on Friday.<\/p>\n

Mbappe left to join the Spanish giants in June after seven years in Paris, having scored more than 170 goals in Ligue 1 from more than 200 appearances for the club.<\/p>\n

“I was very brave last season when I told you that we would have a better team in attack and defence,” Luis Enrique told a press conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“I still think that we are better (in both), the numbers are there to say it. The players took it as a challenge. Of course we would have liked to keep Kylian, because everyone loved him, but the team is responding … at a spectacular level.<\/p>\n

“I told you that rather than having a player who scores 40 goals, I wanted players who all score a lot. Faced with a situation that we did not want but which happened, the maturity of the team is very good.”<\/p>\n

Reigning champions PSG are the only unbeaten team in Europe’s top five leagues after 20 games, sitting 10 points clear of Olympique de Marseille and 13 above Monaco.<\/p>\n

They beat Monaco 4-2 in the reverse fixture in December before a last-gasp Ousmane Dembele goal helped them to a 1-0 win in the French Super Cup in January.<\/p>\n

Luis Enrique said he wanted the 27-year-old Dembele, who also scored twice at Monaco, to become the team’s leader.<\/p>\n

“Right now, he is in an absolutely spectacular series. His statistics have exploded compared to the beginning of his career, that’s obvious,” Luis Enrique said.<\/p>\n

“He has to be important for the team, not just scoring goals. To score a goal, someone has to give you an assist. What we are looking for with Ousmane is … for him to continue to be a determining player, with assists and defensive efforts.<\/p>\n

“Becoming a leader of the team is not just about scoring goals. Being a leader is something different. I believe that Ousmane, very clearly, can become one of the leaders of the team.”<\/p>\n

Luis Enrique added that he expected a complicated clash against eight-times champions Monaco.<\/p>\n

“Monaco have made a lot of progress without the ball. They are very intense,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They are a well-constructed team that occupies the pitch well … They can cause lots of trouble. We saw that in the last two games. They are a direct competitor in Ligue 1 and it will be another difficult match tomorrow.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reuters Runaway Ligue 1 leaders Paris St Germain have been better in attack and defence since striker Kylian Mbappe moved to Real Madrid last year, coach Luis Enrique said before they host third-placed AS Monaco on Friday. Mbappe left to join the Spanish giants in June after seven years in Paris, having scored more than 170 goals in Ligue 1 from more than 200 appearances for the club. “I was very brave last season when I told you that we would have a better team in attack and defence,” Luis Enrique told a press conference on Thursday. “I still think that we are better (in both), the numbers are there to say it. The players took it as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":79957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1111,1329],"class_list":["post-79956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-mbappe","tag-psg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}