Paris Saint-Germain secured back-to-back UEFA Champions League titles with a comprehensive victory over Arsenal in the final, a performance that went beyond the penalty shootout to underline their dominance on the way to the trophy, according to the article.
Coach Luis Enrique has built a side that runs a modern 4-3-3 with athletic, fluid movement and a two-footed centre forward who can occupy multiple attacking positions. The team can accelerate into fast transitions or deliberately slow the game, and players are given creative licence within a structure designed to keep the whole unit functioning as a cohesive team.
The club’s season began under unusual circumstances. PSG reached the FIFA Club World Cup final and had little genuine preseason, leading Enrique to rotate heavily and treat the early regular-season months as an extended training period. They also needed a late goal to avoid defeat in the UEFA Super Cup against Tottenham Hotspur and, for a second straight season, advanced into the Champions League knockout stage only after playoff rounds.
Those practical advantages — playing in an 18-team Ligue 1 and operating with a budget that dwarfs domestic rivals — allowed PSG to manage intensity across the campaign, cruising at lower effort levels at times and peaking when it mattered. The article says those conditions are uncommon among elite European clubs and therefore hard to reproduce elsewhere.
Credit is given to Enrique for exploiting that environment. The coach’s security and confidence in decision-making are noted as factors that let him imprint his ideas on the squad; he reportedly earns more than the players. The club’s move away from the Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé era toward younger, more pliable players — a shift partly driven by cost cutting — also provided Enrique with the personnel he preferred, the article adds.
While PSG’s tactical concepts reflect trends across Europe’s top teams, the combination of resources, timing and managerial latitude that underpinned their recent success presents a blueprint that others may find difficult to copy, according to the article.
