Is PSG moving to a positional 4-2-4?

 

Photo Credit: PSG website

The appointment of Luis Enrique at PSG was one of the most interesting move of last summer: Parisian club lost two of the most important star of the team such as Messi and Neymar and the new coach also asked the club to lay-off Marco Verratti, the hearth of PSG midfield during the Qatar ownership reign.

By appointing Luis Enrique, Paris Saint-Germain is trying to change the model of football, no longer focused on star player but finding a solution to create an organic environment in order to transform this collection of great player into a football team.

For this purpose, it seems that the Spanish coach is looking to put apart his preferred 4-3-3 in order to move towards a 4-2-4 where the positional play principles are still implemented.

SOLER INVERTED FULL-BACK IS A TEMPORARY SOLUTION?

In the match played last Saturday against Strasbourg we appreciated the fact the full-back in the formation was Carlos Soler, former Valencia midfielder, which position during his career was in the middle of the pitch. 

Looking at other experiments performed by other positional school coaches (see Ten Hag moving Amrabat at left-back, or John Stones at Manchester City and many other examples) Luis Enrique moved from 4-3-3 to 4-2-4 just by moving Soler to a nominal full-back position arranging different duties for him in order to give more fluidity to the build-up and progression phase of the team. 

During the build-up phase the 4-2-4 proposed by PSG coach had a purpose: Strasbourg shape (4-5-1/4-4-1-1) was built in order to deny any central progression, therefore the solution having more sense was to stretch the shape very wide in order to provoke a reaction from opponents' shape. In this example we may appreciate the two wingers Barcola and Lee Kang-In playing with their foot on the touch line. The central orientation of Strasbourg positional defence creates space to reach them and create opportunities by using the qualitative superiority.

This is the shape of PSG during progression phase, where we can appreciate the different duties of the two full-backs: Lucas Hernandez tuck-in in order to create a first line of 3 players together with Marquinhos and Danilo (the two center-backs); on the other side Soler is tucking-in but advancing in his position in order to stay in the same line with Fabian Ruiz in the progression zone allowing Vitinha to step-forward towards the creation zone thus creating a positional occupation of the spaces. In this example you can also appreciate an exchange of position between Barcola and Mbappè which allow us to move to next point, the positional rotations.

4-2-4 BUT STILL POSITIONAL PLAY

The shape of the team as given by TV format formations cannot be comprehensive enough to understand how a team is playing. We were used to look at Luis Enrique's team and positional coach in general playing with a 4-3-3, however this is not the only shape to play by using the positional play principles.

The 4-2-4 proposed by PSG against Strasbourg is still using the main instruments of the positional play such as the rotations between the players and the occupation of the five channels in the creation zone. 

In the previous example above we have seen the rotation between Mbappè and Barcola. Still in this example we can appreciate how the number 7 of PSG is free to move in any zone of the pitch. In order to allow the team to keep the positional shape, rotations are activated: in this example Mbappè is moving deep to receive the ball vacating a space which is then covered by Vitinha. Here is even important the movement from Soler who is ready to cover the right half-space in the creation zone in case the progression of the ball is successful. In addition Barcola and Lee Kang-In are still hugging the touch line to give as much width as possible to the team shape.

The best example on how PSG creates opportunities and spaces by using those movements and rotations is given by the team play leading to the goal scored by Soler itself during last Saturday match. We can appreciate the followings:

• 4-2-4 shape in the build-up
• Soler and Hernandez tucking-in with different staggering during progression phase
• Vitinha moves to creation zone
• Soler restarting the possess and then move inside invited by Luis Enrique (hear at him screaming "Carlos!") 
• Counter-movement of Vitinha stepping back in the progression zone (rotation)

CONCLUSION

Luis Henrique is still trying to find the best solution to give a new identity to PSG, he is working with the characteristics of his player in order to maximize the solutions available.

The choice to let Soler play as a full-back allows PSG to move from an ortodox 4-3-3 shape without removing from the template the positional play principles. This seems to be an interesting compromise which could be interesting to monitor in the next matches, especially in the hard Champions League group which they are facing.