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A few hours before the Champions League match between PSG and Liverpool, it floats in Paris a special atmosphere. A tension, an excitement, a passion. The scent of big matches, Jerome Rothen, finalist of the C1 in 2004 with AS Monaco, knows him well. Today a consultant for RMC Sport, the one who went through the PSG (2004-2010) tells, based on his experience as a player, how the Parisians must prepare this duel.
Télé Loisirs: Jerome, the last meeting between PSG and Liverpool dates back to April 1997, in the semi-finals Cup Cup. What memory do you have? Were you present in stands?
Jérôme Rothen : For once, I was not at the Parc des Princes: I was in front of my television! PSG won the match 3-0, with a huge communion with the public around and in the stadium. In return, the PSG lost 0-2 to Anfield but it was enough to qualify for the final, lost (0-1) against FC Barcelona. And when I went to PSG between 2004 and 2010, a match particularly marked me: a victory at the Parc des Princes (4-0) against Twente in UEFA Cup, in 2008. There was electricity in the air (note: especially fights between supporters around the stadium) and this nervousness allowed us to be aggressive entry. And when the players are hungry, the audience follows …
Tonight, PSG finds Liverpool. Even if it is a group game, not a knockout match, the Parisians will have to win to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. A meeting like this, at home, how is it prepared?
Before these big games, when a cloakroom has character, the atmosphere changes in relation to the preparation of a usual championship game. The most assertive players speak more and put more pace in practice. The shocks are harder and one feels, almost palpably, an intensified collective concentration. Even players who lack grinta suddenly take up more space. And when a discreet or introverted guy starts to believe it, it inevitably leads everyone!
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Indeed, PSG has often been criticized since the beginning of the Qatari era for lacking character and impact during these great matches. Do you share this impression?
Totally. Without going back to the elimination of last season against Real Madrid, the PSG has sometimes lacked willpower this season. I think of the entry loss (3-2) on the lawn of Liverpool where all the lines of the team trembled. What struck me the most is that players are not grouped, during the game or after a goal, to get together or find solutions … Fortunately, the following has been a little more reassuring, especially at Naples. The players were able to bring back a good 1-1 draw, showing a big physical commitment.
What is missing from PSG to pass a milestone in the Champions League?
Certainly, it lacks a midfielder N'Golo Kanté, able to repeat the defensive races. But the current workforce must also learn to hurt themselves! For example, Adrien Rabiot is a great player but it's been a long time since I've seen him make an athletically dominant match. And beyond collective defensive efforts or "cleats", an attacker must mark his territory by his voluntary ball catch. We must want to back down his opponent, make him doubt. Players like Neymar, Julian Draxler, Angel Di Maria or even Kylian Mbappé, I rarely see them "charred" on a piece of land. The culture of winning is this: to mobilize, to make a maximum effort and to be able to reproduce this collective peak of performance when it is necessary.
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These high intensity matches, you have known in particular in Monaco, during the famous season 2003-2004. You then reached the final of the Champions League, including eliminating Chelsea and Real Madrid by Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos … The team lost in the final against FC Porto but you seemed invincible this year …
There was a kind of collective bond. Didier Deschamps, our coach at the time, had created and maintained this link. What struck me was his ability to adapt his management to the emotional profile of his players. He clearly identified which player to reassure and, conversely, which "guy" you had to tickle … Some profiles need to feel a kind of fear to reach their best level, as if they had to consider failure to better fight it. And, indeed, the coach of the PSG, Thomas Tuchel, seems very clever on the psychological level. Perhaps more than his predecessors Unai Emery and Laurent Blanc.
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