Luis Enrique's debut season as Paris Saint-Germain head coach can be considered a success before a ball is even kicked in the UEFA Champions League semifinals against Borussia Dortmund. As always, you can catch all the Champions League coverage across CBS, Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, and CBS Sports Golazo Network. Although the freshly recrowned Ligue 1 titleholders are favorites to advance at the expense of the Germans, they were not expected to come this far this campaign. In that respect, PSG and the Spanish tactician are on course to complete a strong first term together which could yet feature unprecedented success even by the Qatar-backed club's prolific title-winning standards.
Le Championnat has been added to the Trophee des Champions and the UCL as well as the Coupe de France could yet follow inside this next month. Even if PSG were to only win one of the two and remain more of a domestic force than a European one, there is little disputing that it feels as if the French capital club are on their way to becoming more legitimate than in previous years. Kylian Mbappe is expected to move on regardless, but the future is bright at Parc des Princes and that is largely thanks to Luis Enrique's impressive work in a short space of time.
We look at how the 53-year-old has handled some of the key challenges and aspects of his Paris project so far and which ones have contributed the most towards this year's impressive Champions League run.
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Kylian Mbappe's future
Luis Enrique and Kylian Mbappe have not always seen eye-to-eye this season, but there is no doubting that the Spaniard's stance with the French superstar has been to PSG's benefit on the field of play. The team is less reliant on Mbappe now than it was even 12 months ago and Goncalo Ramos' rise to pulling with his strike partner in terms of goals scored across 2024 suggests that their post-talisman era will not look too bad in terms of posing a goal threat without making any transfer moves to replace Mbappe yet. Luis Enrique has been preaching the importance of preparing for a future without the star No. 7 and that strategy looks like it has paid off with PSG capable of winning without Mbappe but still looking dangerous and getting result when he does feature.
Squad rebuild
An underrated aspect of the job which Luis Enrique inherited when he arrived in Paris following Christophe Galtier's time in charge was the major overhaul which the squad underwent last summer with a raft of new faces coming in to replace those departing. Lionel Messi, Neymar and Marco Verratti were always going to leave a major void but a variety of smart deals by Luis Campos provided Luis Enrique with a much more balanced squad which has been knitted together in an impressively short time span. Some moves like Milan Skriniar and Manuel Ugarte might not have worked out immediately, but Ramos, Lee Kang-in, Marco Asensio and Arnau Tenas have all contributed to differing degrees.
Team mentality
Key in that rebuild was no only the change in personnel away from the likes of Messi, Neymar and Verratti but a change in mindset with Luis Enrique creating an entirely new collective mentality and vision which is less geared towards individuals. Sure, PSG still boast individual game winners but within their skillsets exists a recognition that the team is stronger than any one player which was not true in the past. Mbappe, arguably, still views himself above the Paris club, but other star names such as Ousmane Dembele, Lucas Hernandez and Bradley Barcola do not and nor does generational home grown talent Warren Zaire-Emery.
French focus
Another important aspect which has enabled that change to take focus faster than perhaps first planned has been the deconstruction of certain cliques within the locker room which has been replaced with a "Frenchified" atmosphere which you would expect of Ligue 1's dominant force. An injection of domestic talent such as Dembele, Hernandez, Barcola and Randal Kolo Muani to go alongside Mbappe, Zaire-Emery and the often forgotten presence of the injured Presnel Kimpembe has given PSG an identity and collective personality that is more in-line with the club's history than previous iterations of the team.
Youth-driven
Finally, but by far from the least important aspect, has been the youthful rejuvenation of PSG who have gone from seeking success with readymade stars to boasting the youngest average age of all of the quarterfinalists. To get this far with such a young starting XI is impressive and owes much to Luis Enrique's mastery with young talents. Also, certain regulars who predated the Spanish boss' arrival such as Achraf Hakimi, Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Gianluigi Donnarumma are still 25 or under which is impressive given the collective experience that we associate with them all.
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