When Paris Saint-Germain’s players gate-crashed Thomas Tuchel’s press conference after their 4-0 rout of Monaco in the Trophée des Champions and demanded that their coach belatedly fulfil his obligation as a new arrival to sing in front of the entire group, the German launched into a few bars of ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams.
It felt apt, a fitting reflection of the instantaneous rapport that the former Borussia Dortmund boss had struck up with the star-studded squad.
However, Tuchel and his players couldn’t have looked any further apart during PSG’s Champions League opener against Liverpool. Even more alarmingly, Tuchel’s take on the game was as worrying as his side’s performance at Anfield.
He claimed, “We put in a great performance in the first half.”
In truth, they had been lucky to be only 2-1 down at the break, with even centre-half Thiago Silva admitting afterwards that they had been “in trouble” before Thomas Meunier lashed home a goal out of nothing just before the interval.
Tuchel argued: “We conceded two goals in the first half but never at any point did we lose our confidence.”
Presumably, then, the colossal gap between his midfield and stellar forward line was intentional.
He added, “We played with a lot of bravery and mental strength.”
However, PSG’s recovery from two goals down actually had more to do with Liverpool lapses in concentration than PSG’s character.
In fact, the visitors had exhibited their customary lack of bottle when the Reds cranked up the pressure again in injury time.
Tuchel concluded, “The score didn’t tell the story of the game.”
This was the one thing he got right, but even then, accidentally. The final score was misleading, alright, as it suggested a close game. In reality, though, it had been anything but; PSG had been played off the pitch for the majority of the game.
PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi had claimed beforehand that the club had the “best coach in the world”.
But Tuchel was made to look like an irrelevance on a night on which Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani appeared to completely ignore his pleas to track back.
The contrast between PSG’s front three and Liverpool’s was stark, as French legend Jean-Pierre Papin noted.
“With PSG, [Neymar, Cavani and Mbappe] are not heroes, they’re egos,” the former striker told Le Parisien. “At some point, whatever your status is, you have to serve the team.
“There’s a difference between stars we see abroad and those we have in France. In France, we’ve got the impression that they’re impossible to manage.
“Why can Liverpool put their players into line and not here? When Neymar was playing with Barcelona, he defended from time to time…
“Quality is permanent; it’s in the DNA of these players. There’s no problem there.
“But they must come together, let everyone around them benefit from their qualities. They cannot care who the star of the team is.