It has been a rough couple of weeks for Luis Enrique in the French capital, with his tactical approaches called into question.
The Paris Saint-Germain manager saw his side get dominated by Arsenal in their UEFA Champions League fixture late last month, and they are coming off a subpar outing last weekend, playing out a 1-1 draw domestically with OGC Nice.
According to one of his former players, though, the former Spanish international’s managerial approach wasn’t all that appealing when he was in charge of La Roja either.
Aymeric Laporte (30) has been a regular for Spain since becoming an international for the senior squad, playing under Luis Enrique at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2020.
The Al Nassr centre-back was a guest on a recent episode of Rothen S’enflamme, where he was asked about his former coach’s tactics while in charge of Spain.
Laporte said, “With Luis Enrique, it was a fixed tactical pattern; we didn’t have too much freedom.”
Dans @Rothensenflamme, Aymeric Laporte s’est rappelé ses souvenirs concernant Luis Enrique, qu’il a côtoyer en sélection espagnole : “Le schéma tactique était fixe, on n’avait pas trop de libertés.”https://t.co/4yBguRfXLQ
— RMC Sport (@RMCsport) October 8, 2024
The man born in Agen, France, says since current Spain boss Luis de la Fuente took charge, the team has played with a lot more lucidity.
‘”Now we have a little more flexibility; we can make our own decisions, choose what to do and when,” Laporte said.
As an example, he said that Luis Enrique did not allow them to clear the ball out from the defensive zone when a match got into the 90th minute but instead they had to play the ball out from the back.
Before officially becoming a Spanish international, Laporte had been called up by Didier Deschamps for two of France’s 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
Eventually, Laporte wound up switching nationalities and featuring as a starting centre-back with the Spanish team since Euro 2020.
Under Luis Enrique, Spain lost the UEFA Nations League final versus France in 2021 (2-1) before winning the title during the 2022-23 campaign under de la Fuente.
