Ahead of the game against Nantes on Matchday 14 of Ligue 1 tomorrow at 17:00 CET at the Parc des Princes, the Paris Saint-Germain manager answered questions from PSG TV and the media. Here are some extracts.
THE OPPONENTS
"We're used to seeing opponents come to the Parc des Princes and play with a low block. I spoke to Marco Verratti, who has been at the club for a very long time, and he told me that it's a real habit. Above all, we need to stop our opponents from thinking that they can win the game. We need to stay alert and make sure that we don't give our opponents any chance of coming away with the three points."
THE FIXTURE LIST
"We're focusing on tactics but also on recovery. We're about to play nine games in four weeks. That's difficult, but we need to prepare well. We'll all be working hard together, and we need to give the players the best possible tools for their recovery, which will be key over the next month. There are no more international breaks until March, although the South American players will play two games and the Africa Cup of Nations will take place. That's difficult, but that's the case for every club involved. You need to adapt; that's the reality for a big club."
THE CONDITION OF THE PLAYERS
"We've still got a meeting to have with the club's performance coordinator and chief medical doctor to decide who will be in the squad for tomorrow. We need to take the players' physical condition into account. Some might be returning from injury, but it isn't as simple as that, as you need to be fully competitive in a game like the one we've got coming up."
THE PLAYING PHILOSOPHY
"A team of coaching staff also has to be able to adapt to the club and to what the club wants. We work based on a philosophy that suits everyone, and we also need to work with each player's characteristics. Every club is different, but all of it must always work in harmony."
NEYMAR JR
"He had a good training session with the squad, and after today's meeting, we hope that he can be part of the squad, but that's still to be decided."
THE TEAM'S STYLE
"You can see certain signs of our identity. You can talk about style and philosophy, but subjectively speaking, the team has an identity. A club like Paris Saint-Germain has its own ideas and has a squad in place, and when it hires a manager, it's because that coach's way of doing things can be conveyed to the squad. We're satisfied because we can see improvement in different areas of the team. The team has a visible identity, and we hope that it will improve and last longer in each game, but we're seeing progress."