Luis Enrique hopes Paris Saint-Germain’s competition will keep his players on their toes ahead of Wednesday’s Ligue 1 heavyweight clash with Monaco.
PSG is one of only two unbeaten teams in Europe’s top five leagues this season, along with Juventus in Serie A, and leads France’s top flight with 37 points.
They are seven points ahead of second-place Marseille and third-place Monaco, and will face Adi Hutter’s team at Stade Louis II.
Wednesday’s match will be the 97th match between Monaco and PSG in Ligue 1 – the most the Parisians have faced against any single opponent. Meanwhile, Monaco’s 45 wins over PSG are the most of any team in the French top flight.
Before the match, Luis Enrique said that having multiple players in every position on the pitch was a “utopia”, praising the options available to him.
“I would like to have two players in each position who play in the starting lineup and for there to be real competition. I already have the same thing with three goalkeepers and they are ready to play,” Luis Enrique told reporters.
– When it comes to outfield players, sometimes we lose players. For me, the basis of development as a team is, above all, the belief that players do not know whether they will play or not.
If they let up a little too much, someone else might play in their place. It’s for the good of the team. That’s the direction I’m going to go.”
Luis Enrique said Monaco, which has lost only one of its last five matches, is a real title contender.
They have lost 19% of their Ligue 1 games in 2024 (six out of 32), their lowest percentage of defeats in a calendar year since they last won the title in 2017 (11%, four out of 38).
“Monaco has a very high level and the players, who often lose their balance, have a similar profile to Lyon. Monaco improved defensively,” said the Spaniard.
– They are a very difficult team to play against. We will need a very good version of our team. We are used to being challenged in these games.
If PSG avoids defeat, it will be the sixth time the team has gone unbeaten in the first 16 games of the Ligue 1 season.
That’s four times more than any other team, with Lyon and Saint-Etienne doing it 10 times each, and the last 10 unbeaten teams finished as champions after 16 games.
