How Luis Enrique put Paris Saint-Germain in a position to finally realise Champions League dream: From coping without Kylian Mbappe to disciplining Ousmane Dembele

PSG wrapped up Ligue 1 with three rounds of the 2023-24 season to spare - but that was hardly a noteworthy achievement. Luis Enrique had been expected all along to lead PSG to their 10th title in 12 seasons. What had not been anticipated, though, was PSG getting knocked out of the Champions League semi-finals by Borussia Dortmund.

BVB were worthy opponents, having emerged from the competition's 'Group of Death' before reaching the last four with a stunning win over Atletico Madrid. However, PSG had been the heavy favourites to prevail against a team toiling in the Bundesliga - and particularly after an investment of more than €430 million (£360m/$480m) in the playing squad across the summer and winter transfer windows.

Consequently, the coach came under an awful lot of scrutiny after back-to-back 1-0 losses to Dortmund. Luckily for Luis Enrique, club chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi had his back: "I can't believe what is being written and I even find it ridiculous," the Qatari told L'Equipe. "But we won’t let it affect our football at all. We have a short-, medium- and long-term strategy and I have full confidence in the manager, in the players, and all of our team."

There's no disguising the fact that Kylian Mbappe's move to Real Madrid was a bitter blow for PSG, both as a team and a business. They lost their all-time leading goal-scorer, and most marketable player, for absolutely nothing. However, there was always the suspicion that it might end up being a blessing in disguise, simply because Mbappe had become too big for his boots - and arguably the club.

The constant flirting with Madrid had become a major source of distraction (and irritation for Luis Enrique, who hates dealing with the press at the best of times), while the forward's prima donna behaviour hardly helped build a sense of team spirit. The feeling was that Mbappe always had to be indulged, meaning he could do as he pleased, on and off the field.

The departure of the last remnant of the 'bling-bling' era, thus, allowed Luis Enrique to construct a far more united and hard-working team - with the help of PSG sporting director Luis Campos, who unquestionably benefited from the removal of Mbappe's gargantuan salary from the wage bill as it allowed him to invest more money a new project founded upon promising players rather than established stars.

PSG's recruitment during the summer of 2023 was far from flawless, and Bradley Barcola was arguably the only new signing to justify his fee during his first season at the club. Last summer, though, PSG made fewer moves but with far greater success.

While other members of Europe's elite mulled over whether Joao Neves was really worth €70m (£58m/$79m), PSG pulled the trigger and are now reaping the rewards, with the 20-year-old looking like a generational talent.

Former Eintracht Frankfurt centre-back Willian Pacho has also proven an absolute snip at €40m (£34m/$45m), the incredibly exciting Desire Doue has already justified his €50m (£42m/$57m) fee, while bringing in Khvicha Kvaratskhelia midway through the season has proven an absolute masterstroke, with the addition of yet another devastating dribbler making PSG even more of a nightmare to play against.

"Of course we would have liked to keep Kylian," Luis Enrique admitted, "because everyone liked Kyky. But the team is responding very positively, at a spectacular level. I was very brave last season when I told you that we would have a better team in attack and defence, but the numbers are there to support it. The players took it as a challenge."

And they've passed it with flying colours, with PSG playing not only with greater unity than ever before, but also greater potency (147 goals scored this season compared to 120 in the final year of Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar!).

It's worth remembering, though, that PSG didn't exactly look like the sum of their collective parts during the early stages of the season, at least not in Europe anyway. After scraping past Girona in their Champions League opener thanks to a last-minute own goal from goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, PSG suffered a 2-0 loss at Arsenal on October 1.

The result itself wasn't particularly damaging - thanks to the farcical new format - but the nature of the performance was very disconcerting, and Luis Enrique made no attempt to hide his dissatisfaction with his players in his post-match press conference.

"We were far away from the standards you need in this kind of match," he fumed. "Arsenal were much better in terms of pressure and intensity. It's impossible to play for a positive result when you don't win any of your duels on the pitch. And we won none."

Luis Enrique had also shown his stern side before the match, though, by leaving Ousmane Dembele out of his match squad for failing to "comply or respect the expectations of the team". It was a very negative situation but sent a positive message to the rest of the squad that, under his leadership, no player, no matter how valuable, would receive preferential treatment within his egalitarian regime.

The shock of being dropped for a Champions League game also played a pivotal part in Dembele finally getting his act together because after years of underachievement rooted in his abject lack of discipline, Luis Enrique has finally been able to get across to him the importance of teamwork.

"Everyone attacks and defends here. If you don’t defend as a forward, you don’t start," Dembele told reporters. "The coach tells us to believe right until the end, and that's shaped who we are. From the youngest player to the oldest, nobody gives up until the final whistle."

However, a change of position also transformed the catastrophic Barca flop into arguably the most dangerous attacker in world football in 2025. The France international had always been utilised on the wing because of his quick feet and blistering pace, but Luis Enrique decided to move Dembele into a more central position - which Montpellier boss Jean-Louis Gasset has described as "the idea of the century".

It's certainly been a masterstroke. Since the turn of the year, no player across Europe's 'Big Five' leagues has been involved in more goals (31) than Dembele, who is playing with a smile on his face for the first time in many, many years.

"I don't know if it's the best team I've played for, because I've been in some amazing ones like Barca, with Messi, who for me is the GOAT," Dembele said. "But yeah, this is the one I enjoy the most."

Dembele isn't the only player loving life under Luis Enrique either. Achraf Hakimi says he's reached "a level of play that I'd never even imagined" and "become a more complete player" by working with a "genius" with a meticulous eye for detail. "He built a great team in just over a year," PSG's rampaging right-back recently said of his coach.

Neves, meanwhile, says he's never seen such a simple but effective "vision of football", which is founded upon a positional freedom and tactical fluidity that fellow midfielder Vitinha says makes PSG both impossible to predict - and thus contain.

"The team started the season with principles that were already well assimilated, and the coach tried to incorporate even more mobility," the Portuguese revealed. "Today, a No.6 can be an 8, an 8 can be a 10, a 10 can be a 6 and with the forwards, you never know if they're on the left, the right or in the middle. The coach tried to put that system in place and I think that was the key. It's very difficult for opponents, whether they press one-on-one, or whether they don't press and choose to stay in a low block."

More than anything else, though, veteran defender Marquinhos says it is the spirit of togetherness that Luis Enrique has created that sets him apart from all of the coaches that have come before.

"He is very demanding but very clear with the players, and he always brings something extra," the PSG skipper said. "During matches, he always knows how to lead with his personality, and all the experience he has gained over the years. I think that's what makes him a great coach."

And it might also be what finally helps him achieve something special that Ancelotti and Co. could not.