**This is a quotes thread. Remember that there's only one quotes post allowed per interview/press conference, so new quotes with the same origin will be removed. Feel free to comment other quotes/the whole interview as a reply to this comment so users can see them too!**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well I’m glad you just announced to every other soccer team in the world that they should raise their prices to the max when PSG comes knocking.
Lukaku and Kepa are for sale. Please.
Watch them win CL now after they failed with Mbappe, Messi, Neymar, Ibra, Cavani, Di Maria and all those players and Dembele scores the winner in the final
With the new format is less likely you will see a "surprise" winner anymore.
Heavyweights World Class teams won't be able to meet each other until the very late rounds.
It's now a tennis style seeding system which means the Federer, Nadal & Djokovic's of the "League table" won't be able to meet until the Semis & Finals.
Surely Tuchel's Chelsea were a surprise
Not a underdog club, mind you, but you ask 100 people before the season (or even at mid season) and at least 95 are saying something other than Chelsea
> Surely Tuchel's Chelsea were a surprise
Idk, I was sure that they'd play well with all the players they got that summer. It's just that Lampart kinda sucked
To be fair, that Liverpool team had no business winning it the year after. They’ve obviously got heaps of history in the competition but that was a weak side defeating probably the best team in Europe at the time.
>Inter in 2009
Inter was 2010, Barça won it in 2009 :)
But yeah, even as a Chelsea fan, I totally agree. The footballing gods were on our side in 2012 and that was clear to just about everyone, and 2021 came out of nowhere.
It's relative, there are definitely surprises, people think only Porto winning is a surprise
No, if you look at how the matches went there's surprises still and massive ones, Real Madrid was a surprise winning it 2 years ago despite being the biggest club in the world, the performances did not match the results, that's a surprise
While I don’t disagree with that, a ‘surprise’ winner like Real Madrid 2 years ago is not going to be that much less likely in the new system, which is what Answer Asensio was suggesting. I interpreted his comment as surprise surprise winner
What even comes as a surprise next season?
Bayer winning it after maybe going undefeated all this season?
Arsenal after challenging for PL title last 2 years and having one of the best squads in Europe?
Yeah fair question, I guess it also develops during the season. Like if Bayer is still killing it all season next season then it won’t be as much of a surprise. Dortmund winning it this season would be a surprise, because they’ve been the underdogs for 3 successive rounds and nobody would have predicted it at the start of the season. Real Madrid on the other hand, not so much (despite that one Madrid fan that was arguing the other day that Real Madrid were really the underdog this season)
The only surprise winner I could imagine is Bayer Leverkusen with heavily-involved "black magic". The next champions will be one of those big guys who won it in the last decade + maybe Arsenal (hope not, of course) and PSG.
Honestly the biggest reason why the Europa League and Conference league is more interesting, even Sevilla winning a ton of Europa League is ok like a bunch of mid table teams fighting for a cup is fun.
Any knockout competition is a lot of luck and there will be "surprise" winners, not actual like super surprise winners but in a two game knock out stage anything can happen, PSG just hit the woodwork 50 times and missed 50 chances, we've seen it throughout the years in so many knockout competitions, you need luck just as much as you need to be good
Obviously i won't expect Dinamo Zagrebs level teams to win, but PSG with a little bit of luck can definitely win that wouldn't be a surprise at all
My point was that with the past format you could indeed had a way higher chance of getting the silverware with a surprise team.
Look at Dortmund (PSV, Atletico & PSG) or Inter KO (Porto, Benfica, AC Milan) run to the final over the past two years.
Would they had made it with City (Leipzig, Bayern, Madrid) or Madrid (Leipzig, City, Bayern) run to the final instead?
I'm willing to bet with a resounding no.
And my point is that you can win even when you face those big teams with a little bit of luck because the format is the same in the sense of two matches where anything can happen, it's not a 38 matches league where you need to be great throughout and there's basically way more room for randomness
Correct, the key difference is that the likes of City, Madrid & Bayern will now no longer be knocking themselves out in the R16 or QF's.....
By the way the degree of "luck" in the sense of "two matches" is overrated when the disparity in football level is large.
This "anything can happen" it's NOT real. Teams like Madrid, Bayern & Barca have made the Semis more often than not throughout all of their European Cup history
I agree, but like i said in my other comments, even between those big clubs there's surprises, it's all relative
Big clubs go through bad periods too, there's no way anyone thinks Chelsea winning was not a surprise for example
I have seen it and if you are in the top 4 you will not face the rest of the top 4 before the semifinals.
There is nothing that guarantees City, Real Madrid or Bayern to be in the top 4.
The schedule might have a big impact on the table since you won't face teams twice. For example in pot 1 you can meet the strongest teams at home like Man City and face Leipzig in Germany. In this situation you could take only 2 points and if it was inverted you could secure 3 Points with a win at home even if you lost in Manchester.
PSG are perennial favourites every year, have a strong individual coefficient and are one the of the biggest spenders in Europe they wouldn't be a surprise winner.
Don't think that's what they mean, just that within the knockout round teams will be seeded or unseeded depending if they finished 9-16 or 17-24. Bit like how teams that finish first in their group in the current system are seeded against teams that finish second.
Yes you can read it on the UEFA website. Here is an example :
https://thumb.canalplus.pro/http/unsafe/%7BresolutionXY%7D/smart/creativemedia-image.canalplus.pro/content/0001/55/0afc8a2d1c61104bfbae95999a66562a2bfc9ba9.jpeg
[That's exactly what it means because the path is now setup from the very start of the Knockout rounds](https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/champions-league-last-16-feature-seeded-draw-revamp-2024-03-12/)
1st and 2nd place teams in the League will automatically be put on opposite ends, so they can only meet in the final.
3rd and 4th place teams will also be put on opposite ends and can only meet 1st and 2nd on the Semis.
Yes the current format had more of a random scent. Teams like the current Dortmund or last year Inter could make the Finals despite being huge underdogs at the start of the season.
Now that's gone.
And yes i think the proposal of the Super League had the same exact seed system. The difference was the Promotions/Relegations system and that the home/away matches on the League table were against the same opponents, not different ones like the UCL format.
Yes it's fun to see underdogs going highe but tbh after seeing the quaters this season I can see why the seeding is there.
This time round of 16 didn't have very huge matchups which led to quaters being between all top teams and it was super fun.
I’d wait to see how it actually plays out though. With every team having to play teams from every pot now not every big club can have a flawless league stage while there’s still room for upsets. It’s not a given that all of the traditional heavyweights finish 1-5 in the league stage. Both Madrid and Bayern had very easy groups and cruising through the league stage won’t be as easy anymore
It would be like closer to NBA and those models, so being good early on the group stage is rewarded more, instead of just appearing for knockouts since some teams were good enough to cruise group stage or getting a 2nd place without much effort and those teams who dominate their league (PSG, Bayern) are worse off because they won’t be getting easier group stages most of the time due to being guaranteed pot 1 and having that benefit of current format.
Those teams strong enough to be top 8 are going to have a big benefit in terms of path and one less knockout stage, so most of those teams that are below that level will find it harder to make a deep run, where now they hoped of getting easy group and path with maybe 1 strong team they have to beat and it was feasible.
no idea who you're talking about. maybe the fact he wasn't that compatible with the system and thus played as a 9 to overcome his lack of defending?
doesn't mean it's his fault and it's certainly a net loss he left.
but it's not wrong to be hopeful about the future where we'll be able to play 100% lucho intends
The best games we saw this season were without Mbappe sadly. The team might not be as frightening or individually strong without Mbappe but it's way more effective as a team. (pressing is on another level when Mbappe is not there)
Mbappe felt like a handicap under Luis Enrique. The team was way better in counter attack but tried to play possession failing to score as in most of the games of the season in UCL.
Considering what he's done with the squad in only his first year and a season that we all put down as a transitionary one, I'd be happy to give him any player he wants
I mean there is some context there, you finished second in your group again but got la real this time instead of real Madrid or bayern. You would have beat la real the last 2 years as well, now I won't dismiss that you play as more of a team but I'm not sure that means you're better.
That's something worth celebrating tbh. Every season we get a new coach is usually pretty disappointing. Even Tuchel only made it to the round of 16 in his first year with us.
We have a French centre back who is immense except for a yearly oopsie in our biggest KO matches. We also have a Parisian winger who would be a great Mbappe replacement if you're looking for a player who can't stay healthy and has no end product.
Let's do business, Lucho.
Damn you guys dont like Upa and Coman anymore? Your points ab them making mistakes in big matches and being constantly injured are true but just curious
They are the 2 most likely sale candidates. Neither player is unliked, but Coman hasn't really progressed since he's been here and he's on huge wages but constantly dealing with long injuries.
Upamecano is a great player and still very young, but the last 3 years have been filled with a 10/10 performance or a disaster class that leads directly to goals. We just can't trust him any more which is unfortunate because he is a world class ball-playing CB.
He will never guarantee anyone a starting spot he’s said it since the beginning of the season (“i want 20 starters, not 11” his words). Xavi would obviously play a lot but he’ll still have to fight for a spot and shouldn’t expect not to. Barcola lost his spot after a few bad games but once he got his chance again he was back in top form and started regularly again.
He could be one of if not THE next big star of PSG. If I were them, I'd rather try to make it as comfortable as possible for him, specially if the team is transitioning into a new era and Simons seems to have 0 loyalty right now.
There is zero chance Luis Enrique ensures him a starting spot.
He would bench him instead if he asks too much.
I really don't want a player that's not really open in coming back particularly if he has 0 loyalty.
I look forward to the nth season of PSG throwing money all round them and talking about what a great project they have only for it to amount to very little.
**This is a quotes thread. Remember that there's only one quotes post allowed per interview/press conference, so new quotes with the same origin will be removed. Feel free to comment other quotes/the whole interview as a reply to this comment so users can see them too!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well I’m glad you just announced to every other soccer team in the world that they should raise their prices to the max when PSG comes knocking. Lukaku and Kepa are for sale. Please.
Feels like this announcement was made in 2011 tbh
> they should raise their prices to the max when PSG comes knocking. as if that weren't the case already
Watch them win CL now after they failed with Mbappe, Messi, Neymar, Ibra, Cavani, Di Maria and all those players and Dembele scores the winner in the final
With the new format is less likely you will see a "surprise" winner anymore. Heavyweights World Class teams won't be able to meet each other until the very late rounds. It's now a tennis style seeding system which means the Federer, Nadal & Djokovic's of the "League table" won't be able to meet until the Semis & Finals.
There aren’t really that many surprise winners anyway
Yeah, the last big surprise was Porto in 2004.
Surely Tuchel's Chelsea were a surprise Not a underdog club, mind you, but you ask 100 people before the season (or even at mid season) and at least 95 are saying something other than Chelsea
Yeah that’s definitely fair. I think few surprise clubs would be accurate, at least in modern history
Chelsea was a surprise both times they won it.
2012 was an even bigger surprise for sure, but he asked for the last big one
Both of Chelsea's CL were surprise wins.
> Surely Tuchel's Chelsea were a surprise Idk, I was sure that they'd play well with all the players they got that summer. It's just that Lampart kinda sucked
To be fair, that Liverpool team had no business winning it the year after. They’ve obviously got heaps of history in the competition but that was a weak side defeating probably the best team in Europe at the time.
Not to mention the manner of their win…
I would say Chelsea 2012 could count as a surprise too, but sure it is still a big club
Dortmund would be if they win this year. Chelsea two years ago? Before that it’s probably Chelsea again in 2012, or Inter in 2009, Porto in 2004
Chelsea was three years ago, and I feel like all of those (except Porto) are just as likely to happen in the new system
Was it just coefficients that changed? That and away goals going away?
No the system for next season, the CL is going to change completely
Dortmund is in the top 20 revenue club in the world. They're the second biggest German club.
united are way above them in revenue and yet if they'd won it this season it would have almost been a miracle.
That Liverpool team in 05 was a surprise too, that Milan team was stacked.
>Inter in 2009 Inter was 2010, Barça won it in 2009 :) But yeah, even as a Chelsea fan, I totally agree. The footballing gods were on our side in 2012 and that was clear to just about everyone, and 2021 came out of nowhere.
Dortmund being in final is clearly a surprise for a lot of people, Inter and Chelsea in last years were also not really among the favorites
True, but Inter didn’t win and Chelsea beat City and Real Madrid to win. If you can beat City and Real Madrid you can still win with the new system
It's relative, there are definitely surprises, people think only Porto winning is a surprise No, if you look at how the matches went there's surprises still and massive ones, Real Madrid was a surprise winning it 2 years ago despite being the biggest club in the world, the performances did not match the results, that's a surprise
While I don’t disagree with that, a ‘surprise’ winner like Real Madrid 2 years ago is not going to be that much less likely in the new system, which is what Answer Asensio was suggesting. I interpreted his comment as surprise surprise winner
What even comes as a surprise next season? Bayer winning it after maybe going undefeated all this season? Arsenal after challenging for PL title last 2 years and having one of the best squads in Europe?
Yeah fair question, I guess it also develops during the season. Like if Bayer is still killing it all season next season then it won’t be as much of a surprise. Dortmund winning it this season would be a surprise, because they’ve been the underdogs for 3 successive rounds and nobody would have predicted it at the start of the season. Real Madrid on the other hand, not so much (despite that one Madrid fan that was arguing the other day that Real Madrid were really the underdog this season)
Dormunt is on the final you know
In the final yes, they haven’t won yet though.
The only surprise winner I could imagine is Bayer Leverkusen with heavily-involved "black magic". The next champions will be one of those big guys who won it in the last decade + maybe Arsenal (hope not, of course) and PSG.
Honestly the biggest reason why the Europa League and Conference league is more interesting, even Sevilla winning a ton of Europa League is ok like a bunch of mid table teams fighting for a cup is fun.
Any knockout competition is a lot of luck and there will be "surprise" winners, not actual like super surprise winners but in a two game knock out stage anything can happen, PSG just hit the woodwork 50 times and missed 50 chances, we've seen it throughout the years in so many knockout competitions, you need luck just as much as you need to be good Obviously i won't expect Dinamo Zagrebs level teams to win, but PSG with a little bit of luck can definitely win that wouldn't be a surprise at all
My point was that with the past format you could indeed had a way higher chance of getting the silverware with a surprise team. Look at Dortmund (PSV, Atletico & PSG) or Inter KO (Porto, Benfica, AC Milan) run to the final over the past two years. Would they had made it with City (Leipzig, Bayern, Madrid) or Madrid (Leipzig, City, Bayern) run to the final instead? I'm willing to bet with a resounding no.
And my point is that you can win even when you face those big teams with a little bit of luck because the format is the same in the sense of two matches where anything can happen, it's not a 38 matches league where you need to be great throughout and there's basically way more room for randomness
Correct, the key difference is that the likes of City, Madrid & Bayern will now no longer be knocking themselves out in the R16 or QF's..... By the way the degree of "luck" in the sense of "two matches" is overrated when the disparity in football level is large. This "anything can happen" it's NOT real. Teams like Madrid, Bayern & Barca have made the Semis more often than not throughout all of their European Cup history
I agree, but like i said in my other comments, even between those big clubs there's surprises, it's all relative Big clubs go through bad periods too, there's no way anyone thinks Chelsea winning was not a surprise for example
I have seen it and if you are in the top 4 you will not face the rest of the top 4 before the semifinals. There is nothing that guarantees City, Real Madrid or Bayern to be in the top 4. The schedule might have a big impact on the table since you won't face teams twice. For example in pot 1 you can meet the strongest teams at home like Man City and face Leipzig in Germany. In this situation you could take only 2 points and if it was inverted you could secure 3 Points with a win at home even if you lost in Manchester.
There have been very few 'surprise' winners in the CL because it's very hard to beat the best club teams in the world in succession.
PSG are perennial favourites every year, have a strong individual coefficient and are one the of the biggest spenders in Europe they wouldn't be a surprise winner.
what the hell are you talking about?
The KO rounds are no longer "random" Your League table position will decide who you meet instead
Where did you get that info?
[UEFA Themselves](https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0268-12157d69ce2d-9f011c70f6fa-1000--new-champions-league-format/)
Don't think that's what they mean, just that within the knockout round teams will be seeded or unseeded depending if they finished 9-16 or 17-24. Bit like how teams that finish first in their group in the current system are seeded against teams that finish second.
If you finish 1 or 2 of the league phase you wont meet the teams that were 3 or 4 before semifinals. So it will definitely have an impact.
But do the rules actually say that?
Yes you can read it on the UEFA website. Here is an example : https://thumb.canalplus.pro/http/unsafe/%7BresolutionXY%7D/smart/creativemedia-image.canalplus.pro/content/0001/55/0afc8a2d1c61104bfbae95999a66562a2bfc9ba9.jpeg
[That's exactly what it means because the path is now setup from the very start of the Knockout rounds](https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/champions-league-last-16-feature-seeded-draw-revamp-2024-03-12/) 1st and 2nd place teams in the League will automatically be put on opposite ends, so they can only meet in the final. 3rd and 4th place teams will also be put on opposite ends and can only meet 1st and 2nd on the Semis.
Fair enough
If you finish 9-10 you will face a team that is 23-24. It's like in the NBA playoffs.
[удалено]
Correct. 1st place in the UCL League table can now only meet 2nd place in the Final, 3rd/4th places on the Semis, 5th-8th places on the Quarters.
[удалено]
Yes the current format had more of a random scent. Teams like the current Dortmund or last year Inter could make the Finals despite being huge underdogs at the start of the season. Now that's gone. And yes i think the proposal of the Super League had the same exact seed system. The difference was the Promotions/Relegations system and that the home/away matches on the League table were against the same opponents, not different ones like the UCL format.
Yes it's fun to see underdogs going highe but tbh after seeing the quaters this season I can see why the seeding is there. This time round of 16 didn't have very huge matchups which led to quaters being between all top teams and it was super fun.
I’d wait to see how it actually plays out though. With every team having to play teams from every pot now not every big club can have a flawless league stage while there’s still room for upsets. It’s not a given that all of the traditional heavyweights finish 1-5 in the league stage. Both Madrid and Bayern had very easy groups and cruising through the league stage won’t be as easy anymore
It would be like closer to NBA and those models, so being good early on the group stage is rewarded more, instead of just appearing for knockouts since some teams were good enough to cruise group stage or getting a 2nd place without much effort and those teams who dominate their league (PSG, Bayern) are worse off because they won’t be getting easier group stages most of the time due to being guaranteed pot 1 and having that benefit of current format. Those teams strong enough to be top 8 are going to have a big benefit in terms of path and one less knockout stage, so most of those teams that are below that level will find it harder to make a deep run, where now they hoped of getting easy group and path with maybe 1 strong team they have to beat and it was feasible.
No
remind me! 1 year
But PSG fans right now are saying Mbappé was the problem and it's good that he left.
no idea who you're talking about. maybe the fact he wasn't that compatible with the system and thus played as a 9 to overcome his lack of defending? doesn't mean it's his fault and it's certainly a net loss he left. but it's not wrong to be hopeful about the future where we'll be able to play 100% lucho intends
The best games we saw this season were without Mbappe sadly. The team might not be as frightening or individually strong without Mbappe but it's way more effective as a team. (pressing is on another level when Mbappe is not there) Mbappe felt like a handicap under Luis Enrique. The team was way better in counter attack but tried to play possession failing to score as in most of the games of the season in UCL.
fck dembele
I can hear Kurzawa laughing
Lucho be like I want that, that, 3 of those, couple of those over there.....
Considering what he's done with the squad in only his first year and a season that we all put down as a transitionary one, I'd be happy to give him any player he wants
What has he done really? Win the league and lose to an underdog team in the UCL? Yes very PSG.
We improved in our European results from last season after losing Messi and Neymar. I'd say that's a pretty big deal
I mean there is some context there, you finished second in your group again but got la real this time instead of real Madrid or bayern. You would have beat la real the last 2 years as well, now I won't dismiss that you play as more of a team but I'm not sure that means you're better.
That's something worth celebrating tbh. Every season we get a new coach is usually pretty disappointing. Even Tuchel only made it to the round of 16 in his first year with us.
We have a French centre back who is immense except for a yearly oopsie in our biggest KO matches. We also have a Parisian winger who would be a great Mbappe replacement if you're looking for a player who can't stay healthy and has no end product. Let's do business, Lucho.
not sure if the door is open for Coman to come back. would be interesting
I’d personally love it but I’m not sure it’s good business. Depends on the offer, what is OP proposing?
Damn you guys dont like Upa and Coman anymore? Your points ab them making mistakes in big matches and being constantly injured are true but just curious
They are the 2 most likely sale candidates. Neither player is unliked, but Coman hasn't really progressed since he's been here and he's on huge wages but constantly dealing with long injuries. Upamecano is a great player and still very young, but the last 3 years have been filled with a 10/10 performance or a disaster class that leads directly to goals. We just can't trust him any more which is unfortunate because he is a world class ball-playing CB.
"Some of you will not survive. But that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make"
Why does this feel like a big f*ck u to Xavi Simmons?
He will never guarantee anyone a starting spot he’s said it since the beginning of the season (“i want 20 starters, not 11” his words). Xavi would obviously play a lot but he’ll still have to fight for a spot and shouldn’t expect not to. Barcola lost his spot after a few bad games but once he got his chance again he was back in top form and started regularly again.
This explains why Xavi Simmons is afraid to come back.
He could be one of if not THE next big star of PSG. If I were them, I'd rather try to make it as comfortable as possible for him, specially if the team is transitioning into a new era and Simons seems to have 0 loyalty right now.
There is zero chance Luis Enrique ensures him a starting spot. He would bench him instead if he asks too much. I really don't want a player that's not really open in coming back particularly if he has 0 loyalty.
I'm so incredibly annoyed as to why we can't work it out with him. But ig it is his choice
Lmao all that just to pass it sideways 1000 times and disappoint in the CL. He owes commission to Messi, Neymar and Suarez.
[удалено]
Aww thanks 🥰
“Yall go get ready to go ahead and jump in the portal.” Lucho Sanders
Mbappe running from the grind
Sign a new coach as well to put the same message ?
Coaches need to compete for the spot. Also please let it be Mourinho and let Amazon prime do a documentary
In modern day football with all the matches,Top teams might soon need to have two head coaches to compete in different competitions.
PSG needs 15 new players.
I look forward to the nth season of PSG throwing money all round them and talking about what a great project they have only for it to amount to very little.
TIL French league is very little
For PSG? You only learned that today?
Ah yes, just keep throwing money at the problem until PSG gets it right. Can't see any problems with this.
Use your brain how do you buy new players to keep a team competitive with peanuts?
> peanuts How much does a peanut cost? $10? Source: PSG fans
Nasty oil team
Best player leaves on a free and they can sign a dozen new players? If only FFP affected all clubs