Luis Enrique shrugs off praise for PSG's season with Club World Cup final to come
'The Champions League was our first and it was very important: that was our main objective when we came to Paris last year,' Enrique said. 'And on Sunday we have the chance, with the last game of the season, to win another one, with the Club World Cup. But it is important that we are conscious of the difficulty of the game. [Enzo] Maresca is a coach I love. I love the way he has of playing with the ball. They have a lot of good individual platers but they also have a real sense of duty. They are a bit like our team. They are physically strong too. It will be a very even game and a very difficult one.
'Chelsea won the Conference League, they finished fourth in the league, they are growing a lot. They have great players, technical players, and a great coach who I like a lot because of how they try to play from deep, always press, always want to attack. They are a very complete team that has produced a sensational season. This is no easy team and it is not a formality or anything like it. We will approach it 100% focused to try to round off a historic season.
'Was it our best season? Maybe, but we have to win to complete it. Anyway, you go a final and there is a loser and there is a winner too, but that doesn't mean the loser has done badly. We will give 100% and see which prize we get.
'A team is 11 stars, that's football,' the PSG coach continued. 'We don't want one, we want 11, or 13, 14, 15 … that is what we want. We are looking for the real star to be the entire team. It's like the fans: there is not one star, it is the whole of the Parc des Princes. I think the path is clear for everyone. We want stars, but at the service of the team.'
It was then put to him that the star was him, and that he was the favourite to win the Ballon d'Or coach's award.
'I don't believe in individual awards in general and still less for a coach,' he replied. 'The team is always above the individual and that is something we try to transmit at PSG. Ousmane [Dembélé] is the best for what he has done individually, for the goals and assists, but above the goals and the assists it is because his work has meant that PSG won all the trophies. And that should be the only criteria by which a player is rewarded individually. That's my opinion, and I am sure there are others.
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'There is nothing star about me. There wasn't as a player and there isn't as a coach. I like the work I do. I enjoyed my career as a player and I am enjoying it as a coach – especially the hard moments. That's when I feel most happy. It is nice when things go well because in our job you can make a lot of people happy, and I have learned to appreciate that as the years passed.
'But I know how this 'show' works: I know that people think you are good or bad based on your results. The praise comes because you win. The best team over the last decade was Manchester City. They lose 10 games and everyone kills them. They still have the best coach, they're still the best team. It's incredible.
'I accept that. But I have been better when I lost. I don't mind; I like being criticised more than being praised. I think I have got it right much more when I didn't win and everyone killed me with criticism. You all think that because we're winning, I am getting everything right now. No. I got it right much more, I did much better, when I lost. But in terms of efficiency it has been an extraordinary year and now we have to finish it off.'
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Enrique appeared to be trying to pin the blame on Blues chief Enzo Maresca as he added: 'I have seen Maresca. 'I saw he had pushed others and we had to separate all the players and I do not know where that pressure came from. "I have no problem expressing my feeling at the end of the game in a high level of pressure. It's very stressful for all of us. It is going to be impossible to avoid that. "Everybody was involved. It was not what was best and the end result of the pressure of the match. "But this is a situation we must all avoid. That goes without saying. My intention is that I wanted to separate the footballers, so the situations didn't become worse." Joao Pedro, who scored the third goal of Chelsea's first half blitz, suggested the flare-up had been sparked by PSG players making a bee-line for Brazilian youngster Andrey Santos. He said: 'I went to protect Andrey. I saw their players were crowding Andrey. Like a good Brazilian, I went to protect my friend. 'A lot of people were arriving and in that mess, I ended up getting shoved. It's part of it. "I don't need to say anything more about them because it's normal. Everyone wants to win the game and, in the end, I think they lost their heads. "But this is football, this has happened and now we need to enjoy it because we won the tournament, that's it. I don't want to talk too much about them because you know how it works. Football is this." Neves' red card, though, will not bring a ban unless Fifa rule it deserves an extra punishment. The regulations for the tournament state: 'Without prejudice to any other sanction that might result, any match suspension resulting from a player or official being sent off - as a result of a direct or an indirect red card - will not be carried over to another competition.'
