Ousmane Dembélé Discovers What Was Missing at Barcelona Under Luis Enrique

It’s the international break, so there’s not much going on in the football world at the club level. One pundit decided to examine the first few matches for manager Luis Enrique and Paris Saint-Germain.

While this is Enrique’s second season with the Parisians, this is the first season in which his voice is the loudest, considering Kylian Mbappé left the club this past summer.

On his show Rothen s’enflamme on RMC Sport, Jérôme Rothen discussed Enrique’s current lack of popularity at PSG. The Spanish tactician isn’t primarily friendly with the media and is demanding with the players.

“I understand that Luis Enrique’s critics claim he has a difficult personality, that he’s arrogant, and that the players are fed up with him,” Rothen said (h/t Le10Sport). “But I haven’t seen a player speak out against him yet. Sure, there are signs of frustration and irritation sometimes because things take time, and these are young players. But within a specific framework, these young players can grow, and some of them need that structure to really progress.”

Moreover, Rothen let out an anecdote that should be interesting while noting that even though there are negatives with Enrique, there are also positive ones.

He stated that FC Barcelona was happy to let Ousmane Dembélé, but under Enrique, the Frenchman has found the consistency that he didn’t have with the Catalan side, thus is having a great start to this 2024-25 season.

“Given that this squad is young, and that’s by Enrique’s design, these players need structure,” Rothen added. “When I see the freedom he gives to Barcola and Dembélé, I don’t feel like he’s holding them back. Barcola didn’t have much experience before, but he’s developing at PSG. He’s grown here and became an international under Luis Enrique. I don’t think he’s restricted at all.

“As for Dembélé, his career has been like this for a while. He was inconsistent even at Rennes and Dortmund, and Barcelona was glad to part ways with him. It seems like Enrique isn’t restricting certain players. There’s some positive to his approach, not just the negative. That right side with Hakimi and Dembélé is explosive—there’s always something happening. Do you think Hakimi is being held back? I don’t. He’s even found himself in the No. 9 position pretty often. With young players, most of them need a clear structure to develop.”