Paris Saint-Germain will play the two-legged Champions League 1 8 finals against Real Sociedad on February 14 and March 5. Despite Real Sociedad's history of poor performances in the knockout stages of European competition, Enrique's side performances have not been convincing enough this season. Did Real Sociedad, who went unbeaten in the group stage, have technical and tactical weaknesses? French defender Rayo Vallecano drew 0-0 with Real Sociedad in La LigaFigure belowprovided Le Parisien with its own detailed interpretation.
Lejeina came through the Villarreal academy and signed for Manchester City and Newcastle but has spent the majority of his career on loan in La Liga, and he knows Real Sociedad well. "Real Sociedad has always been one of the toughest teams I think has been the toughest team to play against. I don't even know if I've ever beaten them. Whether at home or away, the Basque Country is a headache. Whether it's Athletic Bilbao or Real Sociedad, despite their very different styles of play, they have the same aggression in the confrontation and their technical and tactical execution is full of determination. ”
Rayo Vallecano held Real Sociedad to a draw, playing by blocking the middle. 'We know they have a lot of technical and tactical intensity, they press forward and the players are often congregating in the middle to try to find space in the middle. Especially last season, David Silva often led his team to play like this, with his back to the goal himself, and then looked for Bryce Mendes or Merino as a fulcrum. But the real key to Real Sociedad's strength lies in their midfield centre, Suwimendi. He's a very smart player, full of forward awareness, looking for space between the two lines in central midfield and allowing the most advanced players in the team to get the ball in the gaps. Our strategy was very clear, which was to block the middle, and we had to make the space they had to be as small as possible, close to each other, and there were a lot of people marking them, so it wouldn't be too pretty, but it worked. ”
Of course, it is not enough to rely on defense alone, and Rayo Vallecano must also try to threaten Real Sociedad. Le Genne also offers a solution in this regard, and he believes that the key is to make good use of the wings, especially by shifting diagonally to find space on the wings. "Real Sociedad played us with a slightly different tactical system, usually with Kenei Kubo it was closer to 433, and we played with two strikers to interfere with our ball. We play the ball from the full-back position, look diagonally for the midfielder, and send the ball to the other side in the midfield or a little higher. Real Sociedad is a team that allows you to play in a leaning formation, but only if you are technically good enough and not afraid to hit the depths, as there is plenty of space on the flanks. One thing to be clear is that as soon as you return once, they press up in a tight formation, they are very well organised and leave very little space. ”
Real Sociedad is a team that relies heavily on their own academy players, and they do not have a lot of money to recruit and often have problems with the depth of their squad. The team has suffered a wave of injuries in the past few seasons and will be in the Champions League this season, and they have been very slow to start the season very slowly, with good results and no long injury list until Christmas. However, they had a number of injury problems in January, with manager Imanor admitting that more than one player was involved in the tournament with a closed shot.
Lejeune noticed this, saying, "Real Sociedad have dropped in form due to their back-to-back matches in the Copa del Rey and La Liga. They have a tight schedule and I don't know how they will deal with the situation to get ready for the Champions League. However, we can feel the impact of the absent players on them. I've played against Real Sociedad with the full squad and they've always struggled me. PSG won't have a problem with the technical side, but if Paris concentrate too much in the middle, they will be given a lot of possession by Real Sociedad and could put Paris in trouble. Similarly, if Paris don't actively look for depth and instead want to control the ball, Real Sociedad will also have a lot of possession, and their style of play is to press high. Paris have to be good at using the space on both sides, the depth of the attack, and I think with Dembele and Barcola there is something that works, but in any case, you have to be patient against Real Sociedad. ”