Southampton have had a good start to the new season under Claude Puel, who took over at the club during the summer, moving from from OGC Nice to replace Ronald Koeman.
Southampton are currently eighth in the Premier League, with 13 points from 9 games. Puel has been speaking to French newspaper L’Equipe, and discussed several things.
His former club, OGC Nice, are currently at the top of the Ligue 1 table, after the recent decline of Paris-Saint Germain. Puel insists Paris-Saint Germain will be back in top form once Unai Emery can implement his playing style.
However, the Southampton boss feels it was difficult for the Parisian club to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic as they had build their entire playing style around him.
He said: “Paris will surely succeed, the coach will try to impose his style of play. The team will be successful and pleasant to see, that is not the subject of my thinking.
“Simply, when we are lucky to have a team that, for four years, is playing an effective and beautiful style and we decide to change everything at PSG, it’s unfortunate.
“They had a true identity to their game, and it was so difficult to implement. The major difficulty was to replace Ibra because the system was designed around him. They had found a wonderful balance to fit his movements between robustness and quality, and he left.”
The Swedish striker has also been recently struggling in England, after an initial bright start to his career at Manchester United. The 35-year-old is without a goal in 7 appearances, and would be hoping to change that this weekend against Burnley.
PSG may have built their style around Ibrahimovic, but Manchester United and Jose Mourinho haven’t quite managed to do that yet.
