(Reuters) – Paris St Germain manager Luis Enrique said on Saturday he is pleased with the Ligue 1 club’s business in the summer transfer window and is now focused on bringing out the best in his players.
Having lost forward Kylian Mbappe on a free transfer to Spanish giants Real Madrid, the reigning French champions signed highly rated defensive midfielder Joao Neves, winger Desire Doue, centre back Willian Pacho and goalkeeper Matvei Safonov in the close season.
But just as they search for a goal scorer to replace Mbappe, they have suffered a blow after an injury to striker Goncalo Ramos, who is expected to be out for up to three months.
“We want to sign players, and their prices were very high. I have the players I have, I’m happy with their level, now I have to develop their potential,” Enrique told reporters on the eve of Sunday’s Ligue 1 clash at Lille.
“As a nine, we can play with (Marco) Asensio, (Ousmane) Dembele, RKM (Randal Kolo Muani), (Bradley) Barcola, Ramos, Warren (Zaire-Emery), (Achraf) Hakimi, Vitinha, Fabian (Ruiz), Neves… that’s ten. It’s the same with the defenders.
“I’ve got some very versatile players, which fits in with the plan we wanted for this team. Pacho, Doue and Neves — they can play in lots of different roles… so I have a lot of options in my team.”
PSG, who will renew their quest for a first Champions League title when they face LaLiga club Girona on Sept. 18, have got a tough draw which includes heavyweights Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Atletico de Madrid, among others.
“My impression of the draw is that it’s a new competition, a new format. It’s obvious that statistically we were the least favoured but I can’t judge this competition because we don’t know it,” Enrique said.
“We’ll say that this is a competition that we’re going to try out and we’ve been the least lucky.”
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru)
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