In just about any other context, losing a player like Kylian Mbappé would signal the start of a rebuild, not a resurgence. When the best player in the world—and arguably the most dangerous forward on the planet—leaves your club, expectations usually drop accordingly.

But that’s not what happened at Paris Saint-Germain.

Instead, Luis Enrique’s PSG has gotten better. Not just in terms of results, but in the way they play, the way they press, the way they distribute goals across the squad. The 2024–25 PSG side is more balanced, more coherent, and frankly, more fun to watch. It’s one of the rare cases in football where subtraction really did lead to addition.

Let’s dig into how that happened, and more importantly, why.

The End of the Mbappé Era

Mbappé’s departure wasn’t exactly a surprise—he flirted with Real Madrid for years, and in summer 2024, he finally made the leap. PSG, for the better part of the previous decade, had functioned as a collection of superstars with Mbappé as the centerpiece. He scored 44 goals in 2022–23, then 41 in 2023–24. He was the cheat code. But cheat codes come at a cost.

With a player like Mbappé, everything funnels toward him. The attack orbits him, often at the expense of positional discipline and team-wide pressing responsibilities. When you have a player capable of scoring out of nothing, it’s tempting to just wait for the nothing and trust he’ll deliver. And he usually did.

But the rest of the team became reactive rather than proactive. The pressing dropped off. The midfield played safe. The buildup slowed down. Mbappé’s gravity was immense—and in some ways, it pulled everything inward.

When he left, PSG had a choice: chase another superstar, or do what Enrique had clearly wanted to do all along—build a team.

A Manager’s Blueprint Finally Takes Hold

Luis Enrique had been laying the groundwork for a more collective PSG even while Mbappé was still around. This season, he finally got to pull the strings without compromise.

“I was very brave last season when I told you we’d have a better team in attack and defense… I still think we’re better in attack and defense, the figures are there to say it,” Enrique told the press this spring. “I told you that rather than having a player who scores 40 goals, I wanted players who all score a lot.”

That quote might read like posturing, but the data backs him up.

PSG has become one of the most press-intensive teams in Europe this season, flipping the script from their previous style. In Ligue 1, 85.1% of their pressures have occurred within 0–2 meters of the ball—a league-high metric that shows how aggressively they’re closing space. Even more impressively, 56.8% of the opposition’s touches have been under pressure, again the highest in France.

They’re not just running for the sake of it either. In the Champions League, they’ve recovered the ball 112 times in the final third—fifth-most in the competition. The eye test matches the stat sheet. This is a team that swarms. They press in coordinated waves. It’s a far cry from the sit-back-and-wait side of the past.

This transformation is what happens when every player buys into a system, and when no single attacker has immunity from the defensive work.

Possession with Purpose

Possession has always been part of Enrique’s philosophy, but now it has teeth. PSG currently averages 67.5% possession in all competitions this season—second only to Bayern Munich in Europe’s top five leagues—but it’s not sterile sideways possession.

It’s incisive. It’s calculated. It’s backed by purpose-built movement.

PSG has completed more than 6,800 passes already this season, nearly 2,000 more than Lille and Rennes. Vitinha alone has completed 278 line-breaking passes in Ligue 1, helping bridge the space between the back line and the front three. Rather than playing through one man (as they often did with Mbappé), they now use the entire width and depth of the pitch.

The result? A side that dictates the pace and flow of every game.

Shared Responsibility, Shared Glory

The biggest statistical change might be in the goal distribution. Ousmane Dembélé, often maligned in his Barcelona days for being inconsistent, has had the season of his life—32 goals in 40 appearances across all competitions, including 21 in Ligue 1. That’s not a typo. That’s a 27-year-old finally healthy, focused, and used properly in a system that plays to his strengths.

Then there’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, signed in January 2025. In his short time in Paris, he’s added the kind of creativity and chaos that makes this team unpredictable again. He scored a vital goal in the Champions League quarterfinals against Aston Villa and looks like a key piece moving forward.

And 18-year-old Désiré Doué has emerged as a star-in-the-making. He converted the winning penalty against Liverpool in the Round of 16 and scored the title-clinching goal in Ligue 1. Not only is PSG more balanced, they’re younger and hungrier.

Then vs. Now: A Tactical Transformation

Comparing this season to last year shows a clear evolution—not just a change in personnel, but in philosophy.

In 2023–24, PSG averaged an astronomical 70.3% possession and 90.9% pass accuracy in Ligue 1—both the highest ever recorded in the Opta era. But that style didn’t always translate into dominance. They were methodical, but often predictable. And without high pressing, their transition game suffered.

This year, while the possession rate dipped slightly, the system gained bite. The added intensity, pressing metrics, and final third recoveries show a team that’s proactive without the ball and dynamic with it.

They’re no longer a team waiting for one man to save them. They’re 11 players moving in synchrony, and every opponent knows it.

A Better Team, Even Without the Best Player

Let’s be clear: Kylian Mbappé is still one of the greatest players alive. But PSG has proven this season that greatness isn’t just about stars—it’s about structure. It’s about the system. And it’s about trust.

Luis Enrique finally got his team. And they’ve responded with their best season in years—first in Ligue 1 with an 11-point cushion by April, into the Champions League semifinals, and doing it all with a dynamic, collective identity.

They’re not chasing shadows anymore. They’re creating them.