Thomas Tuchel’s Paris Saint-Germain is above Ligue 1 and pursues a consecutive victory on Friday but standing on their way is a monaco team ambitious with their own coach at Niko Kovac.
The 49-year-old Kovac, who grew up in West Berlin and spent most of his career playing in Germany but played internationally for Croatia, took over with the proncipality during the summer.
That followed a spell out of the game after his sacking by Bayern Munich in November 2019.
At Stade Louis II, Kovac’s remittance was reviving the wealth of the club that had struggled in the last two campaigns and tried to return to the echelon of the French game.
Kovac was taken by the new sporting director Monaco Paul Mitchell, the British who previously led football operations at Red Bull and formerly was the recruitment head at RB Leipzig.
Among the new signs made for this season are German strikers Kevin Volland, who joined from Bayer Leverkusen.
Monaco’s new look has an inconsistent start and entered the weekend in sixth place. They have won their last two matches but without France International Wissam Ben Yedder and Ruben Aguilar because of Coronavirus and suspension.
However, Tuchel expressed his admiration for a man he faced during his time at Borussia Dortmund, when Kovac was Eintracht coach Frankfurt.
“He did a great job in Frankfurt and was very successful at Bayern Munich and in general I liked Monaco for years,” Tuchel told PSG TV.
“They are known as clubs that produce many talents and in combination with Niko’s experience and skills as coaches, and their mentality as a hard-working man who plays a very disciplined football style but also very interesting, we were very curious to see him there”.
PSG is five points from Lille above and can be forgiven for having one eye on the next week’s crucial Champions League clash with Leipzig.
Tuchel can return without Neymar, which has been absent in recent weeks,As he seemed to relieve the pressure placed on him because of the form of European PSG.
Defending his partner, Kovac said: “I know Thomas, he is a very good person and a good coach. What else do you want from him than winning four titles and plays the Champions League final? Maybe winning five with Bayern Munich?”
