A big fan of PSG since last season, the Dutch coach of Liverpool, Arne Slot, has just copied a small routine that Luis Enrique implemented in recent months.

If you watch PSG's matches closely, you could not have missed this small routine. While Luis Enrique is an advocate of possession play, he has asked his players since last season to kick the ball directly into touch during kickoffs, whether at the start of the match, at halftime, or after goals conceded.

Initially, a player would give the ball to Vitinha, who was in charge of kicking it as far as possible into touch. A routine was put in place last season around the first leg of the PSG/Liverpool round of 16. But since the legendary Champions League final against Inter Milan (5-0), Vitinha has sent the ball directly into touch without a prior pass.

Asked about this tactic during the Club World Cup, Luis Enrique said he was inspired by Lyon: "On this point, we copied Lyon. I noticed that and I liked it. I won't tell you the reason because, of course, we will change at some point. I don't know when, but since other teams are adapting ..."

The reason is quite obvious and was revealed by a source close to Luis Enrique's staff to Le Parisien a few months ago: "It's a message for us and a message for the opponent. For us, it's a reminder that we must press immediately, win the ball back, then keep it and play in the opponent's half. For the opponent, it's to prevent them from getting out of their own half, because we want to play as much as possible in their territory."

Since the start of the season, PSG has continued to kick the ball directly into touch on their kickoffs via Vitinha, which was seen again recently against Chelsea, even after the two goals conceded at Parc des Princes in the first leg.

But the amusing thing is that Arne Slot's Liverpool started using the same technique on Wednesday evening against Galatasaray in their 4-0 victory, with Dominik Szoboszlai playing the role of Vitinha, which did not go unnoticed by Reds supporters.

"Arne Slot has watched so much of PSG, he made Liverpool do their kick-off routine," one Liverpool fan account joked on X. The Dutch coach has indeed never hidden his admiration for PSG, even though he was rather confident on Wednesday evening as he discussed his upcoming reunion with Luis Enrique's team.

"After seeing our performance tonight, I think they won't be so happy to face us, especially since last season we were the only team to push them to extra time and penalties," Arne Slot said Wednesday evening, although he also noted that he finds this PSG side fantastic and still as strong as last season.

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