From Dembele's media statement in Rennes to Luis Enrique's press conferences and the goal celebrations of Desire Doue and Achraf Hakimi in Monaco, PSG's recent days have offered an unexpected sequence, between nervousness and a desire to stand united.

It's a well-known dynamic in the world of football, and a way of managing and communicating that's been dear to Luis Enrique since he became a coach. When the boat starts to rock a bit, when criticism begins to accumulate, the Spaniard likes to take aim at the media and reproach them for their lack of seriousness or vision.

A way to unite his locker room and essentially say: "It's us against them." Yet it wasn't the media who aired publicly, last Friday, the resentment of Ousmane Dembele, who went alone like a big boy to tell Ligue 1+ microphone after the defeat in Rennes: "I think we need to put more desire. We especially need to play for Paris Saint-Germain to win matches. Because if we play alone on the field, it won't work. We won't win the titles we want. Last season, we put the club Paris Saint-Germain ahead of ourselves. And I think we need to find that again."

Whether he was targeting someone in particular or everyone ultimately changes nothing in substance. He decided to do it publicly, rather than in the intimacy of the locker room, which Luis Enrique indirectly reproached him for when he said in a press conference that player statements after matches had "no value" and that he would not allow any player to place themselves above the institution.

Nor was it the media, but rather observers and supporters on social networks, who named Desire Doue as the possible player targeted by Dembele. When Luis Enrique says before Monaco: "Around PSG, there is always a lot of noise. You have to accept it. That's it," he is obviously right, but he cannot ignore that it was his reaction after Rennes, following Dembele's statement, that somehow triggered the controversy by giving the impression that he was sharply rebuking his key player and that everyone was not on the same wavelength.

Seeing Desire Doue and Achraf Hakimi celebrate their goals in Monaco with their hands over their ears or with a gesture that meant "Shut up" is not a media invention either. It was the players who reacted like that, and we don't blame them; they have the right to be vexed and not appreciate the criticism, even if it was largely justified and deserved.

Interestingly, the professional entourage of Dembele and Doue, who share the same agent, quickly denied the idea that there was an ego problem between the two. We are willing to believe it. According to RMC Sport, and this is interesting information, PSG players have recently felt "that certain observers were trying to set them against each other" following Ousmane Dembele's statements, which "did not target any particular player."

"Now, the locker room is trying to bond by becoming impervious to criticism," the radio adds. We come back to Luis Enrique. We won't go so far as to say he knew exactly what he was doing after Rennes when he responded rather sharply to Dembele's statements, but if this sequence allowed the locker room to bond around the theme of "us against the world," then the Spaniard will have aimed correctly again. A group is also built in adversity, difficulty, and the ability to respond on the field to criticism. Doue did it brilliantly on Tuesday. PSG did it brilliantly in the second half of last season as well.

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