PARIS, Feb 14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - While Luis Enrique is busy silencing critics thanks to his recent results with Paris Saint-Germain, there is another Spanish coach preparing to come up against his countryman in Ligue 1 this weekend.

Carles Martinez Novell was appointed by Toulouse in June 2023, shortly before Luis Enrique joined PSG.

He had already been working at the club as an assistant, but had never previously taken sole charge of a senior team.

He led Toulouse to a mid-table finish last season, and took them to the Europa League knockout phase, beating Liverpool along the way.

Toulouse are also the last French team to beat PSG, having won 3-1 when the sides met in Paris last May.

His team are currently 10th, although they have not won in five Ligue 1 matches.

Martinez, 40, shares with Luis Enrique a close link to Barcelona even if the Toulouse coach never played professionally, instead spending four years coaching in the Catalan club's academy.

"At Barcelona you learn to play the game based on the spaces that you create in between the opposition players," Martinez told AFP this week about coaching the Barca way.

"Being in the right position helps give players time and space, and a coach's job is to find a way to give that time and space to the players so they can express their talent."

His first two years working at La Masia, the Barca academy, came as Luis Enrique was in charge of the first team.

Martinez, who has also coached in Qatar and Kuwait, is unsurprisingly a disciple of Luis Enrique's old Barcelona teammate Pep Guardiola.

"I like coaches who are audacious, who try new things. For me, Guardiola is really the reference," says Martinez, who also looks up to Arne Slot at Liverpool, "for how he understands space".

Martinez now needs to find a way of outsmarting Luis Enrique, whose PSG side are 10 points clear atop Ligue 1.

"Luis Enrique has very clear ideas about what he wants to do, but he knows his players will get there in the end because they are really talented," Martinez said.

"And he is really succeeding now, after a year and a half."

Toulouse have nothing like the same playing resources as PSG. That means Martinez, whose star performer is Morocco winger Zakaria Aboukhlal, has to be something of a pragmatist.

"I come from Barca, from a certain style of play, and I want us to play in a certain way," he admitted.

"But a good coach is one who gets more out of his team. A coach who never changes his way of thinking and who always loses, I don't like that.

"I am a competitor. I want to win. With my vision, but my vision is adaptable."

Player to watch: Vitinha

Ousmane Dembele is hogging the limelight just now due to his incredible goal-scoring form, but teammate Vitinha has also been outstanding lately for PSG.

The Portuguese playmaker celebrated his 25th birthday on Thursday and marked the occasion ahead of time by scoring a penalty in PSG's 3-0 win at Brest in the first leg of their Champions League play-off on Tuesday.

Vitinha, signed from Porto in 2022, was the man of the match in that game despite Dembele netting twice.

"He is unique," said Luis Enrique of the pocket-sized midfielder.

"He uses the ball perfectly, he doesn't lose it. He is the perfect midfielder."

Key stats

6 - Brest have won six of their eight Ligue 1 games immediately following a Champions League match this season. However, they have won only two of eight preceding a Champions League match. They play Auxerre on Friday in between the two legs of their play-off against PSG

18 - Ousmane Dembele has scored an astonishing 18 goals in his last 11 games

1200 - Marseille's next win will be their 1,200th in the top flight of French football

Fixtures (times GMT)

Friday

Brest v Auxerre (1945)

Saturday

Marseille v Saint-Etienne (1600), Monaco v Nantes (1800), Toulouse v Paris Saint-Germain (2005)

Sunday

Montpellier v Lyon (1400), Le Havre v Nice, Lens v Strasbourg, Reims v Angers (all 1615), Rennes v Lille (1845)