TA专访内维斯：本赛季遇见最强对手是枪手；享受压迫对手

前言

The Athletic专访了巴黎中场内维斯，他也谈到了自己在巴黎的处子赛季，以及自己的生活。

本文正是对内维斯言论的简单总结，由于全文太长，不逐字逐句翻译，而是粘贴了@懂球帝 编辑的节选版本，特此感谢。本文消息来源TA。

节选版本（来自懂球帝）

-在巴黎的三中场组合中，你常常需要在维蒂尼亚和法比安-鲁伊斯之前带领球队进行逼抢

“进攻当然很好，但从对手那里抢球的感觉……很多球员不理解，但那种感觉是：‘我们没有球权，所以我们必须夺回它’，即使在进攻时，你也必须考虑：‘如果我们丢球了，我该怎么办？’对于比赛的这一部分，很多人和球员都不认为重要，但如果你想花更多时间进攻，你就必须在丢球后迅速夺回球权。”

“在丢球后的五到十秒内，你必须付出100%甚至120%的努力，因为这是重新发起进攻的最佳方式。对于我们对阵的球队来说，如果他们刚刚夺回球权又失去球权，那将是非常困难的，所以比赛的这一部分非常令人满足。”

-在如此协调的逼抢体系中，你是否偶尔能感受到对手的某种程度的沮丧，甚至是慌乱？

“是的，他们喘不过气来的时间越多，对我们就越有利！恩里克希望球队在进攻时投入100%，在防守时投入120%，这就是我在这里的原因，也是我如此享受的原因。”

-去年夏天加盟巴黎之前，恩里克跟你聊了些什么？

“他告诉我，他想要一支由11名球员共同防守和进攻的球队，我很喜欢他说的话。”

-现在，他偶尔会让你担任边后卫，比如与南特1-1战平的比赛

“他给了我很多信息，现在我可以踢中后卫、边锋、边后卫、中场、前锋，不会感到区别，因为每个球员都知道其他位置的职责。在训练中，我们经常在场上换位置，有时我作为边后卫内收进入中场。可能看起来不重要，但实际上非常重要，这些看似小事，最终却意义重大。”

“我们在每场比赛中都有很多控球时间，所以我可能在阵容中是边后卫，但最终更多地担任边锋或中场，我唯一需要担心的是如何防守，但我身边有马尔基尼奥斯告诉我该做什么或如何做得更好。”

“有时教练会叫我去他的办公室，给我看一些图像——告诉我哪里做错了，哪里做得好，他知道这不是我的首选位置，但他非常全面，我喜欢他做事的方式。”

-巴黎球员之间的换位是如何进行的？

“我们在这方面进行了训练，你只需与队友一起踢球，观察他们在做什么，我们需要做什么。球场上有些位置总是需要有人在那里，如果那里没有人，你可能就是离那个角色最近的人。”

“一开始，有点奇怪，因为有时候你离球很近，并且给队友提供了一条传球线路，但这条线路不是给你的，于是你必须离开，寻找另一个空间，这很有趣，因为你是根据队友的位置来踢球的。”

“有时候我们进球了，而你并没有参与进球，可能在进球前有五次传球，而你没有参与其中任何一次，但如果你没有做好自己的角色，进球就不会发生。”

“有时球迷看到了进球，却没有看到你在其中的作用，但你在进球中扮演了重要角色。最终，重要的是我们在这里所做的一切能带来他们可以享受的东西。”

-现在的巴黎已经成为一支观赏性十足的球队——那么，参与其中是否也很有趣？

“当你在比赛时，你会有一点乐趣，但我认为最好的部分是当你结束比赛时，当你在比赛时，你并不关注是否在享受乐趣，而是专注于做到最好，做出最佳选择，并为球队做到最好。之后你会回忆起自己所做的一切，就会觉得：‘是的，我踢得很开心’。”

-欧冠四分之一决赛次回合客场对阵维拉的比赛中，你们一度2-0领先，接着被维拉连追三球，最终还是凭借顽强的防守守住了比分

“我认为我们整体表现不错，在2-0领先时，我们有点失去了对比赛的控制。我认为这将成为我们未来的一个教训。在像欧冠这样的比赛中，我们不能在任何比赛中放松，哪怕是一分钟，现在我们已经晋级，我们可以从中学习并加以改进。”

-在10月份的联赛阶段比赛中，你们在酋长球场以0-2失利，再次面对他们，你们将如何应对？

“我认为阿森纳最好的地方是他们的整体性，就像我们一样，这将是一场非常精彩的比赛。我认为他们可能更具身体对抗性，而我们在控球方面可能更好——这是我的看法，但他们有他们的优势，我们也有我们的优势。”

“我们想做的是在他们的半场控球，因为控球是最好的防守方式，他们有很多非常优秀的世界级球员，所以我无法选择是哪一个。”

-对戴维-拉亚的看法

“他的脚法提升了阿森纳的打法水平，这是我喜欢的他。”

-赖斯在对阵皇马比赛中精彩的任意球双响

“我热爱足球，所以看到那两个进球我非常高兴。”

-本赛季给你制造最大的麻烦的对手

“当然是阿森纳，他们是最好的球队之一，中场有厄德高、赖斯、帕尔特伊，这些都是令人惊叹的球员。”

-你觉得自己在哪些方面可以继续提高？

“对我来说，比如传到进攻三区的球，看看基米希，他是经验丰富的球员，有才华，是世界级的球员。对于进球、具备得分意识，有像贝林厄姆和穆西亚拉这样的球员，他们在场上的那个位置更为自如，而我在那时有点紧张！所以我需要大幅提高。”

-你在巴黎的适应情况如何？

“我几乎每天早上都吃一个牛角面包，你必须要试试！”

-法语学得怎么样了？

“当我刚来这里时，大家都跟我说话，我会用英语回应，现在，我的第一反应是用法语，这真的很好，我喜欢法语，我非常喜欢学习、理解和说这门语言，我有一个法国朋友，所以他总是用法语跟我说话，稍微推动我学法语，我觉得我做得不错。”

-是否期待进入欧冠决赛并争夺冠军？

“这是我第一次进入半决赛，所以我已经非常幸运了，我踢职业足球只有两年半，所以对我来说，能在这里已经是一种成就。”

“我没有想象过自己举起奖杯的样子，但我觉得这可能会发生。现在我在这里，距离决赛还有两场比赛，距离夺冠只有三场比赛，90分钟……足球是非常快的。”

TA全文（原文）

Joao Neves interview: ‘The less time they have to breathe, the better’

Joao Neves might look like a choirboy but get him talking about football for long enough and his cherubic features are quickly betrayed by something a little more devilish.

He has been speaking in engaging fashion about Paris Saint-Germain’s remarkable and potentially historic season, the team’s spectacular transformation under Luis Enrique, the wobbly moments against Aston Villa in the Champions League quarter-final second leg and the challenge that Arsenal will pose in the semi-finals.

But it is a question about tackling that makes his eyes light up.

For all of Neves’ undoubted qualities as a creator, he is every bit as effective when his team do not have the ball. The 20-year-old Portugal international tops the standings for tackles in this season’s Champions League with 45, according to Opta, which is more than any midfielder has made in the competition since Casemiro with Real Madrid in the 2017-18 campaign. As countless direct opponents have learnt to their cost, stretching back to his formative steps as a footballer in the Benfica youth teams, you underestimate the pint-sized midfielder at your peril.

Luis Enrique instructs his players to press their opponents aggressively the moment possession is lost. It has become one of PSG’s trademarks: midfielders swarming around their hapless adversaries and shutting off their oxygen supply, wingers flying in from the flanks like the two velociraptors you didn’t even know were there, full-backs sprouting up from the turf like demonic tendrils and dragging their prey down to the depths below.

As one of the two more advanced players in PSG’s central midfield trio, ahead of his compatriot Vitinha and alongside Spain international Fabian Ruiz, it often falls to Neves to lead the team’s press. It is a responsibility that he clearly relishes.

“It’s very good to attack, but the feeling of taking the ball from your opponent…” he says, trailing off with a grin.

“A lot of players don’t get it, but the feeling is: ‘We don’t have the ball, so we have to recover it’. Even when you are attacking, you have to think: ‘If we lose the ball, what can I do?’ That part of the game, a lot of people and a lot of players don’t think it’s important, but if you want to spend more time attacking, you have to recover the ball if you lose it.

“In those five to 10 seconds when you lose the ball, you have to give 100, 120 per cent, because it’s the best way to attack again. For the team we are playing against, it’s very difficult if they recover the ball and then lose the ball. So that part of the game is very satisfying to do.”

Being part of such a well-coordinated press, does he occasionally sense a degree of frustration — perhaps even panic — among his opponents? Another smile. “Yeah,” he says. “The less time they have to breathe, the better for us!

“Luis Enrique wants a team that gives 100 per cent in the attacking moments and 120 per cent in the defensive moments. That’s why I’m here and why I’m enjoying it so much.”

Things clicked between Neves and Luis Enrique from their first phone conversation last summer, which took place shortly before the midfielder put pen to paper on a five-year contract as part of a transfer that could cost PSG up to €70million (£59.5m; $79.8m). “He told me that he wanted a team that defended and attacked with 11 players,” Neves says. “I loved what he said to me.”

The feeling, it is safe to say, is mutual. “His qualities match our ideas with the ball and our defensive capabilities,” the PSG head coach said during a press conference in February. “It’s what we’re looking for: players who are good with the ball and good in defence.”

Neves has started all but one of PSG’s 14 Champions League games to date this season and played almost every minute of both the win over Liverpool in the last 16 and the 5-4 aggregate defeat of Villa in the quarter-finals, only ceding his place to Goncalo Ramos ahead of the penalty shootout in the return leg at Anfield.

Such is Luis Enrique’s confidence in Neves that he has occasionally deployed him at full-back, which is where he lined up in last week’s 1-1 draw at Nantes. Having fully assimilated the coach’s very precise conception of the game, they are assignments that Neves has generally fulfilled with ease.

“He gives me a lot of information,” says Neves, who sits leaning forward, his forearms resting on his thighs, on a low white chair at the Campus PSG training centre.

“Now I can play centre-back, winger, full-back, midfielder, striker and you don’t feel the difference because every single player knows what the other positions do. In training, we do a lot of changing (positions) on the pitch. Sometimes I play as a full-back who comes into midfield. It might not seem important, but it’s very important. They seem like small things, but in the end, it’s a lot.

“We have a lot of ball possession in every single game, so I might be in the line-up as a full-back, but I end up more of a winger or a midfielder. The only thing I might have to worry about is how I can defend, but I’ve got Marquinhos right next to me telling me what to do or what to do better.

“Sometimes the coach calls me into his office to show me some images — what I did wrong, what I did well. He knows it’s not my first position, but he’s very comprehensive and I like the way he does things.”

The fruit of PSG’s work on the training ground is a team in which the players appear capable of switching positions at will, which has turned the newly crowned French champions into a whirling dervish of a side where the danger can arrive from almost anywhere. Although Neves concedes that it took him some time to get his head around some of Luis Enrique’s tactical ideas for when the team are in possession, he says the result is that he and his team-mates are now capable of executing complex attacking manoeuvres without even thinking.

“We work on that,” he says in response to a question about the team’s positional interchange. “You just have to play with your team-mates, see what they’re doing, what we have to do. We have places on the pitch where there always has to be someone there. And if there’s no one there, you might be the closest one to do that role.

“In the beginning, it’s a little bit weird because sometimes you’re close to the ball and you’re giving a passing line, but it’s not for you, so you have to go away and find another space. In the end, it’s enjoyable because you play in relation to your team-mates.

“Sometimes we score a goal, and you are not involved in the goal. There could be five passes before the goal, and you don’t play any of them, but if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, that doesn’t happen. Sometimes the fans see a goal and they don’t see your involvement in it, but you have an important role in the goal.

“In the end, what matters is that what we do here produces something they can enjoy.”

Each sparkling PSG performance has earned them admirers outside of their own fans. They have become a fun team to watch – are they a fun team to play in?

“When you’re playing, you have a little bit of fun, but I think the best part is when you finish the game,” says Neves, who was speaking before PSG’s 3-1 home defeat by Nice on Friday. “When you’re playing, you’re not focused on whether you’re having fun or not. You’re focused on doing your best, making the best choices, and doing the best thing for the team. But at the end, you remember what you did and it’s: ‘Yeah, I had fun out there.’”

Thoughts of fun could scarcely have been further from Parisian minds at Villa Park, when the home side’s spirited reaction temporarily threatened to sweep PSG out of the competition.

Having fallen 2-0 down on the night and 5-1 down on aggregate, Villa roared back through goals from Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa. Had Gianluigi Donnarumma not saved brilliantly from Tielemans, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio and had Willian Pacho not produced an extraordinary stoppage-time block to thwart Ian Maatsen, PSG would have found themselves in serious trouble.

It was precisely the kind of test that has provoked calamitous Champions League collapses from older, more experienced PSG sides. Neves believes successfully weathering the storm will stand a young team in good stead.

“I think we played well overall,” he says. “At 2-0 up, we lost control of the match a bit. I think it will serve as a lesson to us moving forward. We can’t relax in any game, even for a minute, in a competition like the Champions League. Now we’re through, we can learn from it and use it to improve.”

Neves does not need telling what dangerous opposition Arsenal will be, having played in PSG’s one-sided 2-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium back in October during the competition’s league phase. Although PSG now look a very different side, having been transformed in part by Luis Enrique’s decision to redeploy Ousmane Dembele as a false nine, their No 87 knows they will face a stern examination of their credentials in Tuesday’s first leg.

“I think the most positive thing Arsenal have is the collective, like us,” he says. “It will be a very good football game. I think they are maybe more physical and we are perhaps better with the ball — in my opinion. But they have their strengths, we have our strengths.

“What we want to do is defend with the ball in their half of the pitch. Because having the ball is the best way to defend.”

Although he is reluctant to single out individuals — “They have a lot of very good, world-class players, so I cannot choose one” — the praise springs from his lips regardless. On David Raya: “I love the way he uses his feet to improve Arsenal’s play.” On Declan Rice’s sensational free-kick double against Real Madrid: “I love football, so I was really happy to watch those two goals.”

Asked about the opposing midfielders who have caused him the most problems this season, his thoughts immediately turn to Mikel Arteta’s men. “Arsenal, for sure,” he says, his jaw tightening ever so slightly. “One of the best teams. The midfield — (Martin) Odegaard, Declan Rice, (Thomas) Partey (the Ghanaian will be suspended for Tuesday’s first leg). Amazing players.”

While he does not watch football obsessively in his free time, Neves says he remains attentive to what the world’s best players are doing — and not least when it comes to areas of his game where he feels he can improve. In his case, despite reasonably healthy tallies of five goals and eight assists in all competitions, it is his contribution in the final third.

“For me, for passing into the final third, you have Joshua Kimmich,” he says. “He’s an experienced player, a talented player, world-class. For scoring, having an eye for goal, you have (Jude) Bellingham and (Jamal) Musiala. They are more comfortable in that kind of position on the pitch. I’m a little bit stressed when I’m there! So I have to improve a lot.”

Neves has eschewed the bright lights of the French capital for the suburbs outside Paris and admits that he is happy to lead a quiet life in the company of his family, his friends and his girlfriend, Portuguese actress Madalena Aragao. “I’m the kind of person who really enjoys being calm and just doing my own thing,” he says.

Although he still occasionally finds himself pining for his native Tavira in the Algarve, a game of foot volley on the beach with friends, or a steaming bowl of the Portuguese salt cod stew known as bacalhau, he is embracing Parisian life. “I almost always eat a croissant in the morning,” he confesses. “You have to!”

Like many of the other foreign players in PSG’s squad, he has quickly gotten to grips with the language of his new home. He conducts this interview in English, but he converses freely in French with the club’s press officer.

“When I arrived here, everyone was talking to me and I would think in English,” he says. “Now, my first thought is in French, which is really good. I love French. I really like to learn, to understand and to speak it. I have a friend who’s French, so he always talks to me in French to push me a little bit. I’m doing well, I think.”

Soon, the Champions League anthem will be ringing in his ears again. It conjures up memories of watching Benfica in European action at the Estadio da Luz or following the history-hunting exploits of his most celebrated footballing compatriot — and now international team-mate — Cristiano Ronaldo.

He has not yet dared to imagine how it might feel to hoist the famous trophy above his head in Munich on 31 May, but as the teams left in the competition thin out, he knows he is moving closer and closer to a potential date with football history.

“It’s the first time I’m in the semi-finals, so I’m very lucky already,” says Neves, who only made his senior debut for Benfica in January 2023. “I’ve been playing professional football for two and a half years, so for me to be here is already an achievement.

“I don’t picture myself lifting the trophy, but I guess it’s something that could happen. I’m here, and we have two games to get to the final. If you see it’s only three games, 90 minutes… Football is very quick.”

As his breathless opponents can testify only too readily, when Joao Neves is on your tail, it most certainly is.

原文链接

消息来源：https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6317576/2025/04/29/joao-neves-interview-psg-arsenal/