Pinky And the Brain Teams: Part Deux
Sometimes 'Brain' Is Your 'Pinky'
“I’ve read that you like Michael Jordan.”
In a private screening room deep inside the training facility of football club Paris Saint German (PSG), the best attacking player in the world sits uneasily as he watches the PSG-Barcelona match together with his coach. He feels something’s coming and he is about to get grilled by his coach.
Kylian Mbappé and Luis Enrique are watching the same match together, but they couldn’t be further apart. They observe and analyze the game through an entirely different lens. Mbappé is the best offensive player in the world and wants to be judged on his offensive performance. Luis Enrique believes Mbappé's attacking flair is worthless because he jogs back when it’s time to defend.
The lack of defensive effort infuriates Luis Enrique. He hopes to reach Mbappé by talking about his idol Michael Jordan:
“Michael Jordan grabbed all his teammates by the balls and would defend like a son of a bitch. You have to set that example. First a person and as a player, to go and press and coming back fast. For what? To be a leader.” - Luis Enrique on YouTube
You can observe Luis Enrique’s passion and frustration in his voice and body language. He might have the best attacker in the world on his team, but if Mbappé won’t defend, he’s a liability for the performance of the team. For Luis Enrique, the team always comes first. He believes the performance of the team is far more important than any single individual.
Kylian Mbappé is sitting there, totally silent, taking in the words. The coach continues:
“You are a phenomenon, a world top player, no doubt, but I don’t accept that. A real leader is that when you can’t help us with the goals, you help us with everything defensive.” - Luis Enrique on YouTube
Luis Enrique ends with a punch to the gut:
“The day you attack, you have to be the best defensive player in history. That’s a leader. That’s Michael Jordan.” - Luis Enrique on YouTube
The main message Luis Enrique is trying to get across: Mbappé is nothing like his idol Michael Jordan. Unless Kylian steps up as a leader, he doesn’t need him.
The point lands on deaf ears and Kylian Mbappé ultimately decides to leave for Real Madrid.
Pinky and the Brain Teams: Who’s Your Brain and Pinky?
Most coaches would bend their system to fit the best attacking player in the world. So what if they don’t do their defensive job? We should build our system around our star player and let others pick up the dirty work.
In a previous article, I explained the concept of ‘Pinky and the Brain’ teams. A Pinky and the Brain-team, is a team that’s individually competent, but collectively incompetent.
If you’re not familiar with the TV series Pinky and the Brain, it’s about two genetically engineered mice who try to conquer the world every night. Brain is a scheming genius, while Pinky enthusiastically hops along for the ride. Despite Brain being a super-genius capable of inventing anything, every episode ends the same way: with Pinky finding a way to screw up the brilliant plans of Brain.
Most coaches would treat Kylian Mbappé as their Brain. We should build the team around our superstar. Luis Enrique believed that Kylian Mbappé was his Pinky. Building his team around Mbappé, despite him even being the best attacker in the world, would make his team perform worse.
PSG had a ‘Pinky and the Brain’ situation going on, but most coaches would be mistaken about who’s Pinky and who’s the Brain.
Luis Enrique, early this year, during a press conference claimed that both their attack and defense would be improved without Kylian Mbappé being a part of the team. On May 31st, 2025, he would be proven right. In the Champions League Final, Paris Saint Germain obliterated Milan with score of 5 - 0.
It was the largest margin of victory ever recorded in a Champions League Final. PSG - Crushed Inter with pressing tactics that demanded extreme discipline from the entire team, with the defense starting at the striker. This would have never been possible with Mbappé.
The moral of the story? Even the best attacker in the world, can be your Pinky, who screws things up and makes your perform team worse. The same applies to your teams, your 10X super star could be dragging the performance of your team down.
It takes guts to get rid of your star player as a coach, as you know you’ll be sacked when the gamble doesn’t pay off. But sometimes it’s the right move, as your collective competence is more important than a single individual’s competence.
Stop obsessing so much over individual competence, and focus on building your collective competence, as that will produce far greater results than building your system around any single brilliant individual.
Don’t make any single person the bottleneck for your greatness.
References
Luis Enrique with a very important message to his team’s star at PSG Kylian Mbappe