Tuchel reminds me of Guardiola, says Alves
Selecao star says PSG coach is 'a German with a Brazilian soul'
- PSG lead 2-0 after first leg
Paris Saint-Germain veteran Dani Alves has likened his coach Thomas Tuchel to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, telling BT Sport that it's a pleasure to work under the "German with a Brazilian soul".
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Alves, who played under Guardiola at Barcelona, left for Juventus in 2016 before joining PSG a season later.
In an interview with BT Sport, the 35-year-old, who has been playing as a midfielder this season, paid tribute to Tuchel.
Said Alves: "He's incredible. Here I've (met) a German with a Brazilian soul.
"The atmosphere he's created here, he's brought the pleasure back into coming to work and you approach things with a big smile and energy, he reminds me of Pep, he really does in this sense.
"He makes things really smooth. He's stubborn but he does things his own way.
"He's a great man manager and dressing-room manager, and team manager.
"This gives us a better chance of doing well this season. This gives us a greater chance of achieving our objectives.
"I have to take my hat off not just to him but his staff, too, because every day is really a pleasure to work with them.
"I have to pay them back for what they've done."
In his second season at PSG, Alves - one of the greatest full-backs the game has seen - has been reinvented by Tuchel as a midfielder.
That may partly be down to a lack of alternatives. However, Alves told AFP in another interview that it is not about him being unable to get up and down the flank in the way he used to.
The coach, he said, "uses me for my intelligence in reading games, more than for my physical strengths, because as a midfielder I run more and I put in more effort than as a fullback".
"It is not about anything physical. I can play at fullback, but I can't use my reading of the game as much there.
"In the middle, I can correct a wrong movement by a teammate, think more quickly than a teammate, and so he gets more out of me there than at full-back, which is more limited - you go a little bit that way and you are off the pitch."
The Brazilian, who won the Champions League three times with Barcelona, joked that PSG are still "virgins" in Europe's premier club competition.
To do well in the Champions League, he believes the Parisian side, who are packed with stars such as Neymar, Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe, need to "put egos to one side".
Meanwhile, Alves, who missed last year's World Cup due to a knee injury, has not ruled out playing at the 2022 edition in Qatar. He will be 39 by then.
Said Alves: "I don't have an expiry date. My body is my answer - when I see that I can no longer compete, when my head is not in it any more, it will be the time to stop."
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