Luis Enrique

ebieymjunior said:

Tried that more than once. This season itself should show you it doesn't work. I think Lorenzo Serra Ferrer in 2001 was also sacked because of that.
Martino got the squad firing up pretty well in the beginning of the year, but the player that it benefited most was Fabregas, cause he plays better without possession and with a lot of space, while Iniesta wasn't at all comfortable playing that way, as can be seen in his performance then. Add to that the fact that we almost always won because of Valdes, and against 10 men in big games.

Barcelona have been playing possession based football for such a very, very long time and that it's become their identity. Take it away and you lose the essence of the team. As Xavi and Iniesta said, the style is really non-negotiable, but there needs to be coaches that can coach a team like Barca.

The idea with Tata was to try to add certain elements to the playing style, but what happened was that he completely changed the style, and when he had to play the way it suites them, unfortunately he couldn't do it well enough.

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mazp said:

You think Lucho can go against the best coaches in CL? Tactics wise?

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raskolnikov said:

Remains to be seen, however I do feel he will be capable of motivating the team, getting their respsect and win us the small games that make us champion.
I mean had we just won a few of the games where we dropped points like we did with Tito the year before, la liga would be ours.

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serghei said:

We need change. Players who try to resist it can go. It doesn't matter the name. Tata has let the players to do what they want this year and they've made a mess out of it. Coaches coach, players play what the coach tells them. It's simple.

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Behrox said:

Its not gonna be as satifactory winning the Liga without winning in the Classicos or vs Atleti etc plus imagine if we have tough draws in the CL and Lucho pulls another Bayern vs Barca you would like that?

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ebieymjunior said:

You say change, but what you mean is how Barca played since so long. The way they play is that they have in-game alternatives, the so called total football, that's part of their playing style, and that includes verticality and through balls (even over the air if necessary), but it shouldn't exclude possession.
Tata wanted to add that verticality, but he removed possession. Xavi wants possession, but he forgot about through balls.

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xavi_the_Boss said:

You know what´s even worse?
Winning both Clasicos but RM ends up winning the league which just might happen.

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serghei said:

No. Possesion has become our obsession since Pep came, mostly from 2010 onwards, in 2009 we had a more diverse game, with Messi, Eto'o, Henry, Marquez etc. Rijkaard 2004-2006 Barcelona was so different from this one.

That's not true. We had plenty of possesion in the first part of the season. The one game were we didn't have it was the 4-0 (!!!) against Rayo.

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ebc_99 said:

He, after Rivaldo was my favourite of that generation and i think he would do a good job, how good is hard to say but I am glad that our club is one that takes risks and doesn't go for the big name manager but prefers to go for somebody who would be true to the clubs traditions.

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ebc_99 said:

In order for Luis Enrique to become a great coach he needs to be given a chance by a top club. It didn't work out at Roma but he will have learned from that, all great managers fail at some point but it is important that they take something away from it. Simeone didn't look anything special until he went to Atletico, a club he knows inside out like Luis Enrique does at Barca, Lucho could have a similar impact. He will have the respect of the senior players, some of which played with as captain and will know the youth players very well and the fans adore him.

It is hard to say how competent he is tactically as he has never worked with truly top players, but it could be that the players he has had so far have been holding him back. Maybe he has great ideas but the players have not been capable, we will see.

Fitness is important to him and I think that has been a problem for us for a few years now and with the possibility that Puyol will join him that will cut out any players giving less than 100%.

He, after Rivaldo was my favourite of that generation and i think he would do a good job, how good is hard to say but I am glad that our club is one that takes risks and doesn't go for the big name manager but prefers to go for somebody who would be true to the clubs traditions.

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serghei said:

No. Possesion has become our obsession since Pep came, mostly from 2010 onwards, in 2009 we had a more diverse game, with Messi, Eto'o, Henry, Marquez etc. Rijkaard 2004-2006 Barcelona was so different from this one.

That's not true. We had plenty of possesion in the first part of the season. The one game were we didn't have it was the 4-0 (!!!) against Rayo.

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Andrew M said:

But one gets the impression that Rijkaard would have preferred to have more possession if possible.

It was not as though ceding possession was some sort of master plan.

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