Who should be Barca manager next season?

[Havesaks]

Its not going to happen. This board hasnt fired a single manager so far, even Tito with his cancer got to stay or Crazy Tata. And the board has been doing right by doing so... He will stay until summer unless we lose like 6-8 game out of the next 12. Its a slow start so what, we are still on first place. But chances are good Valverde himself will decline a extension of the contract this summer.

So keep dreaming guys, because chances getting a replacement in the middle of the season are almost 0.

 

[FCBarca]

Before you can put together a list for potential replacements by this board, have to factor in a couple of minimum requirements - Must have La Liga experience & strength of character to lead one of the biggest clubs on the planet with some connection to FC Barcelona. What won't but should be part of the criteria is experience in a 4-3-3 playing style if not at least a discernible attacking football philosophy.

Tuchel, Sarri, Klopp & Pochettino can all be likely discarded owing to the clubs they are currently at.


Oscar Garcia (Olympiakos) - Possession based positional play, knowledge of the club through & through
Chances - Low due to connection to Cruyff et al

Quique Setien (Real Betis) - Contracted thru 2020
Chances - Low due to no experience at the biggest clubs

Juan Carlos Unzué (Celta Vigo) - Overlooked by current board when they opted for Valverde and has gotten points off of Barcelona under the former #2 of Lucho.
Chances - Medium due to experience at the club as a player & assistant but tempered by the fact that he has never managed a big club

Phillip Cocu (Fenerbache) - Cruyff disciple but innovative.
Chances - Medium due to experience at the club but tempered by the fact that he has never managed at a big club and that the Turkish club are struggling under his early tenure

Marcello Gallardo (River Plate) - His stock continues to rise and plays attacking football as well as incorporates youth.
Chances - Quite Low, IMHO - let's just call it, rightly or wrongly, the Tata effect

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst (Feyernoord) - Gio is known as a teacher and while he adheres to the 4-3-3 of Dutch football, he is tactically flexible in transitioning within a match from 4-2-3-1 to the 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 but always with rapid ball circulation to move from defense to attack.
Chances - Medium. Lacks top level experience as a coach but knows the club and plays the brand of football that has been missing

Erik ten Hag (Ajax) - Links to Cruyff, Pep & fantastic tactical accumen as demonstrated with Bayern's youth team as well as Utrecht & Ajax
Chances - Quite low owing to lack of top club experience but would be on my short list - any doubts, just watch some Ajax of late

Mark Van Bommel (PSV) - PSV look dynamite at the moment
Chances - Quite low owing to the fact that, well it's Van Bommel and he's only started at PSV

Laurent Blanc (NA) - His teams have done littler other than flattering to deceive
Chances - Low, I hope but knows the club

Arsene Wenger (NA) - Plays attacking football
Chances - Low. Doesn't know the club apart from poaching from it for years and has won very little at the highest level.


Currently, there is no one premier option available much less out there but ideally there'd be a gamble for one year or two with a coach before grooming Xavi to take over. Question is, who for these critical late years of Messi? I'm worried it'll be someone like Koeman. Overall though, I agree - this board will not fire Valverde before the end of the season

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Conte. He could fix our defense.

 

[gregorrin10]

I'd take Wenger for a couple of years no question, and bring along Henry as his assistant right from the start, he could then take over from Wenger when he got some feel as to how it is to be managing a club like Barca. As for Henry taking over as head manager right away, i feel that he is a little too green for now, but would definitely take him in a package deal with Wenger. Plus i kinda wanna see Wenger outside of Arsenal and what he can do when he already has a world class team to choose from, when he doesn't need to worry every year to replace a number of key players, like he had to at Arsenal. His footballing mentality and the fact that he is such a huge name in the management world would be great for Barca, no doubt. Some of our star divas need someone that gets instant respect among the players, to get some authority in there.

 

[PhilS]

The earliest Valverde would be replaced would be Christmas, only if there are quite a few more losses and draws over the next three months.

Looking at the currently unemployed managers, the one that stands out is Zidane.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I'd take Wenger for a couple of years no question, and bring along Henry as his assistant right from the start, he could then take over from Wenger when he got some feel as to how it is to be managing a club like Barca. As for Henry taking over as head manager right away, i feel that he is a little too green for now, but would definitely take him in a package deal with Wenger. Plus i kinda wanna see Wenger outside of Arsenal and what he can do when he already has a world class team to choose from, when he doesn't need to worry every year to replace a number of key players, like he had to at Arsenal. His footballing mentality and the fact that he is such a huge name in the management world would be great for Barca, no doubt. Some of our star divas need someone that gets instant respect among the players, to get some authority in there.

Wenger used to be big name. Now he is just past it, like Mourinho. .

 

[Ursegor]

We don't have a set starting rightback.

Pique is not convincing anyone.

Busquets looks done.

There is no backup leftback.

Suarez and Messi are long past their primes.

Dembélé has a lot of flaws.

Coutinho contributes in the final third but doesn't control the midfield.


Competing for domestic titles as we are doing and maybe getting lucky in the CL is the best we can do. This isn't an all-conquering world class squad that can put 4 past a team like Athletic Bilbao with breathtaking football anymore. Even the Lucho team was ten times as good with MSN in their primes and Iniesta still contributing at a world class level. What do you even want?

Feel completely disconnected from the fanbase these days. Reading Arsene Wenger or Zidane as suggestions. FML

 

[Alik]

We don't have a set starting rightback.

Pique is not convincing anyone.

Busquets looks done.

There is no backup leftback.

Suarez and Messi are long past their primes.

Dembélé has a lot of flaws.

Coutinho contributes in the final third but doesn't control the midfield.


Competing for domestic titles as we are doing and maybe getting lucky in the CL is the best we can do. This isn't an all-conquering world class squad that can put 4 past a team like Athletic Bilbao with breathtaking football anymore. Even the Lucho team was ten times as good with MSN in their primes and Iniesta still contributing at a world class level. What do you even want?

Feel completely disconnected from the fanbase these days. Reading Arsene Wenger or Zidane as suggestions. FML

Feel completely disconnected = completely happy with the way things are now.

 

[Ursegor]

Feel completely disconnected = completely happy with the way things are now.

I can see, understand and accept that a certain level of football is out of reach right now.

 

[Cule4life]

I can see, understand and accept that a certain level of football is out of reach right now.

But do you really believe the squad is playing upto its potential under Valverde?

 

[Ursegor]

But do you really believe the squad is playing upto its potential under Valverde?

At the moment: of course not.

Since he took over: yes. He lost 4 games in over a year. Of that, 1 was a meaningless Copa del Rey game and 1 was a Liga game after the league was won. He also did this basically without Dembélé and without Coutinho for the most part.

Now you can point to the "boring" or "slow" football. But that will bring us back to my point: This is not a special or even hungry squad. Pique and Busquets were never fast but now they are over 30. Suarez is also slow and 30+. Messi walks. How much more do you think you can achieve with these players? Losing less than 4 games per year while playing beautiful, fast, dynamic football? I don't think so. This is more or less our level. Competing domestically and maybe with some luck we'll get far in the CL (shouldn't be expected though, anyone of Juventus, Real Madrid, Bayern, Atletico, City, PSG can knock us out, on a shit day even Roma).

 

[El Gato]

^This. Listen to your senior Cule members on board folks, a lot of sense here. Completely agree with [MENTION=12215]Ursegor[/MENTION], wrote as much in the Malcom thread. This Barca team is scraping its ceiling when on a good run of results and can even get into CL semis or a final with a kind draw.

Question is, who for these critical late years of Messi? I'm worried it'll be someone like Koeman. Overall though, I agree - this board will not fire Valverde before the end of the season

Yep.

There's basically not a lot to be done here. Only complete selflessness from the seniors and complete submission to Valverde tactics will deliver some happiness in the form of trophies. But egos aren't likely to make that happen since any senior that isn't Messi or Raki will always think they're better than they actually are and shift blame. The core is gone and isn't coming back.

 

[Cule4life]

Now you can point to the "boring" or "slow" football. But that will bring us back to my point: This is not a special or even hungry squad. Pique and Busquets were never fast but now they are over 30. Suarez is also slow and 30+. Messi walks. How much more do you think you can achieve with these players? Losing less than 4 games per year while playing beautiful, fast, dynamic football? I don't think so. This is more or less our level. Competing domestically and maybe with some luck we'll get far in the CL (shouldn't be expected though, anyone of Juventus, Real Madrid, Bayern, Atletico, City, PSG can knock us out, on a shit day even Roma).

Why does he not try to integrate youth players and phase out senior players then? He has shown no willingness/plan to overhaul the squad. This guy wanted Willian to make our squad even older and Rabiot to make our squad even more mediocre.

You have to admit many of our results last year were due to luck which has finally run out this year. Yeah we can't play beautiful fast football but can we sit back and absorb pressure like Atletico then? With people like Pique and Busquets who are finished at the top level according to you?

With him not having no gameplan and no vision for the future results were his only saving grace.

More fans would get behind him if he actually showed balls and tried to overhaul the squad and the system, nevermind the results. But he just selects players by seniority (with the same oldies who are finished at the top level according to you) and asks them to pass the ball to Messi

 

[khaled_a_d]

Why does he not try to integrate youth players and phase out senior players then? He has shown no willingness/plan to overhaul the squad. This guy wanted Willian to make our squad even older and Rabiot to make our squad even more mediocre.

Do you think he has the power to overhaul the squad? do you think the board who has renewed every senior member of the squad will give him or any other coach that power?
Do you think he can do that and win la liga like we deservingly did last year?
When Laporta hired Pep, he allowed him to kick any player he wanted, when Lucho was hired the board was deseprate that it allowed him to get the players he wanted.
When the board brought EV, he came witha star entering his prime to build around in neymar, he was promised Verratti to rebuild our midfield around and then he started the season with Deolefue and Paulinho instead.
Coutinho and Dembele are starters with him in charge replacing departed Neymar and Iniesta, Griezmann was his request to replace old Suarez but he turned us down and we had no back up plan.
He requested a back LB and didn't get, and asked to do unprecedented thing to use 18 years old as back for him, I don't remember seeing an U-21 years defender in the squad for this club in 20 years watching them.
Who do you want to intergrate? Clumsy Mina last year? come on it was clear from day one he wasn't good.
Munir? Paco?
Arthur is getting his minutes during this young season, I understand it is limited but he is new player and it will take time and we don't know if he is actually good enough. people were calling Lucho names for not playing Denis.
EV had his mistakes, but he is really restrained too
The club isn't accepting any drastic change, they want to ride this generation till each player of them request to leave. EV took the team in the worst timing tbf, club was chaos and people blaming him for his bosses mistakes.
I mean you blame him on wanting Rabiot when it is very likely Abidal wanting some french players.

 

[henias]

We don't have a set starting rightback.

Pique is not convincing anyone.

Busquets looks done.

There is no backup leftback.

Suarez and Messi are long past their primes.

Dembélé has a lot of flaws.

Coutinho contributes in the final third but doesn't control the midfield.


Competing for domestic titles as we are doing and maybe getting lucky in the CL is the best we can do. This isn't an all-conquering world class squad that can put 4 past a team like Athletic Bilbao with breathtaking football anymore. Even the Lucho team was ten times as good with MSN in their primes and Iniesta still contributing at a world class level. What do you even want?

Feel completely disconnected from the fanbase these days. Reading Arsene Wenger or Zidane as suggestions. FML

Haha resorting to putting the blame on the team as usual. The lack of team tactics isnt gonna help either even with great talents. They are still going to play like individuals without a sense of direction or solid gameplan.

People are just giving their suggestion and probably some were joking about Zidane.

Maybe u should stick to berating about Pep because tats what fanbase do right? Find others that do the same so you'll feel more "connected".