Gerardo "Tata" Martino

[Gohan]

Anyone remember a certain Frank Rijkaard? Well he won a CL and 2 La Liga titles. Despite being a very good coach he could not do anything to prevent a meltdown in his last season. It wasn't his fault-IT WAS THE PLAYERS FAULT!

STOP BLAMING TATA! Everyone knew the squad lacked depth, balance and motivation. This was obvious to anyone who had seen the previous 2 seasons. Pep left and he knew it.

If Tata is to blame for anything it is being a 'YES' man. He didn't have the strength and belief to stick to his guns and was too sensitive to outside influences eg Press & Player power eg Xavi, Messi. AFter the Rayo win he received a barrage of bad press DESPITE WINNING 4-0!!! The press whinged about him changing Barca's style and then the 'Don" Xavi decided to have a 'meeting' with him. All of the midfielders wanted playing time and Tata's rotation was not popular with the. Add to that the board supported the players and cut the ground out beneath the coach and the dye was cast. So Tata lost authority and the players have since trained and played as they want. Messi is also a culprit as he's sulking since he was played out of position a couple of times.

Add to that the constant scandals off the field and its clear Tata just wants to collect his paycheque and leave. This has turned into a Chelsea like situation where the tail wags the horse instead of vice versa.

Pure Tiki Taka requires relentless pressing and unreal fitness. When Pep was here we had that for his first 3 seasons. In his last season though pressing became more irregular. In Tito's season it went down further. This bunch of players simply don't have "IT" anymore. IT is the will, the motivation, the drive to press hard.

You can bring De Boer, Lucho, Valverde-any tiki taka coach and he will not change anything. Maybe we may see a few glimpses of the old Barca like we did at the beginning of the season with Tata. BUT it wont be sustained. The players will lapse into mediocriety again and then the fans will scream for the coach's blood.

When asked about the future of the team, Martino said that “we have to derive strength where there is none. We have the obligation to continue fighting until the final moment” and he went on to analyse how his team performed: “Barça have a way of playing that is hard to modify. There are no long balls for a pure number nine, we’re a team that passes the ball, elaborates plays and when we aren’t precise in finding space the game becomes uncomfortable for us. When we don’t score first things get complicated.”

Why are people whining about this? Its the absolute truth. We only have one way to play. Even at our peak we couldn't break down Chelsea (2009) and Inter 2010.

If the club doesn't evolve we will end up like Arsenal-all foreplay and no sex. We will continue to flatter to deceive. Sack the board, clear out a whole bunch of players and get a new coach. Promote some of the youngsters but it will still take time. There is no guarantee even this will work. We could still end up like Arsenal.

We are at the crossroads at the moment. What happens next season will determine what happens in the next 5 seasons. If our youngsters see the club in disarray they may opt to play somewhere else. It will also be hard to attract other players at this rate provided we can sign them in the first place.

Best fucking post in this thread. Well done.

 

[Alex-kun]

Anyone remember a certain Frank Rijkaard? Well he won a CL and 2 La Liga titles. Despite being a very good coach he could not do anything to prevent a meltdown in his last season. It wasn't his fault-IT WAS THE PLAYERS FAULT!

STOP BLAMING TATA! Everyone knew the squad lacked depth, balance and motivation. This was obvious to anyone who had seen the previous 2 seasons. Pep left and he knew it.

If Tata is to blame for anything it is being a 'YES' man. He didn't have the strength and belief to stick to his guns and was too sensitive to outside influences eg Press & Player power eg Xavi, Messi. AFter the Rayo win he received a barrage of bad press DESPITE WINNING 4-0!!! The press whinged about him changing Barca's style and then the 'Don" Xavi decided to have a 'meeting' with him. All of the midfielders wanted playing time and Tata's rotation was not popular with the. Add to that the board supported the players and cut the ground out beneath the coach and the dye was cast. So Tata lost authority and the players have since trained and played as they want. Messi is also a culprit as he's sulking since he was played out of position a couple of times.

Add to that the constant scandals off the field and its clear Tata just wants to collect his paycheque and leave. This has turned into a Chelsea like situation where the tail wags the horse instead of vice versa.

Pure Tiki Taka requires relentless pressing and unreal fitness. When Pep was here we had that for his first 3 seasons. In his last season though pressing became more irregular. In Tito's season it went down further. This bunch of players simply don't have "IT" anymore. IT is the will, the motivation, the drive to press hard.

You can bring De Boer, Lucho, Valverde-any tiki taka coach and he will not change anything. Maybe we may see a few glimpses of the old Barca like we did at the beginning of the season with Tata. BUT it wont be sustained. The players will lapse into mediocriety again and then the fans will scream for the coach's blood.

When asked about the future of the team, Martino said that “we have to derive strength where there is none. We have the obligation to continue fighting until the final moment” and he went on to analyse how his team performed: “Barça have a way of playing that is hard to modify. There are no long balls for a pure number nine, we’re a team that passes the ball, elaborates plays and when we aren’t precise in finding space the game becomes uncomfortable for us. When we don’t score first things get complicated.”

Why are people whining about this? Its the absolute truth. We only have one way to play. Even at our peak we couldn't break down Chelsea (2009) and Inter 2010.

If the club doesn't evolve we will end up like Arsenal-all foreplay and no sex. We will continue to flatter to deceive. Sack the board, clear out a whole bunch of players and get a new coach. Promote some of the youngsters but it will still take time. There is no guarantee even this will work. We could still end up like Arsenal.

We are at the crossroads at the moment. What happens next season will determine what happens in the next 5 seasons. If our youngsters see the club in disarray they may opt to play somewhere else. It will also be hard to attract other players at this rate provided we can sign them in the first place.

I agree in part, Barça has always had this game, you are playing so many years, from chicks to the first team the way we play is that, now some defects to be corrected but that would be the task of the coach, "Tata" can not change the way of playing the Barça players must be able to load, all too often this year they played below par, not good, must be able to give the right space at the talent of Barça B, in the "Cantera" we always found great players and talent, it is one of our strengths, envied by all, we expect to see them in the first team one day course, when I hear about 5 or 6 players coming I worry, they'll all like Thiago our talents? all away? this is not our style

 

[Barcilliant]

Today Pep made Tata look like a tactical and managerial genius!!!

Everyone complaining about Tata being shit and unable to motivate a team. Today Pep couldn't even motivate a team to win a CL semi final. Its not as if Bayern has won 3 trebles in a row and they are not motivated anymore. Pep got his tactics wrong-for the UMPTEENTH time against a counter attacking side. Tata with a much lesser squad still managed to get 2 wins and we were a post away from taking it to extra time. Also we had no Pique, no Valdes, old Xavi and Neymar was carrying an injury. We played poorly but still were beaten by a late winner.

Tata is not a bad coach. He has had to deal with a crazy amount of stuff plus a squad carrying a lot of dead weight. The board is useless and probably 'advised' him there would be no signings in January.

Its his first season in Europe. Are we going back to the days of having 2 managers a season?

 

[Behrox]

Today Pep made Tata look like a tactical and managerial genius!!!

Everyone complaining about Tata being shit and unable to motivate a team. Today Pep couldn't even motivate a team to win a CL semi final. Its not as if Bayern has won 3 trebles in a row and they are not motivated anymore. Pep got his tactics wrong-for the UMPTEENTH time against a counter attacking side. Tata with a much lesser squad still managed to get 2 wins and we were a post away from taking it to extra time. Also we had no Pique, no Valdes, old Xavi and Neymar was carrying an injury. We played poorly but still were beaten by a late winner.

Tata is not a bad coach. He has had to deal with a crazy amount of stuff plus a squad carrying a lot of dead weight. The board is useless and probably 'advised' him there would be no signings in January.

Its his first season in Europe. Are we going back to the days of having 2 managers a season?

Nope Pep was unlucky Tata is just shit (Barcaforum logic)

 

[Flavia]

One bad game from another coach and Tata is a tactical mastermind, all of a sudden?
That's quite the cheap shot. It took Ancelotti 2 matches, but I doubt Tata would be able to beat him now, tatically. Not with the way the team has been playing lately, with crosses, crosses, and more crosses, and Messi less involved in the build up.

 

[Behrox]

One bad game from another coach and Tata is a tactical mastermind, all of a sudden?
That's quite the cheap shot. It took Ancelotti 2 matches, but I doubt Tata would be able to beat him now, tatically. Not with the way the team has been playing lately, with crosses, crosses, and more crosses, and Messi less involved in the build up.

Tata almost took the game to ET in the CdR if not for Neymar hitting the post and some overall poor finishing so thats 3 times and it wasn't 1 bad game it was 2 against the same opponents the only difference between the FCBs was one was riddled with injuries with little to no depth and the other had enough depth to make two squads capable of playing in a top league

 

[hardyboy]

rather than signing Lucho the board should give this man another season to prove himself. This season was the worst season for barcelona emotionally and in every which way. Any coach would suffer with the things happening behind the scene. If we look at every perspective that has happened, Tata did quite well and we should stick with him for another season.

 

[Flavia]

Tata almost took the game to ET in the CdR if not for Neymar hitting the post and some overall poor finishing so thats 3 times and it wasn't 1 bad game it was 2 against the same opponents the only difference one barely had any defenders and the other had a depth to make two squads capable of playing in a top league

Tata's coaching style also got Barça out of the cl at quarters(his tatical ineptitude to adapt the team against atletico, fielding the same 11 as against rm, when they're different teams), lost that cdr final and is highly unlikely to win the league. Not to mention the disorganization of the team in the field, with no clear system.

 

[DrPepper]

In offensive organisation Guardiola is certainly better than Martino, but after seeing yesterday's performance I'm not too sure about defensive transitions. I thought we always coped fairly well with Madrid's counter attacks - which is, of course, partly due to the amount of matches we had against Real - while Bayern were simply overrun yesterday and in the first leg. Playing Kroos and Schweinsteiger as defensive cover against counter attacks isn't also going to help you, but still.

And Bayern with all their height advantage compared to us conceded two silly set piece goals. How many did we concede against Madrid in the last matches?

 

[jamrock]

the stupidity knows no limit

 

[El_e8]

We were much better against City as well.

 

[Behrox]

Tata's coaching style also got Barça out of the cl at quarters(his tatical ineptitude to adapt the team against atletico, fielding the same 11 as against rm, when they're different teams), lost that cdr final and is highly unlikely to win the league. Not to mention the disorganization of the team in the field, with no clear system.

You say it like he had a plethora of options to choose from it was either Cesc or Alexis and the guy picked the one that worked in the past. (we went with the Alexis option in the League and Supercup and that didn't work out either) He barely had players to put on the bench and the goal conceded by Pinto should and could have been stopped by Valdes who like in most matches in this shitty season was out injured. Plus weren't we one of the best defenses in Europe keeping in mind that we have only 1 starter CB and little to no height in our team Tata gave us defensive stability for the most part something that Pep took away from Bayern

 

[Flavia]

You say it like he had a plethora of options to choose from it was either Cesc or Alexis and the guy picked the one that worked in the past. (we went with the Alexis option in the League and Supercup and that didn't work out either) He barely had players to put on the bench and the goal conceded by Pinto should and could have been stopped by Valdes who like in most matches in this shitty season was out injured. Plus weren't we one of the best defenses in Europe keeping in mind that we have only 1 starter CB and little to no height in our team Tata gave us defensive stability for the most part something that Pep took away from Bayern

he chose the same tacticas against 2 very different teams. And yes, he had a choice, as you pointed out. He could've played Alexis or Pedro. Even Cesc instead of Xavi. Barça could've been humiliated in the cl again, if not for the post. Tata also chose to count on Puyol, instead of getting a cb zubi could get(even if it was luiz).

 

[Behrox]

he chose the same tacticas against 2 very different teams. And yes, he had a choice, as you pointed out. He could've played Alexis or Pedro. Even Cesc instead of Xavi. Barça could've been humiliated in the cl again, if not for the post. Tata also chose to count on Puyol, instead of getting a cb zubi could get(even if it was luiz).

If you seriously believe that I can't bring myself to argue with you anymore

 

[KingMessi]

I change my mind. We should let him stay and give him the authority to implement the way we'd played during the season's first half. Every other available option is just significantly worse than him.