Luis Enrique

[ZenI]

Question marks
Luis Enrique has not used the same Barça side in any of his 22 matches

The Barcelona boss continues to tinker with his players and is still searching for his best side

David Boti | 13.12.2014 | 20:40h.
Since his arrival on the Barcelona bench, Luis Enrique has still not repeated, in an official match, the same starting lineup.

After 15 games in the league, six in Europe and one in the cup, Barça's boss has still not found the exact formula to get the best from his squad.

Despite qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League and having one foot in the next round of the Copa del Rey, the situation in la Liga is very different.

Four points back Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid team with the half way mark in the season approaching, the Blaugrana are a long way from their most polished version.

In fact, Lucho's Barça have lost twice as many points as Tata Martino's side had lost at this stage last season.

On an individual level, the only two players who have played all the minutes in la Liga (1,350) are Claudio Bravo and Lionel Messi.
Luis Enrique's two untouchables.

The most used midfielder is Sergio Busquets (1,151) and in defence nobody has played more minutes than Dani Alves (1,070).

You can view all of Luis Enrique's lineups in the Spanish version of this article HERE.

---

I don't think this is positive. At all. Tata had lost less points last season, at this time. Really, really worrying.

Lucho is definitively not the right man for the job. Some players look bored or have totally lost form (Pique, Pedro, Busi, Iniesta, Xavi, Alves) - either sell or get a coach who knows how to get them back on track. At the moment it's a combination of bad coaching and man management. Who in his right mind changes 2, 3 or even 4 players from the starting 11 every single match?
Who picked or agreed on the new players - Vermaelen, Raki, Mathieu, Rafa, Douglas - we don't know for sure, what I do know for sure is that they aren't Barca quality. Raki is probably the only one good enough, to be a backup. We were supposed to strengthen our team, instead we bought inferior players, every single one of them, from what we already got.
Suarez than? Not sure yet tbh, probably also a mix of bad tactics (support) and bad form. Very unlucky.
CL? We play alright in CL. Maybe it's the only competition where almost all of our players pull their heads out of their ***** and stay sharp. They probably play on autopilot, an autopilot that Pep programmed.

 

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Lucho is definitively not the right man for the job. Some players look bored or have totally lost form (Pique, Pedro, Busi, Iniesta, Xavi, Alves) - either sell or get a coach who knows how to get them back on track. At the moment it's a combination of bad coaching and man management. Who in his right mind changes 2, 3 or even 4 players from the starting 11 every single match?

Do you really have to ask?

 

[ZenI]

Do you really have to ask?

What Lucho is doing at the moment is something I would do if I had the most boring job ever with mental co-workers and weird bosses. I would do stupid sh*t like Lucho is pulling right now. That would get me fired with all the benefits and 6 months of paycheques worth, without having to quit on my own. Maybe he's a spy, I mean Lucho. Maybe he wants to destroy us, he's sent from RM, undercover? Nah, he probably just sucks.

 

[hamad138]

Even pep gave up the complete barca philosophy , because its outdated and easy defeatable nowadays. Pep realised that himself last year against Real Madrid, he made bayern more direct now. We should have realised that when bayern destroyed us 7:0, I still remember pique saying : We need changes , everyone know how we play.

14.12.2014 we still play this stupid philosophy

Dam logic

 

[Chainsaw]

"I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It's so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition's goal. It's not about passing for the sake of it." Pep Guardiola

Each match we see all these useless sideway passes keep coming with no penetration from the team. It serve no good purpose, only killing time and help the opposition's defence to organize. Sticking to your philosophy without evolving it with the time is nothing but a step backwards. And the club has taken several step backwards in the past seasons, without the right incomes and outcomes, and all these change of coaches and appointing incompetent ones.

 

[Tomchin]

All Pep's key players are still here so it's not that odd to compare imo.
But yeah, you can't teach old horse new tricks and all that jazz

The key-players of the midfield (Xavi / Iniesta / Busquets) have drastically declined compared to 3 years ago though, I'm quite certain that Pep would struggle with today's midfield too.

 

[Ini8]

Unless he tries to make us play with a midfield again, I don't think our performances as a team will improve.

 

[KingMessi]

He's a tactical monkey. Hopefully the transfer ban gets overturned so that we can actually get a competent manager next season because we all know that no world class manager would come in if he didn't have the opportunity to make signings of his own.

 

[Stric]

Enrique is an amateur coach, that's getting clearer with each game.

 

[Barcilliant]

El loco Lucho. I FUCKING TOLD EVERYONE THIS GUY WAS SHIT BUT NOONE LISTENED. He never showed any potential or success as a manage but the useless board hired him. He is fine for a mid table team but not us. This job is too big for him.
Let's not forget the players also. I see no real heart or fight from them either. Last liga is over already. Yes Rm will drop points but so will we.

 

[Barcilliant]

Crap manager,crap board and crap players.

Not to forget crap socis. Could have kicked this board out but too lazy to do anything.
Funny thing is they want to limit membership and keep it Catalan.Fat lot of good that is

 

[KingMessi]

Crap manager,crap board and crap players.

Not to forget crap socis. Could have kicked this board out but too lazy to do anything.
Funny thing is they want to limit membership and keep it Catalan.Fat lot of good that is

This is the only thing I disagree with.

Our players are capable of better. But Lucho's endless rotation, tinkering like it's fucking FIFA Career Mode or Football Manager, and idiotic tactics are undermining them.

 

[mssarm]

Playing with younger, new generation of players who haven't won any trophies, plus keeping a few of older players.
-- Mats as a choice no1 in that project

-- out: Alves, Mascherano, Adriano, Montoya, Xavi, Iniesta, Sergi Roberto, Pedro
-- probably out: Alba, Pique, Busi

-- staying: Messi, Suarez, Neymar
-- from younger players try with: Bartra, and see how will Munir, Rafinha, Suarez develop

-- so, keep 2-3-4-5-6 current players, add 3-4 younger domestic players
-- and buy 7-8 new players, who will be a core of the team for the next 5+ Seasons, like:
-- Mats, Koke, Kros, Rakitic, Cuadrado+2-3-4 other players

We would have to splash 200 Millions, but we would earn a lot with sales also.

Anyway, something similar will probably happen in a summer 2016 when Laporta will come.
Again, Laporta did exactly the same thing in summers 2003 and 2004.

He will surely repeat it again.
So, it will be bye-bye to at least 10 of the current players.
Imo, that is the only way to start a new cycle.

You need 3 things:
1. a good board
2. a good coach
3. a good team

Currently:
1. our board is horrible
2. a coach is mediocre
3. and a team is past their prime

Interesting post!! I commented on it but it ended up in Off Topic/ Trolling section. Apparently there are taboo topics in the forum. If you care to read my comments they are in Off Topic / Trolling section.

 

[Behrox]

Of course it was. Sloppy passing, players static. We are managing to win mostly on luck or individual brilliance. We are not creating clear cut chances. Our midfield is non-existant. And if Messi doesn't have his best game, we struggle. But no, not Lucho's fault

If this was Tata instead of Lucho, he would have been cut up and sold in pieces in the black market on sale.

 

[CuleLife4Life]

The key-players of the midfield (Xavi / Iniesta / Busquets) have drastically declined compared to 3 years ago though, I'm quite certain that Pep would struggle with today's midfield too.

Yea but I'm positive Pep wouldn't have let it get this far and buy the garbage players we brought this summer under Lucho. He would have and actually did start seeing decline in certain players but the board were to stupid to listen to him.