Luis Enrique

[TornAndFrayed]

Oh god.

 

[StarLord]

He's yet to find a balance with his rotations, dalitis. I mean for the 1st part of the season. His mistakes there could had put the team out of la liga. There's no "simple as"(though I know you love to post "simple as").
But the biggest problem wasn't even the rotations, but the wide midfielders leaving Busquets alone in the middle, which he fixed, gladly.

And that last observation of yours is wrong. Enrique authorized the extra days for Messi and Neymar. His lack of dialogue with the players was probably the problem there. He doesn't speak to them(Mathieu recently said so), so it makes it harder. That's his style, but that call of his was wrong. Hindsight is great and all, but there was a very clear bad patch. The crisis was real, and I'm actually glad it happened, because it made early elections possible, and also made Enrique change.

There's another name you might know me by, Star Lord!

Now, back to the point.

There can never be a perfect balance if you are rotating. It is a necessary compromise/risk if you want to go through the season. This is especially true in our situation where we have the lesser bench out of the major European clubs. If he was playing the best XI game in and game out we would be knackered by now. Lucho did the right thing.

We also had lots of comfortable victories in the beginning of the season, as well as some tight ones, this is more or less like every season. We also had some rotten luck in the Celta game (for which he was savaged on this forum) and while many will say we were lucky against Valencia away, we also had a perfectly legit goal by Suarez earlier on in that game. He did well, especially if we factor in the absence of Luis Suarez for the first stretch of the season.

If the main problem was the use of the midfielders as almost wingers, and he corrected it, then kudos to him, don't you think? He is in fact showing tactical flexibility.

Now, I don't buy too much with press stories and random quotes from players, probably taken out of context. And if he keeps his contact with the players to a minimum, maybe that is a clever strategy. Lucho is not there to socialize with the players etc, he is there to keep the team ticking. All managers have their own style, and in any case, Barca never allows the manager much power. There is no way Lucho took the decision on Neymar and Messi on his own. These fuck-ups do happen and I am sure he is not the main culprit.

If there was a "bad patch" it was super-minor. We only had two bad results in a row in the games vs RM and Celta. One was to be expected at that time I think, and the other was horrible luck. Other than that, it was a sorry draw at Getafe after a great CL victory over PSG, and the defeat at the Anoeta (where for some mysterious reason we lose every year) right after the Xmas festivity BS. Nothing shocking if we are being honest and fair.

Moreover, by far the most important part of the season is the 2nd one, and many should have waited for that, instead of losing their heads over a couple of bad results (of which we get every single season) and calling our manager with several demeaning epithets while at the same time hyping all the other cool and trendy managers that were/are in vogue. At the time you would have thought we were not even in the European Top 10 if you went by most comments on here.


Edit: People and the media tend to exaggerate every Barcelona failure out of proportion because of the sheer number of people who are inching away to shout: "Tiki-taka is dead", "Messi is not the best player", "Iniesta is finished", "Barcelona cannot win the CL" etc etc etc... I said this earlier on in the season, that if you took the results of all the teams that were portrayed in a more positive light than us, and substituted their names with ours, then those results would look far less impressive if not outright embarrassing.

 

[Flavia]

Mathieu and Suarez quotes weren't random, or taken out of context. Mathieu just has a big mouth and talks too much. Suarez was pretty straight forward on his interview too. And I precisy said I gave Enrique another chance because he corrected his mistakes. Because before the incident, he was appearing to be stubborn or to not be seeing the glaring mistakes of the midfield. No way to know if he'd have changed if not for all the mini-crisis.

 

[mssarm]

Mathieu and Suarez quotes weren't random, or taken out of context. Mathieu just has a big mouth and talks too much. Suarez was pretty straight forward on his interview too. And I precisy said I gave Enrique another chance because he corrected his mistakes. Because before the incident, he was appearing to be stubborn or to not be seeing the glaring mistakes of the midfield. No way to know if he'd have changed if not for all the mini-crisis.

Do you really believe that players are making decisions about their playing positions? Maybe Lucho instructed Suarez to tell media, so the credit goes to Messi.or he already spoke to Messi and asked him to talk to Suarez without his involvement , because he did not want to broadcast that he put the pressure on Messi. You talk like you were present in dressing room and know exactly how that happened.Same way you bashed Lucho in the past for passing on Kroos, when there was no clear indication that it was his decision.

 

[TornAndFrayed]

i highly doubt suarez would tell a fabricated story that actually diminishes lucho's influence. No reason to do that. Unless the little dictator forcibly recruited him for his imminent coup.

 

[Flavia]

Do you really believe that players are making decisions about their playing positions? Maybe Lucho instructed Suarez to tell media, so the credit goes to Messi.or he already spoke to Messi and asked him to talk to Suarez without his involvement , because he did not want to broadcast that he put the pressure on Messi. You talk like you were present in dressing room and know exactly how that happened.Same way you bashed Lucho in the past for passing on Kroos, when there was no clear indication that it was his decision.

Yeah... Enrique "instructed" Suarez to tell that to the media, lol. Let's create an alternate reality, with players and coaches lying and manipulating to fit our narrative, instead of them being honest and just telling what happened. Because Suarez played as rw for a while. Messi can't have the credit for that, Enrique has, even if you have to come up with such absurdities. Good one

Don't forget enrique doesn't talk with the players directly. Or he told mathieu to lie to the press about it too

 

[mssarm]

i highly doubt suarez would tell a fabricated story that actually diminishes lucho's influence. No reason to do that. Unless the little dictator forcibly recruited him for his imminent coup.

He is not diminishing anything and obviously you never been in management position. Suarez might or might not be aware of discussions between the two. Barca is not going to media for confessions, they usually talk to media with an agenda in mind.We can't really know what is happening behind closed doors

 

[TornAndFrayed]

as you wish

 

[mssarm]

Yeah... Enrique "instructed" Suarez to tell that to the media, lol. Let's create an alternate reality, with players and coaches lying and manipulating to fit our narrative, instead of them being honest and just telling what happened. Because Suarez played as rw for a while. Messi can't have the credit for that, Enrique has, even if you have to come up with such absurdities. Good one

Don't forget enrique doesn't talk with the players directly. Or he told mathieu to lie to the press about it too

What's your point: bottom line - Lucho is a bad manager but he slightly improved because he started to read your posts?

 

[Vlom]

So, we come and admit we might have been too harsh on Lucho, while I still maintain that the january crisis drastically changed things for the better, and now we have to call Lucho a genius ?

He's doing fine since january, he was going nowhere before that with his excessive rotations and was probably gonna keep doing it if not forced to stop, he's since improved a lot and found good systems to make the team work at it's best.

But let's not call him a genius just yet, for all we know, rotations turned out well because players are fresh now thanx to that, but no combination of the 26 he tried turned out to be a a game changing discovery, for all we know messi and suarez figured out the best combination for their positions, for all we know unzue is the one responsible for our unexpected set pieces strenght, for all we know we could have lost la liga in that first half if not for Messi and an amazing Neymar bagging in goals...

Lucho is doing great, and may he continue doing so and improving, but let's just stop pretending he's a mastermind that had all this planned from the beginning.

 

[mssarm]

No one called him genius.all I'm saying he is doing good job so far.

 

[Flavia]

What's your point: bottom line - Lucho is a bad manager but he slightly improved because he started to read your posts?

yeah, I'm the reason Enrique improved his coaching abilities. I think I'm starting to understand how you come up with such absurdities, if that's what you got from my post.

Enrique is an inexperienced manager, but one who is showing to learn from his mistakes, and more importantly, to not be stubborn. He didn't come up with the idea of Messi playing rw again, but saw it worked and built on it. That's also commendable. He also let Unzue do his magic and fixed our defense. LE still has his flaws, but he's growing with the team now, for which I'm thankful. The one trying to show to be superior here, with hindsight, is you.

 

[StarLord]

Lucho is doing great, and may he continue doing so and improving, but let's just stop pretending he's a mastermind that had all this planned from the beginning.

I agree, but the same can be said of any managerial success in football history. Yet some managers get hyped to the heavens, while others are not.

Barca is not going to media for confessions, they usually talk to media with an agenda in mind.We can't really know what is happening behind closed doors

That is what every serious organization does. Public statements are for things like popular consumption, diversion, propaganda etc... Nothing serious is ever discussed publicly, not even in football. All the important decisions are taken behind closed doors.

 

[Vlom]

No one called him genius.all I'm saying he is doing good job so far.

Of course he is, and what's more important is he's improving and making better decisions as times pass by.

I was already all for him to stay another season ever since we started winning with a relatively fixed starting 11, I don't want us to be changing coachs every season, we need stability, and he's as good as any, plus he's a barça legend player, which is pretty cool

 

[mssarm]

yeah, I'm the reason Enrique improved his coaching abilities. I think I'm starting to understand how you come up with such absurdities, if that's what you got from my post.

Enrique is an inexperienced manager, but one who is showing to learn from his mistakes, and more importantly, to not be stubborn. He didn't come up with the idea of Messi playing rw again, but saw it worked and built on it. That's also commendable. He also let Unzue do his magic and fixed our defense. LE still has his flaws, but he's growing with the team now, for which I'm thankful. The one trying to show to be superior here, with hindsight, is you.

If it's Messi's decision and Unzu's talent , why the hell we need him.what he has done?