Luis Enrique

[Leo_Messi]

That was an obvious jinx post which is evident by the comments in this thread at the time. How does that comment correspondent with my vote in that same thread you think? Last time I saw you can't change your vote. That's right, it does not.
The only time were I heavily criticized Lucho (if I recall) and his decisions were after the Málaga game in February which a few users should confirm. This was the only time that I feared that we might not fully have been behind the pre-Anoeta period. Of course since I did not expect us to win the CL (not even close), winning it was always a bonus which I have also written.

I also wrote in the La Liga thread and the RM thread that RM would win the CL final against us by 4-0 and that CR7 would break Messi's 50 goal Pichichi record by scoring 60 goals too right after RM's win against Sevilla if I recall. Of course it's up to people to believe whether that was written in all seriousness or not, lol.

Good night, Bojan.

 

[Vlom]

Let's keep in mind that this is only his third season coaching at this level.

I'd say this is his first season coaching at "this" level, what is expected from Roma or Celta has nothing to do with what is expected from a team that has MSN/Busi/Xaviesta/Piqué/Mascherano.

 

[Stric]

[MENTION=19517]Also, Xavi has a LOT to do with our success, don't forget that Lucho was ready to give the maximum fine to Messi for missing the training the day after Anoeta, that would have been an incredibly rookie mistake and the first dig for Lucho's grave and our season's titles hopes.

This is what I like to think, as well. The way I picture it going down is this: After the Anoeta flop, Xavi says to Lucho: "Here's what's gonna happen. First, you're going to quit with your bullshit experiments and wannabe your smart guy moves. You're not Pep. Decide on a best-XI and use it by default, with necessary rotations. Secondly, you don't ever, ever make Messi angry. You made the mess, now you clean it up. If you can live with these, then we can move on." Lucho agrees, then Xavi calls up Messi and says "Look, I know he's a dick, but give him a shot. I talked to him and he promises he'll try. By the way, he says thanks for making the front three work."

I feel like this post needs a disclaimer at the bottom, but I'll skip one for now and wait for the reactions.

I'd say this is his first season coaching at "this" level, what is expected from Roma or Celta has nothing to do with what is expected from a team that has MSN/Busi/Xaviesta/Piqué/Mascherano.

I agree about that. By "level", I meant La Liga / Serie A as opposed to Segunda. Anyway, your point only supports my argument even more.

 

[mssarm]

As much as I agree with it being funny and strange seeing our own comments about him from January, I don't think we should pretend that we were wrong then. Most of this forum agreed early in January that Lucho should be sacked either way, and a large majority wanted him out immediately, rather than in the summer. I believe many Barca fans outside the forum thought the same way. We didn't just pull that opinion out of our asses, we had good reason to feel that way. Lucho was making bad decisions, doing things that nobody understood, acted like a dick when confronted about it, and his own actions primarily created the crisis. On top of it all, he's only beginning his coaching career, and it wouldn't be strange to figure out that you're not satisfied with him after only a few months. It's easy to say now that he's done well, but to be honest, the club wouldn't have been wrong if they decided to sack him then. Everything pointed towards a downhill ride and it would have only been reasonable to try and do something to change that. The fact that we bounced back both in terms of football and relations betweent he guys, and ended the season successfully (even if it's just the Liga trophy, and reaching the CdR and CL finals without winning) is a sheer miracle, it was not to be expected. Which brings me to my main point. This all seems too good and too strange to be true. Enrique doesn't seem for a minute the kind of guy who just has an epiphany about his shortcomings and decides to pull a 180 and do things differently. He looks like a guy who had a plan from day one and was determined to put it in motion. I wonder how much of that 180 that happened was a result of him being pressured into doing it by others.

Maybe you should not post on this topic, because your explanations are worse than you calling the manager's head mid-season in January. Just give it up man! Even back then some people were trying to telling you that you should be patient with Lucho, but no!! You are this great football analytic who can easily spot the good coach from the fuck up and you were 100% sure that Lucho is a fuck up. Now instead just admitting you were wrong you are trying blame that on Lucho, because he had no right to experiment and should have done everything right from the get-go. This is the most arrogant post I've seen in this forum.

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

I wasn't posting until recently, but I only got angry at him because of the Real sociedad game. Tough fixture, we basically never win and he fields a mediocre team. The team was actually starting to play well before that and the tactics we have now were coming to fruition with Messi on the right and coming into form.

 

[XaviMessiGirl]

I think instead of playing "I told you so" game that a few people seem to be doing, those who were wrong about Lucho (myself included at times) should just be glad to have been wrong, and those who stood by him just have their thoughts reaffirmed. Let's be happy about what Lucho and the team have achieved so far.

 

[FC B]

"So far so good" is an expression that denotes that someone is performing on par. Not doing great or anything spectacular. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Spectacular or a great performance would be obtained with the treble for example.

 

[StarLord]

I think instead of playing "I told you so" game that a few people seem to be doing, those who were wrong about Lucho (myself included at times) should just be glad to have been wrong, and those who stood by him just have their thoughts reaffirmed. Let's be happy about what Lucho and the team have achieved so far.

I think that those people who were calling for Lucho's head, calling him a "fourth-rate" manager, and claiming that at least 5 other teams in Europe were better than us, should just openly and bluntly admit that they were dead wrong, and also try and draw conclusions from what happened this season. Instead they are conjuring silly little excuses for themselves, even claiming that from the vantage point of view of the first half of the season, their conclusions were somehow inevitable. For them, allegedly, there was nothing but doom and gloom in the first half of the season. This is what I find quite obscene myself.

Falling for juvenile media hype, of the "Lucho is a nobody, Pep and Mou are geniuses" variety is something that any intelligent football fan should always be resistant to. Yet the vast majority of this forum just couldn't help themselves. If you go back in this, as well as other threads, you will find tons of embarrassing posts (I am trying to be as polite as possible here)


This is what I said back then:

As for people panicking after our narrow and somewhat unlucky defeat against a great PSG away, well, let's just have a look at some other European "giants", and how they fared in the CL:

1) Real Madrid: Lucky and ref-aided in beating a Bulgarian minnow by a 1-2.

2) Bayern Munich: Atrocious performance against a heavily depleted CSKA Moscow side, who created many more goal-scoring chances than they did. Like Real Madrid, required a very soft penalty to win.

3) Juventus: Lost against a battling Atletico Madrid. Could not manage a single shot on target the entire 90mns.

4) Man City: In a must-win game, could not beat AS Roma at home! AS Roma being led by a pensioner (legendary as he may be) with Ashley Cole and Seydou Keita completing the geriatric line-up. Like Munchen, could only score a peno!

5) Chelsea: After a poor home draw against the mighty Schalke, pipped Sporting Lisbon by a 0-1 margin. And for some people, that is enough for them to be considered CL favourites.

6) Liverpool: I know they should not be included in this list, but still!

7) Arsenal: Absolutely smashed a defensively inept side. Honestly, Gala defending makes Alba/Alves/Biscuits look like Maldini and Baresi.

8) Dotmund: Impressive, but against very weak opposition, especially in defence. Still, Anderlecht had their chances.

Right before the 2nd PSG group stage game in December 2014:

While it is true that we have some serious issues, this forum has blown them out of all proportion. If one was reading this without knowing our results, they would think that Barca were now mid-table and already out of the CL.

Many on here keep repeating ad nauseam that we are playing badly, but have they ever bothered sitting though 90mns of the matches of so-called superior teams to us like Real Madrid, Bayern and Chelsea?

Replying to claims that our team is nothing special at all. Other European sides are wither easily better, or just about equal. Again, back in December 2014:

It is true that RM gave us a good beating back in October, but we were on a low that day and RM were at their absolute best in that period.

BM are a very balanced side, but whenever I have seen them play this season, I was not impressed too much. In some of their games they have in fact been quite underwhelming. Let us not forget that some of their key players are now ageing.

Chelsea better than FCB? Only an EPL fanboi permanently trapped in early 2008 could conceivably believe such a thing. The hype that Chelsea are getting even on this forum is quite bizarre. They have been quite crap against any good side they have faced, while their victories over mediocre EPL sides have been somewhat on the flattering side. Moreover, their CL group is an insult to CL groups.

AM and PSG about equal to us? We are comfortably superior to both. We have better players than both of them. Atletico are well organized and solid defensively but can't hold a candle to our striking force, while PSG enjoy playing in a non-league and worrying only for the CL. Bayern are also beneficiaries of the same.


The only current side that can rationally be argued to be better than us is Real Madrid. The results are there to back the argument up, not with any of the other teams you mention. Even with them, things are far more nuanced than people tend to think. Real Madrid have benefited from a shit CL group and having basically the same structure as last season. They have also enjoyed some age-old LFP turbocharging.

Give it some more time people. Tonight will be a good indicator of where we stand.

Subsequently, another member of this lovely forum, thought I was trolling, and this was my reply:

Take my arguments one by one and put them to some fact-checking. Are they legit yes or no?

The only controversial bit about what I am saying is the Bayern bit, but tell me really, what great team have Bayern beaten recently and how?

As for the inane Chelsea hype found everywhere. I invite you to take all of Chelsea's results of this season and cross the Chelsea name out and replace it with Barcelona's. Would you be too impressed by those results and scorelines? How would this (or any other) forum react to a Newcastle 2-1 over Barca? What would you say to a Barca - Schalke 1-1? Or a Maribor - Barca 1-1?

Or are you willing to argue that the German league is any way, shape or form competitive?

 

[Kohe321]

Looking at the league table right now and it's just a thing of beauty. 108 scored goals and only 19 conceded. That's just insane! And to think that we only started to really fire on all cylinders defensively and offensively after that Anoeta game at the start of 2015...

Lucho, Unzue and the rest of the coaching team: well done!

 

[dakt]

What a season for him and all of us...I'll wait till the last whistle blow in Berlin.

 

[StarLord]

What a season for him and all of us...I'll wait till the last whistle blow in Berlin.

Waiting for what exactly? To judge whether Lucho has been a success or failure in his debut season?

Spectacular or a great performance would be obtained with the treble for example.

So anything less than an outright Treble is a relative failure for you?

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

[MENTION=19806]StarLord[/MENTION] Not everyone can rationally look at things when they see things they deem crazy like lucho's rotations in the first half of the season, we're on route to a treble let's just enjoy it.

 

[StarLord]

[MENTION=19806]StarLord[/MENTION] Not everyone can rationally look at things when they see things they deem crazy like lucho's rotations in the first half of the season, we're on route to a treble let's just enjoy it.

Lucho was trying things out. And he only attempted some genuinely risky formations/rotations in only a couple of games. People totally ignored that and exploded in hysterical Lucho-bashing after every single negative result. Not only that, but they also tended to overrate rival teams out of all proportion.

With Suarez being a late-comer to the team, and Neymar still relatively new it was the most rational thing in the world to expect our formidable front-line to click in the latter part of the season (where it really counts) yet people were littering the forum with complete and utter inanities. Acknowledging when you are wrong is absolutely essential for anyone wishing to be serious.

As for enjoying the current good times. Well yeah, the best way to acknowledge them is by admitting our mistaken views from a few months back. I for example never expected Pique to become world-class again this season. Or Alves partly returning to his former glories. I was mistaken, and I am extremely happy that I was so.

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

Lucho was trying things out. And he only attempted some genuinely risky formations/rotations in only a couple of games. People totally ignored that and exploded in hysterical Lucho-bashing after every single negative result. Not only that, but they also tended to overrate rival teams out of all proportion.

With Suarez being a late-comer to the team, and Neymar still relatively new it was the most rational thing in the world to expect our formidable front-line to click in the latter part of the season (where it really counts) yet people were littering the forum with complete and utter inanities. Acknowledging when you are wrong is absolutely essential for anyone wishing to be serious.

As for enjoying the current good times. Well yeah, the best way to acknowledge them is by admitting our mistaken views from a few months back. I for example never expected Pique to become world-class again this season. Or Alves partly returning to his former glories. I was mistaken, and I am extremely happy that I was so.

Overrating opponents has been a symptom of most Barca fans ever since the Bayern defeat in 2013 so I'm not going to blame them for not wanting to be emotionally burned again.

But as I said, in the heat of the moment people aren't going to take the Suarez/Neymar factors into account, or the fact that Lucho was asking players to play vastly different roles. He took Iniesta from the frontlines and made Rakitic into a RB/DM/AM/CM/CF hybrid but people won't care about the details they just want to see their team win and play well honestly. And now that we're winning most people aren't going to quote themselves and say how wrong they were. Humans are fickle things.

Although I agree with some of the points I've been seeing you making about people trying to downplay Lucho's success as if winning the treble is somehow a normal thing, has any team won the treble more than once? Certainly not in such a short space of time.

 

[Darko]

Let's just all agree not to overreact next time and judge a coach based on a couple of games or bad decisions, even if Lucho failed this season, sacking him only a few months into the season would have been a disaster.
And the people that are downplaying his sucess are mostly the ones that wanted him gone and now don't want to admit they were wrong, he hasn't revolutionised football but he has done the best possible job he could.