Luis Enrique

[Vlom]

We don't know if he'd do it again ?

Wasn't the line-up from yesterday "doing it again" with huge reminiscence of how he started last season ?

What worked perfectly was "smart" rotations like after Anoeta, yesterday was the old ludacrous rotations from Lucho 1.0..

 

[Cruijffista]

What other lineup could Lucho have thrown out after only 2 days of rest playing a full 120 minutes in a very intense and emotional game against Sevilla? He had to show some faith in the kids as it was really his only option.

Dani looked dead tired and rightfully so. Lucho just didn't have another option.

 

[Flavia]

We don't know if he'd do it again ?

Wasn't the line-up from yesterday "doing it again" with huge reminiscence of how he started last season ?

What worked perfectly was "smart" rotations like after Anoeta, yesterday was the old ludacrous rotations from Lucho 1.0..

It's not, because this time Enrique didn't have much of a choice. Either played the subs, or risk Pique, Busi, Rakitic or Iniesta getting an injury. Imagine if that happened. Especially if it was serious.

Yeah well Pep only needed 2-0 in the return leg to win. Lucho needs 5-0. That's a whole lot different. Also, Sevilla in 2010 was a much better team than the current Bilbao. Pep's 3-1 loss to them is not really similar to this.

Pep had a better squad. And yes, it's similar. He played a lesser team and lost.

 

[mssarm]

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

It's even more insane to assume that Einstein could have said such stupid thing when in general he himself tried to do the same things over and over with expectation of different results. Seems like Lucho is getting bashed by some fans for everything he does. 2 weeks ago people were bashing Lucho for not giving La Masia graduates the playing time, especially that he keeps ignoring our"next Puyol" Marc Bartra. Now Bartra's appearance on the pitch is considered insult to some fans?
"Great teams don't loose 0-4?". Says who? What's the maximum score that great teams allowed to lose? Great teams are the teams that win major trophies and at this moment that team is Barca. Do we need to play and win at any cost every stupid trophy is out there? What was Lucho supposed to do- play the same squad who played difficult match just 3 days ago, risking to injure players, so we show the whole that we are "unbeatable"(if there's such thing)? Isn't that classic case of arrogance? Actually that loss was very good humbling experience for our coach and the players and I DO NO CARE if we lose the supercup. I do not want to see a battlefield in Nou Camp on Monday . As for guys who are trying to analyse every word that Lucho says on press conferences: you are wasting your time. He is not there for communion, he is there to feed media whatever club is deciding to feed. I bet most of the time the PR department prepares a script for his press conference and he uses it regardless he agrees or not.

 

[Alik]

At the end of the day, most of us agree that we couldn't play the full strength squad. (That's just asking for trouble, as much as subbing out the whole squad.)

It's just the degree to which should have been done that is the point of disagreement.

Lucho did not sub out the whole squad. Messi, Suarez, Alves, Mascherano, and MAtS were still there. He could have played Douglas, Munir, Sandro, and Masip.

Lucho thought that he fielded a squad that was good enough to get an acceptable result whilst allowing certain key players to recover.

Perhaps he should have kept one extra player from the starting 11? Two players? Like I said, that's the point of disagreement with people here. But who's to say what would have happened?

It's easy to disregard fatigue, but it plays a very important part. Even if we disregard (for the moment) the risk of injury, there's the simple fact that exhausted players cannot play at the same level as when they are fresh. And the whole squad was dead on their feet at the end of the Sevilla match, so much that they couldn't cope with Sevilla's attacks or respond. And then they had to fly back and have less than 48 hours rest.

(Which is another point. We only had one training session in order to prepare for this match. Damn schedule!)

 

[Cruijffista]

[MENTION=12859]Alik[/MENTION] Douglas is injured.

 

[Vlom]

You guys keep quoting individual changes while I speak about the entire line-up, Bartra was not the issue, nor was roberto or even adriano.. the issue is all of them at the same time!

Surely Piqué and/or Busquets could have played but no, let's change every line, the front three is a no-choice situation, so let's change the other 2, why not... may be it will work ... genius

Just ask yourself this, when you first saw the line-up.. did you rub your eyes to make sure you read correctly or did you think "great line-up lucho, that many subs of key player in every position is the perfect plan" ?

 

[barcanuck]

What other lineup could Lucho have thrown out after only 2 days of rest playing a full 120 minutes in a very intense and emotional game against Sevilla? He had to show some faith in the kids as it was really his only option.

Dani looked dead tired and rightfully so. Lucho just didn't have another option.

In hind sight I think the defense just needed to not be Bartra + Verms and needed one of Pique/Masche/Mathieu in that order. Also one of Busi, Raki and Iniesta in the mid.

 

[Alik]

[MENTION=12859]Alik[/MENTION] Douglas is injured.

I forgot about that.

You guys keep quoting individual changes while I speak about the entire line-up, Bartra was not the issue, nor was roberto or even adriano.. the issue is all of them at the same time!

Surely Piqué and/or Busquets could have played but no, let's change every line, the front three is a no-choice situation, so let's change the other 2, why not... may be it will work ... genius

So in your opinion, if Piqué and/or Busquets had played, it would have been fine?

And let's say we had still lost, do you honestly think that people have been cool with it?

 

[Ini8]

Going from having the best defence in Europe last season to this calamity.

Lucho and Unzue better fix this.

 

[Vlom]

So in your opinion, if Piqué and/or Busquets had played, it would have been fine?

And let's say we had still lost, do you honestly think that people have been cool with it?

Yes I believe we would have done better, may be lost anyway, but not like this.

Rotations are fine and encouraged as long as we maintain the vertebral column, and that would be at least one of Piqué/Masch at the back, at least one of Busi/Rakitic/iniesta in the middle, at least 1 out of suarez/neymar at the front (messi never being benched and all).

There are certain mechanisms that the best 11 has that can still work if you take away 2 or 3 pieces, but if you take away 7 key pieces it'll look like the sh*t we saw yesterday, and we saw during 28 games beginning of last season, total chaos.

I honestly do not care if people would have been cool with it, I just know I personally would not have blamed Lucho if Piqué and Busi (or Piqué and Rakitic) were on the pitch, that would have been 6 (mats, piqué, masche, busi, messi, suarez) out of the best 11 on the pitch, still too little but given how Alba and Neymar are out, it would have been a very reasonable line-up given the circumstances ..

Compare this to a large truck, it has 10 tires, 2 are already flat, how many more tires do you think it is reasonable to take out and still expect it not to collapse ? 3 ? reasonable test.. 7 ? miracle-level test.

 

[KingLeo10]

Yes I believe we would have done better, may be lost anyway, but not like this.

Rotations are fine and encouraged as long as we maintain the vertebral column, and that would be at least one of Piqué/Masch at the back, at least one of Busi/Rakitic/iniesta in the middle, at least 1 out of suarez/neymar at the front (messi never being benched and all).

There are certain mechanisms that the best 11 has that can still work if you take away 2 or 3 pieces, but if you take away 7 key pieces it'll look like the sh*t we saw yesterday, and we saw during 28 games beginning of last season, total chaos.

I honestly do not care if people would have been cool with it, I just know I personally would not have blamed Lucho if Piqué and Busi (or Piqué and Rakitic) were on the pitch, that would have been 6 (mats, piqué, masche, busi, messi, suarez) out of the best 11 on the pitch, still too little but given how Alba and Neymar are out, it would have been a very reasonable line-up given the circumstances ..

Compare this to a large truck, it has 10 tires, 2 are already flat, how many more tires do you think it is reasonable to take out and still expect it not to collapse ? 3 ? reasonable test.. 7 ? miracle-level test.

i think the criticism you put on lucho may seem warranted but you also have to keep in mind that it is much easier to be an armchair manager than an actual one. we aren't privy to the behind the scenes on player's actual fitness levels or the long term strategy for the season.

also, i like that lucho is sticking to his decision. yes, he can be stubborn at times but he certainly isn't stubborn to a fault as he finally settled on a XI after that atletico game last season. it's better to have a manager who has convinction in his own decisions because that generally tends to permeate to the players.

 

[Vlom]

i think the criticism you put on lucho may seem warranted but you also have to keep in mind that it is much easier to be an armchair manager than an actual one. we aren't privy to the behind the scenes on player's actual fitness levels or the long term strategy for the season.

also, i like that lucho is sticking to his decision. yes, he can be stubborn at times but he certainly isn't stubborn to a fault as he finally settled on a XI after that atletico game last season. it's better to have a manager who has convinction in his own decisions because that generally tends to permeate to the players.

I believe he burnt his stuborness quota last season during the first 6months, and he was actually hailed a genius once he settled for a best 11 because "he was testing to figure out the best combo".. but that can only work once, now we know the best combo, we know the best subs for rotations, going crazy with the line-ups again doesn't make any sense, he will come back to the best 11 (and it's light variations for fitness/injuries) sooner or later, because that's what works.

There's really only 3 possible explanations :

1 - He voluntarely threw a trophy away - I don't believe it, a double sextuple is something historic
2 - He criminally under-estimated Bilbao - .... arrogance ? dellusion ? call it what you wish
3 - He's back to his lab to try and find a new best 11 - This is what scares me, I hope to god this is not the case

 

[putogusiluz8]

Nah man there's only one starting 11 for this team. You gotta foolish to consider any player from the last game as a starter... even before the atrocious result.

 

[Vlom]

Nah man there's only one starting 11 for this team. You gotta foolish to consider any player from the last game as a starter... even before the atrocious result.

May be he fielded the worst 11 to have a control group, and take it from there