Luis Enrique

[khaled_a_d]

I know it's premature, and I still think he'll be a success here, but what if, God forbid, Lucho fails here? Who do we turn to next? De Boer? Roberto Martinez? Xavi?

I think it will be tough for them to go for another risky coach who isn't proven at very high level like they did with the last 3 ,they will have to get a big name coach .may be making a push for Klopp
May be Rudi Garcia if he wins the Calcio this year
But hopefully we will win Liga this time at least and he retains his job

 

[jairzinho]

Lucho deserves credit for the good start pre PSG, but obviously he has to shoulder the blame after the PSG encounter as well. On the one hand, I appreciate his willingness to utilize the youngsters and to rotate. However, as far as rotation is concerned, he probably needs to know when the circumstances are most appropriate to do so. E.g. Douglas against Malaga and MATS in CL.

His use of MATS in CL is confusing. I've never been a fan of rotating gk's and I'm not sure what Lucho's policy is in this instance. I know Marc's injury complicated things so obviously now he wants to give him game time, but it's risky throwing him in a game like that without the match experience under his belt. It's like a double edge sword.

 

[footyfan]

Thing is Iniesta and Rakitic being so wide creates space for Messi in the center by dragging players away. That might even be the point of this formation. The team is very leveraged towards Messi for any attacking impetus. I think this experiment should be given more time before we judge it's effectiveness. Bringing midfielders inwards would push our two wingers wide as there's just not enough space in the center for 6 players. I'd wait to see how Suarez fits in this formation before scrapping it. If Neymar improves his killer instinct, I think it could be a great success.

 

[Ursegor]

I'm convinced it will not work. Maybe in La Liga, it doesn't matter too much in La Liga, the talent gap is too big between Barca and the rest. But against decent opposition? I have my doubts. Against PSG Rakitic passed the ball 3 times to Iniesta and 28 times to Alves. Iniesta passed the ball to Messi 6 times the entire game. This makes the team tremendously predictable when the central midfield is just there to be a decoy for Messi and defensive cover to allow average fullbacks to bomb forward. Barca could just as well play with 3 defensive midfielders because Iniesta doesn't serve any purpose in a system where the midfield is not going to link up at all. Apart from the results it's also extremely ugly. Barca is supposed to play beautiful linkup football. Midfielders babysitting fullbacks, 2 strikers lurking upfront and Messi spoonfeeding them with a few nice passes is not beautiful. Except in a Messi highlight reel.

I had high hopes for Lucho but now that I've seen what he's trying to do I'm very pessimistic.

 

[CuleLife4Life]

Lucho just started. We need to give him time. But some have pointed out his "rebel" attitude towards the press and that scares me. If he continues to play tactics that suck thinking the players just need more time to adapt, we'll be in for a long season.
La Liga isn't as easy as it was before when we have Atletico and Real breathing down our necks. There are also great teams that will be guaranteed to give us trouble like Valencia.

 

[Gaudi]

You can play narrow or wide there wan't be any space if you congest midfield only. With nobody in the box (Messi nr.10, Ney wide, Pedro useless and wide) entire opposition bus can surround us no matter how we play. With players in and attacking the box (especially from depp runs, those are ver dangerous) you bind their deffenders and open space. In prime years our mids like Xavi and Andres did those runs, and our wide players did diagonal runs in the box, now we play static and only ball to the feet.
Hope Lucho can fix this, well for starters I hope he realizes problems.

 

[Barcilliant]

I think it will be tough for them to go for another risky coach who isn't proven at very high level like they did with the last 3 ,they will have to get a big name coach .may be making a push for Klopp
May be Rudi Garcia if he wins the Calcio this year
But hopefully we will win Liga this time at least and he retains his job

I was thinking the same thing. If things go pear shaped they will go all out for a big name coach. Basically Lucho needs a trophy to stay or a CL final appearance at least. I don't like this instability with the coaching situation. This is the third coach in 3 years and it still seems as if Pep's reign is overshadowing everyone who comes. Lucho really was poor tactically against PSG. We were playing away against one of the best teams in Europe. He could have been more cautious.

I think we need a 4-2-3-1 system in Europe. Double Pivot with Busi and Mascherano. Also we need to start shooting more. WHY ARE WE ALWAYS LOOKING TO WALK THE BALL INTO THE NET??

I just hope Suarez doesn't catch this disease.

Back to the coach situation Klopp is the only coach out there who's big enough for Barca. If Garcia has a good run in the CL then I wouldn't be surprised if Barca went for him. However Klopp has CONSISTENTLY overachieved with limited resources.

I just hope Lucho does well. He has got a much stronger squad then his predecessors.

Tata took us to 2nd place in the league, qf CL and Copa final with a pretty ordinary squad.

 

[Poor_Sunyol]

The way you are all going on you would have thought we were playing Doncaster Rovers, not the French champions in their own back yard. Get a grip people.

 

[Barcilliant]

In the big games, we need to play either a double pivot, or swap one of Alves and Alba for a defensive fullback. We just HAVE to.

We have been sticking with this "lightweight midfield and both fullbacks attacking" strategy since Pep's time now, and despite counter after counter in the big games Tito, nor Tata, nor Lucho seem to see the light. Is it really that hard to see for top level coaches when the even the most average fan can pick up on this?

We can argue that they are just trying to follow Pep's model, but what has gone on for the last 3 seasons is not Pep's model. Pep had Abidal as a defensive LB, and/or Keita as a second defensive CM. He never, if ever (before his final season) went with the two attacking fullbacks and a lightweight midfield at the same time.

Even when we won the CL with Rijkaard, in the later knockout games we used to play with Edmilson and Motta as two DM's, so its not unheard of for Barca.

So basically the options are:
1) Replace Alves or Alba with one defensive fullback and keep Busquets Rakitic Iniesta in midfield. This will also allow the midfielders to play more centrally and be creative.
OR
2) Keep both Alves AND Alba as attacking fullbacks, but have Mascherano and Busquets/Rakitic as two DMs, and Iniesta as more attacking CM.

Unless one of the above is done, we won't be winning the CL anytime soon. Period.

The other thing we have to do is get Mascherano out as CB and start swapping with Busquets at DM. We are fortunate now to have 4 tall CBs in the squad, and we should make use of them.

The rest (goalkeepers, attack) will take care of itself.

LOL Double Pivot seems to be heresy at Barca. Its as if coaches think they will be burnt at the stake if they even contemplate it!!!
There must be a clause in every Barca's manager's contract forbidding the double pivot!
I they can score from distance. Iniesta's finishing is pretty poor-lets face think for the CL double pivot is the way to go. Especially with our current midfield. I don't like Rakitic as a defensive midfielder. He is best as a box to box midfielder. I would prefer Rakitic over Iniesta currently. Why we never went for Vidal or Pogba is beyond me. At least they can score from distance and have a decent goals to matches ratio.

 

[Barcilliant]

The way you are all going on you would have thought we were playing Doncaster Rovers, not the French champions in their own back yard. Get a grip people.

Werent you the guy consistently badmouthing Tata?? Well your hero Lucho has come and he has a lot of tactical issues.

 

[Barcilliant]

Busquets and Iniesta are shadows of themselves for some time now, that's why we couldn't control the midfield.

Just drop them for Masch and Rafinha and be done with it. Maybe they'll motivate themselves warming up the fukcing bench.

Pedro as well, this guy is like a disease.

WORD

 

[Barcaman]

That's true Sunny. But they missed Thiago Silva and Ibra and were going in with their manager about to be sacked.

To put things in a positive light, Lucho could easily wipe most od Barca's defensive problems by just playing with 2 cb's instead od wasting Mascherano there. 1/3 goals conceded last season were from set-pieces. I guess close to 1/3 as well were from crosses.

A kick up some player behinds as well is in order but Lucho is already doing it with benching some key players from the past. He just needs to continue and keep everyone fight for their spot.

 

[CuleLife4Life]

The way you are all going on you would have thought we were playing Doncaster Rovers, not the French champions in their own back yard. Get a grip people.

I'm not upset that we lost but more so HOW we lost. I think its safe to say Enrique's tactics are questionable to say the least right now. And its not even from the PSG game but the flaws were obvious versus Malaga but that was quickly glossed over with a trashing for Levante.

 

[instinct]

We have a new coach, 3 key positions (who played vs PSG) were reinforced during the summer window and we played against a top-team, nothing less.

What some people here think is utterly ridiculous IMO. Why are we already talking about a replacement? Rudi Garcia? Klopp? ffs Barca fans are NEVER happy with ANYTHING. Of course Klopp and Garcia would win every single game in the CL with Barcelona because they are soooo successful with their current clubs. If we get one of them and he'd lose one game against a CL candidate the forum would go absolutely crazy once again. Talk about successors as much you want but Barca fans always find a reason to complain.

Lucho's attitude towards media? Last season everyone wanted a guy who would stick to his ideas no matter what the press says. Everyone bashed Tata because he literally collapsed under this pressure. And now everyone is like: Lucho's attitude towards the press is bad....

Of course the team needs time to adapt to Lucho's system and in this forum many people talk about his stubbornness and that he has deep tactical issues. He had no chance to correct his mistakes yet, no chance. If you want to tell me that 2 matches vs a fucking airplane (a decent airplane) and vs a CL candidate are proof that he has no tactical knowledge is just ridiculous, seriously. Just give him a chance to correct his mistakes but that's too much to ask for, isn't it?

Maybe we'll lose some more games, maybe he is stubborn, maybe he is not the right coach but at this point, nothing is proved yet. This team can win every title and every manager in the world loses games. Klopp loses games, Rudi Garcia loses games, Mourinho loses games but the fans still put their faith in them. Why can't every Barca fan be like this? I'll never understand it...

 

[Ghostmaster]

I am happy with Lucho so far, results in La Liga are amazing, we haven't conceded a goal yet, we haven't lost yet and we probably won't have any troubles going through CL group stage despite that loss.