Luis Enrique

[blaugrana1987]

I think Lucho is good choice. Messi is getting better and better, team is playing more secure and Suarez is yet to get back. Its not really his fault that Iniesta looks a bit melancholic and isnt currently very creative. Biggest con for Lucho in my book this year has been rotating players (see Douglas and Ter Stegen) and being stubborn about playing Masch out of his position in PSG match. Other then that, we are first in table, no loss, no goal conceded and still waiting for second best player to get back.

 

[khorne]

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...

I would take comments in a forum always with a grain of salt, especially after a loss, some people are just more emotional than others. also i'm convinced about half of the active user base are still adolescents (if not...mother of mercy!), so let's not be too harsh.

But you're completely right of course, this impatience is ridiculous, almost comical. We like to look down at perez and the sheik clubs, and rightly so, because at the first sign of trouble they either sack everyone or throw more money at the club. But at the same time, whenever barca is not steamrolling opponents, cue to "everyone is shit, fuck you zubi, why don't we buy a world class cb, we need a new rb, not barca material, sell messi, bench messi, bench iniesta, sell everyone but messi, i hate pedro soooo much, let's buy player X, we need coach Y"

I'd really like a florentino smiley, just for these kind of posts. true success doesn't come over night and it doesn't show itself over night either. A good hunter doesn't stomp through the woods with an overpriced new rifle and shoots randomly for 6 hours until he hits a rabbit. That was real madrid for the last 12 years. A good hunter practices with his gun, spots flaws and corrects them, prepares, and when the time is right, hits a boar with one shot. That was barca under pep.

 

[Flavia]

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.

Same here. I don't see this system working. Messidependencia just shifted from scoring to creating. Still too much burden on him.

It's not about impatience, too. Just the feeling Lucho is giving me. I'm not seeing tactical variations, just the team again being predictable and depending too much on Messi.

 

[Irish_Cules]

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but does anybody have a good site to get statistics on from matches? It's just people mentioned the stats regarding the number of passes between certain players. I'm curious to see the interaction between the midfielders in the game against Granada.

 

[Sumlit]

I'm going to reserve final judgement until I see Suarez playing because this system is built to accommodate a player like Suarez with Neymar and Messi, and right now the Suarez role is being played by Pedro and a couple of youngsters and it's just not the same.

However, I'll repeat my opinion that Lucho needs to find some tactical diversity because the wide mids system is getting found out. He needs to find a balance with protecting the flanks but also preserving the midfield flow and link-up play.

 

[Gnidrologist]

I don't get why everyone is so gushed about Suarez joining. The problem with current Barca is not inability to finish gazzilions of chances that they create, which was a prominent problem in Pep's era (would have won two more CL titles if it wasn't for that), but inability to create any clear cut chances at all. Only occasional brilliant moves by Messi or Neymar does the trick. Why would Suarez change a zilch, if he wont get a proper service from middlefielders? Just another player, on whose individual brilliance to rely on, not really a pointy end of a spear for otherwise functional machine like many people here suggest.

 

[instinct]

^ Because Suarez is one of the best players in the world.

Opponents won't have a hard time to mark (the current) Pedro. He is not dangerous in front of the goal at all. Suarez however is the most hard-working striker in the world besides Cavani and maybe Mandzukic IMO + he is the most dangerous striker out there. The opponent HAS TO try to mark him but at the same time take care of Messi and Neymar. Suarez will be a massive weapon to break down parked buses. If Lucho and the team improve their movement it'll be nearly impossible to take everyone of them out of the game.
Furthermore, Messi is allowed to drop a little deeper to create chances and to bring a little more creativity to the midfield because he two amazing strikers in front of him.
He won't solve every problem but he'll add a lot.

 

[khaled_a_d]

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...

Nobody said we should replace him,everyone said he is hopefully succeeding and staying,it is just hypothitical argument

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.

one thing I don't like in the way our sides operate ,Lucho wants our fullbacks to be attack minded players while he wants the wings to have a big workrate and do their defensive job which was one the main reasons he loaned Deulofue .hypothytically that can be gr8 as you have players who operates in both ends of the floor and gives you the edge on the opposition but practically it can't be done unless you have really a prime Alves &R.Carlos as fullbacks as it needs fast fullbacks who can keep running the whole game and have gr8 defensive awarness
Alves once had that but he cfan't do it in his 30's ,Alba has the workrate but his definsive movements are suspects in many occasions
This has left our defense open against PSG no matter what the midfield players cover them ,I think the fullback need to be less involved offensively and both don't attack at same time at least

 

[Ursegor]

Iniesta "covering" for Alba is useless anyway. Here he is alongside Alba, 2 vs. 1 situation. So? Doesn't help. Alba still gets #REKT:

Iniesta can defend only so much.

 

[Alarcón]

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

We'e had 7 clean sheets in 8 games this season and would have won away to PSG if not for stupid individual errors. You people are trying to force a comparison between the 2 coaches but really we're playing 10 times better.

 

[spark]

We'e had 7 clean sheets in 8 games this season and would have won away to PSG if not for stupid individual errors. You people are trying to force a comparison between the 2 coaches but really we're playing 10 times better.

You keep saying that but it isnt true.

 

[Kohe321]

To be fair, though, we gifted them the game through individual errors. Lucho made mistakes, but we would have won had Busquets and Alba not messed up. It would of course help to also have a striker (Pedro) that didn't give the ball away every time he received it as well.

Many players had a shockingly bad performance, our coach did some blunders, and we still almost drew them in their home stadium. Many ways to look at this, and I can't say I'm sharing the pessimism that some of you have. Suarez isn't even in the team yet, and Lucho has the potential to become an absolutely great coach. I think this is going to turn out great!

 

[MagIX]

Same here. I don't see this system working. Messidependencia just shifted from scoring to creating. Still too much burden on him.

It's not about impatience, too. Just the feeling Lucho is giving me. I'm not seeing tactical variations, just the team again being predictable and depending too much on Messi.

Same feeling.
Tito=Tata=Lucho

I put my last hopes on Suarez (my first positive post on Suarez)

 

[DonAK]

A good manager is someone who learns from his mistakes.

Let's see what Luis Enrique is made out of.

 

[Alarcón]

First of all, the biggest issue we had with Tata was not tactics but motivation and fitness and it showed towards the end of the season when we could barely create any chances against the likes of Getafe. That's also why writing something like Tito=Tata=Lucho makes no sense whatsoever. Also about Tata, it was really painful to watch Barça playing last season, and not only towards the end. Our playing style was awful with him and my eyes clearly prefer Lucho's approach, regardless of the results.

Second, we were very messidependent even with Guardiola, even then almost any attack went through him, the difference being that maybe Messi was better back then. The best testament to that is the fact that Leo scored 50 goals 2 seasons ago.

Third. Guardiola's tactical mastermind is often overstated on here. He had a clear vision, a great idea, the guts to make unpopular decisions, great motivational skills and the best players at the right time. But he has to date not become a tactical mastermind in the sense that he struggles to operate outside his football philosophy and to adapt to opposing teams or different circumstances. The only "tactical variation" we've ever seen of Pep was playing a double pivot in CL away games, that's it. He doesn't vary his tactical approach at all, he just tries to impose his system on the opponent. If it works, we see some of the best football ever played, and if it doesn't, he loses 0-4 to RM. Which brings me to my next point:

4. Tactical variation. This was the first game of the season that was really tough, and we didn't do well, but it had more to do with stupid individual errors than with any tactics. We lost the ball all the time and subsequently didn't nearly have as much possession as in other games. I don't think it was Lucho's game plan to lose the ball or get dribbled all the time. Either way it is far too early in the season to talk about tactical variation or Lucho being stubborn. Let's do this when we play like this for several games in a row or can only score 2 goals in 6 matches against Atlético like with Tata. Lucho proved last season that he is very capable of varying his tactics.