I think everyone commented positively on Rijkaard (based on their argumentation) and the poll itself, all miss a main point..
The periods should be split into three parts:
i) Rijkaard and Ten Cate
ii) Rijkaard alone
iii) eventually Pep
its obvious for everyone knowing even the least of Ten Cate, that his combination with Rijkaard was working and when he left the team just sucked..
So rijkaard alone Vs Pep is a hillarious question...
Rijkaard and Ten Cate Vs Pep makes sense, though i vote for Pep by far..
My opinion:
----->Ten Cate being a great tactician,physician and able to keep discipline in the dressing room but possessing some behavioural problem characteristics and lack of communicational skills (which showed when he worked as a first coach in Ajax and Panathinaikos), and Rijkaard being a not so great tactcian, but able to lead a team, handle the PR and press and keep psychological balance, made together a great combination that brought barca to top elite after many many years.. The 2006 CL was the highlight of this..
Agree with Catalonial Devil: they brought magic..
But, that team was, as someone else described it, 'the entertainers'..
It was build around some great signings.. in summer 04 we brought in a great number 9 (eto), another great altternative (larsson), and two of the most wanted number tens of last CL in their teams (Deco and Giuly) to match with the greatest number 10 of that time (ronaldinho), a 03 signing.. the other positions were filled by the existing squad and some role-occupying signings to cover the holes..
Ten cate employed some great tactics to combine them and play attacking football.. The great quality of the players enabled these tactics and the result was great dominance against a decaying Galactico Madrid in Spain and competing equally the greatest of Europe back then (Mourinho's Chelsea and Ancelotti's Milan)..
The whole approach was different back then.. The goal was to attack effectively, allow ronaldinho,deco and etoo to use their skills for the team's benefit.. That team never cared for outpassing or outpossissing an opponent.. They cared to win through entertaining!!..
When Ten Cate left, Rijkaard could not simple control the team. He lacked the technical qualification/knowledge and he was unable to handle dressing room problems.. the team started losing its playing fluidity and along with the falldown of Ronaldinho, it gradually lost its comfidence too.. Gifting the '07 Laliga to Capello's MAdrid was embarrassing.. Even with the obvious collision of the team, this league should have been won....
07/08 season was an 'off' season, being outrun in the league by Schuster! and reaching semi with United by picking Shalke in the draw (this is for Beast!!), that is by pure luck..
-----> then pep came and eveything changed.. Equality in the dressing room ,waving good bye to players who are not willing to put their ego under the team, turning players like Xavi and Iniesta to leaders, building a side based on home-grown players and total revolution on the pitch.... You know the rest..
I have a strong hunch that Pep would have managed the same even without rijkaard-ten cate previous successes... The base of his success was (at larger percentage) his philosophy and (at smaller but not negligible) the great batch of Masia players happen to coexist at the same era (Messi, Iniesta, XAvi.. )
