How highly do you rate Tito Vilanova?

I think people in this thread are forgetting it goes both ways. Everyone seems to want to give Pep all the credit when Tito was his right hand man and he surely had a lot of influence in the teams that won so many titles.

I mean all you had to do is watch the games and see how much back and fourth there was between Pep and Tito during the games.

A lot of people in this thread keep saying he is just using the same tactics as Pep well those were Pep and Tito's tactics and no one will really ever know how much Tito helped with the tactics but IMO he helped a lot.

Tito seems to be a good coach, I like his rotation of the team and certain players and he is getting through an injury crisis that no other manager I can remember has faced in his first year in charge at a massive club.

He not only held the team together he set a early season record with points won.

I agree there is still a wait and see approach but those who critisize the man or down play what he has done so far are just flat out wrong. So far he has almost been flawless.

Oh and also, since when has playing Real Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia in your first ten league games as a manager an "easy" schedule and "having not played anyone yet"? That's a pretty dumb statement.

And last but not least, this whole Barca could win without a coach nonsense is just that, nonsense. This comment is the reason I think a lot of posters on this site are between the ages of 10-15 years old.

Let us not forget in Frank's last year in charge we finished third in La Liga and won nothing. In the very next year Pep's first, we won 6 trophies and set all kinds of records. Have you people forgotten this already?

Is their a team who's good defensively and good at counter-attacking/attacking out there?

I think that could be the team to stop Barca.

For me Guardiola, as overly-stubborn as he was, was someone who really changed Barcelona. The style that Barça played under him was unique and original and no other coach has even attempted to play like that. The attention to detail and conservatism of Guardiola's methods were unlike most coaches.

Which brings us to my next point: Tito's team doesn't remind me of Guardiola's Barcelona. In fact his team reminds me a lot like Rijkaard's Barcelona, Wenger's Arsenal of a decade ago, AVB's Porto and Bielsa's teams. The style Barcelona plays this season is not unique any more, involves more risk in attack and less risk in defence and is generally looks more attacking and with less emphasis on possession per se. Signature of this style of play is more end-to-end stuff, which you get in every Barcelona match you watch these days. I dare say this rarely happened back when Guardiola was the coach.

Tito, as far as starting elevens and substitutions are concerned, frustrates me less than Pep did - so I'm tempted to say I like him more. But I'm not forming an opinion until the end of the season.