Luis Enrique

Bill, I think all Barca fans would agree with you on the board, but unfortunately our socios decided for them to remain and not much we can do unless they decide to leave on their own.

However your correct to an extent that not all falls on Enrique, however Enrique has a voice and should make it heard for the club are doing things he doesn't want. However, with or without Enrique we would've bought Suarez, the same as ter Stegen that the board made, Enrique has made signings such as Paco, Turan, Vidal, etc.

Again you make it seem he had like no control over the signing, if were talking about average players he has a hand in it. At the same time, as far as I can see I haven't seen him even develop a talent yet in his 2 and half years here.

Don't know what Valverde has achieved to be mentioned here. The guy has no past experience of coaching players this big and his track record isn't exactly eye-watering.

Koeman too. I don't know why this scrub is being mentioned here. Cause he has done well in England? Ain't exactly difficult to succeed in England as a coach when the local coaches were all playing ancient football played in rugby pitches.

Sampaoli yes. With him, at least you can expect to play exciting football.

danyjr wrote:Don't know what Valverde has achieved to be mentioned here. The guy has no past experience of coaching players this big and his track record isn't exactly eye-watering.

Koeman too. I don't know why this scrub is being mentioned here. Cause he has done well in England? Ain't exactly difficult to succeed in England as a coach when the local coaches were all playing ancient football played in rugby pitches.

Sampaoli yes. With him, at least you can expect to play exciting football.

Valverde has managed the same big players than Sampaoli or Pochettino, as he's managed Valencia.
And his track record is almost inmaculate.

Triumphed at Athletic
Triumphed at Espanyol.
Triumphed at Olimpiacos
Failed at Vila-real
Triumphed at Olimpiacos
Triumphed at Valencia
Triumphed at Athletic

It would be shameful if we sign Koeman instead of Valverde.

Giving credit where credit's due, I will always credit LE for the way he optimized the team around MSN.

Even the MVP wasn't as lethal as this (but then the team was built around Xavi more than Messi at that point).

But that's about all he's got honestly. Either he's not as sophisticated to understand how to counter teams tactically or he's oblivious to the reasons as to why teams are figuring us out.

Either way, both aren't acceptable.

Wish we could get Emery, but I think that's off the plate for the next 3 years at least. Sampaoli would be fun.

IMO we need someone to just keep our really talented players disciplined and make sure that the tactics aren't too suspect. The rest shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Didn't know where to post this...

http://www.espnfc.us/spanish-primera-division/story/3064863/dani-alves-barcelona-directors-have-no-idea-how-to-treat-their-players

http://www.espnfc.us/spanish-primera-division/story/3064974/neymar-loses-appeal-and-will-stand-trial-for-barcelona-transfer

I'm seeing Allegri's name also being thrown around as a possible candidate for next season.

According to Marca, Lucho just announced he will not manage Barcelona next season. He just made it official

Well what are our options? These are the names tossed around

Valverde (Atletic Bilbao)
Sampaoli (Sevilla)
Koeman (Everton)
Allegri (Juventus)
Klopp (Liverpool)
Wenger (Arsenal)
Beisla (unattached)

Sampaoli
Allegri
Valverde
Koeman
Klopp
Beisla
Wenger

in that order, best to worst (for our style ex. i dont think klopp would be that great here let alone possible)

Man idk how I feel about any of them.

Sampaoli - all offense but not good defensively

Valverde - Would be interesting if he can handle the pressure of Barcelona and how the players would react to him.

Koeman - Like Moyes, I think he is best at a mid table club, not suited for a big club like us.

Allegri - Not super sold on him for us, not sure why but he doesnt quite convince me even though he is a coach who is pretty solid

Klopp - I think he wants to stay at Liverpool and succeed. He doesnt seem to be leaving any time soon unless the club itself axes him

Wenger - He really should be considering retiring over anything. I don't want even though he would likely get the  most out of our Masia/B team development

Beisla - he would run our team to the ground by mid season and would likely bounce at any give time. He is too unreliable

I think everyone could see this coming. Unfortunately I don't think a new manager will be a solution on it's own, the entire club structure is deficient - the board, president and football director all need to step down.

Yea lets get my nig Monchi from Sevilla lol. I keep reading he is gonna leave at the end of the year from Sevilla.

windkick wrote:Man idk how I feel about any of them.

Sampaoli - all offense but not good defensively

Valverde - Would be interesting if he can handle the pressure of Barcelona and how the players would react to him.

Koeman - Like Moyes, I think he is best at a mid table club, not suited for a big club like us.

Allegri - Not super sold on him for us, not sure why but he doesnt quite convince me even though he is a coach who is pretty solid

Klopp - I think he wants to stay at Liverpool and succeed. He doesnt seem to be leaving any time soon unless the club itself axes him

Wenger - He really should be considering retiring over anything. I don't want even though he would likely get the  most out of our Masia/B team development

Beisla - he would run our team to the ground by mid season and would likely bounce at any give time. He is too unreliable

Very good analysis. I agree with everything you say.

We should stay away from Bielsa, Koeman and Klopp. And Wenger? are you serious he is an option? please.... go.

Is Allegri even on the market? By far the best option if we're willing to overlook that he's a decisive step away from the club style, which I don't think we are

Anyways I think we all expect Messi's contract to play a role, either him pushing for Sampaoli (not that they are close friends or anything, so I find this unlikely) or Bart using Sampaoli as another chip to convince Messi to stay.

Juan Carlos Unzué, Lucho's assistant is being mentioned allot online as an option.

BC; I see Allegri's name being mentioned allot as the person targeted to succeed Wenger at Arsenal. I even read reports he started working on his English to be ready

I don't see Unzue as a viable option, there seems to be consensus for a change and he is the continuation candidate.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I think everyone could see this coming. Unfortunately I don't think a new manager will be a solution on it's own, the entire club structure is deficient - the board, president and football director all need to step down.

This.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Is Allegri even on the market? By far the best option if we're willing to overlook that he's a decisive step away from the club style, which I don't think we are

But should we really want to move away from our style? I see many teams even in La Liga that are trying to copy some aspects of 2009-11 Barca, while we are going away from that it seems. Instead of bringing players to force our way on the opponent, we are bringing reactive players who are used to adapt to what an opponent does, more than to dictate the game themselves (Gomes and Rakitic).

For me, at the moment, I'm wondering if changing our style of play is really beneficial going forward. We would basically need a complete restructure of the team, including a permanent switch from a 4-3-3 to a more conventional midfield setup, which seems to be the already overused 4-2-3-1.

I guess my no1 style related criteria when choosing the new manager is made of two parts. 1) How that manager sees the progressive positional play when in possession (how will players be allowed to vacate their original positions in midfield, to offer more passing options and create triangulations with their teammates, and how will those movements be organized in such a way that we mantain a correct shape in positional), and 2) How does the new manager sees zonal defence? Whether it means covering space in an uniform manner (classical way), or does it involve more modern variations, like limiting the space around the ball that the opponent can use, with the calculated risk of allowing that oponent to play in areas that we cover more loosely (farther away in relation to the ball).

I say this because Lucho often went for a type of defence in which we covered positions without adjusting to the area where the ball was played. Which resulted in all sorts of problems, especially this season.

So, for me, fluid or semifluid system when in possession, which makes marking harder, and a zonal system in defence that is in continuous adaptation in relation to the ball. That means every player almost will have a different movement depending on where the ball is played. Only problem with that idea is that it requires that the whole team participates in defensive transition. And from what I'm seeing with the MSN, they are quite passive a lot of times when off the ball.

Welcome and great first post! Just to be clear I did not mean to suggest we should move away from our style, only that Allegri is on paper the best coach we are currently linked to.

I completely agree that positional play is something that will be key to both recover Barca's identity and the choice of a new coach. It's something that has been lost with LE, who in spite of often having more possession often bypasses the midfield entirely (as seen by Busquet's diminished role).

I think both Sampaoli and Valverde would put a higher emphasis on this and on pressing up high. One of my concerns with coaches who have never coached at this level though is how they will react to having a star-studded team. We don't want another case of star-struck Martino thinking his players know better than him...

BarrileteCosmico wrote:
We don't want another case of star-struck Martino thinking his players know better than him...

They did though.

Also, please, don't compare Sampaoli or Valverde to Martino. They are both winners with an inmaculate trajectory. What has Tata done to be named at their level?

This woeful board want to bring in someone who will be their puppet hence Sampaoli is off the table for being too impulsive and perhaps even imperious.

All of Tito, Tata and Lucho were typical high school teachers like someone already mentioned somwhere, easily dominated and obedient.

Valverde is about that type but at least he's capable tactically. We'll see but I'm not getting my hopes up, there's still a possibility Unzue is their main option...

Also, great post Serghei, and welcome

What makes Valverde a "winner"?

Lost a Cup final with Espanyol.

Got sacked by Villarreal 6 months after taking over Pellegrini's team.

Got sacked by Valencia after failing to qualify for the CL on the last match day by conceding 4 goals to a Sevilla side which had nothing to play for.

Is keeping Athletic Bilbao in midtable position.


Just because Athletic Bilbao press us to death like many other midtable La Liga teams like Celta or Real Sociedad because playing against Barca is like playing a Cup final for those teams doesn't make him a winner. Winning something in Greece doesn't count and winning a Mickey Mouse preseason Cup against Barca also doesn't count.

Random La Liga coach. Eusebio's Real Sociedad is 7 points above Valverde's team. Eusebio, the guy everyone wanted to get rid of when he was Barca B coach.

Hehe, Valverde wasn't sacked at Valencia, you should inform yourself, he rejected them. He took Valencia "mid" season in shambles and almost got them into the CL, they were more than pleased with him.

What makes him a winner: achieving his goals everywhere he's been except at Vila-real and even overachieving most of the time.
He reached a UEFA and a cup final with frigging Espanyol. He put frigging Athletic Club into the Champions League. These are mediocre teams which overachieved with him. He also reached a cup final with Athletic.

Also, Real Sociedad is a much better team than Athletic right now... who's best player is a 36 year old.... Athletic were 5th last season (with Eusebio also at Real Sociedad, btw). And look at his team... they are journeymen.

Compare that to Lucho's trajectory before Barça, were he was mediocre everywhere he went... he's definitely a better choice than Lucho. Lucho before Barça:
Good at Barça B (like Eusebio btw).
Poor at Roma (once he left Roma jumped to Champions League rapidly).
Average at Celta (kept them at Primera, but once he left they jumped to Top-half of the table).

Not only has Athletic pressed us to death, they've been more able with the ball than us many times, with a team that is average at best.