honeric01:


So what does your "off" the pitch value have to do with winning at Anoeta we're yet to win for 3 years?

honeric01:


practise what you preach, join any local club here in nigeria and try getting on their board. dont you think you are wasting away?

honeric01:


Why should doing something new to solve an old problem be seen as a mistake?

dmcdad:

Remember, you brought the off-pitch topic/point. So, you would be in a better position to answer that.

dmcdad:
Cope reported that Lucho has been given 2 games ultimatum to fix things on and off the pitch.

Mmmm...

Seen from Italy: why Barcelona fans should be wary about Luis Enrique


When Barcelona announced their new coach for next season last May 21st, many Romans raised their eyebrows: it was Luis Enrique, the man that led AS Roma to one of the worst seasons in their recent history.2011-2012was the first campaignwith the new American owners who had just bought a majority share from the Sensi family, who had ruled the club since 1993. That could be a first mitigating circumstance for the Spaniard: it's never easy working in a club where everythingis changing under your feet.The choice of “Lucho” was a declaration of intent: ball-possession and spectacular football with young players. Luis Enrique made many achievements withBarcelona B: after having earned promotion from Segunda Division B, in the 2010-2011 he reached third place in Segunda Division (Spanish second division) and Franco Baldini – general manager at that time – was sure that he would bring the same enthusiasm and results in Giallorosso. Events transpired in a different way. Roma exited the Europa League in the summer preliminary round andplaced seventh in Serie A,28 points away from the winners (Juventus). The club didn't qualify for any European competition.They scored 60 goals and conceded 54: only 6 sides conceded more than the Giallorossi; Inter and the bottom five.At the end of the season, Roma decided to continue with Luis Enrique but the Spaniard preferred to resign, waiving his expected salary for the second year, something uncommon in the world of football that should be appreciated. That obviously doesn't mean that Barcelona fans have to prepare for a disastrous 2014-2015, but is worth analysing what happened in that inauspicious year to discover Luis Enrique's qualities and faults.Why Barcelona fans can be optimistic.This time, Luis Enrique is at home: Barcelona is his perfect environment and he already knows the staff and many players such as Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Deulofeu and Busquets just to name a few. Lucho's tactical credo isBlaugrana's one, so he will not have to convince anyone. Fans and management don't accept football that doesn't comply with two dogmas: offensiveness and ball possession. At Roma, his “tiqui-taca” was always on trial. Such an extended and extreme ball possession is something unknown in Italy. Imposing it is not easy.Furthermore, Luis Enriquerelated brilliantly with the Roma players. Daniele De Rossi once said: “He's the best coach I ever had”. Nicolas Burdisso, ex Roma defender, recently said to Esports Cope: “He was a good surprise for us andwe learned so much with him. He's a great person”. Despite the awful season, the squad wanted him to stay.Perhaps one reason for such affection was thedemocratic way he managed the dressing room. There were no seniors, no “mama's boys”. In an away game at Atalanta, Daniele De Rossi – a Roma icon and the most beloved by the fans along with Francesco Totti - was a few minutes late for the pre-match meeting. Luis Enrique finedand excluded him from the starting eleven. The same happened some weeks earlier with Pablo Osvaldo, who slappedErik Lamelaafter a defeat against Udinese. Osvaldo watched the following game from the stands. Everyone had his chance that season, even youngsters who maybe didn't deserve it: Aleandro Rosi, Stefano Okaka and Leandro Greco especially. Being respected and appreciated from your squad isn't always an easytask for a young coach.Why Barcelona fans should be worried.Ok, Lucho was highly respected in the dressing room.But he never managed to inspire motivation and concentration in the team. Roma suffered many debaclesin the 2011-2012 season: 3-0 from Fiorentina, 4-2 from Cagliari, 4-1 at Atalanta, 4-2 from Lecce, 4-0 from Juventus. In each one of these games, the team showed an appalling lack of personality and let itself go, without even fighting. Lecce descended into Serie B – the Italian second division – that season but even so they outclassed Roma. Games with Juventus are very important for Roma fans as the two clubs aredivided by a harsh rivalry. But that night, Roma kneeled to theBianconeri. Something unacceptable that definitely broke the relationship between Luis Enrique and Roma fans.The fault for such a lack of personality – and a neverending discontinuity - has to be ascribed to the coach. It's odd for a player that became famous also for his grit and leadership, but he clearly didn't manage to convey these characteristics over to his players.Barcelona players need to be motivatedafter a negative – but not disastrous – season like the last one. Will Lucho be able to inspire them, leading Barça to aReconquista?Above all, in one aspect Roma and Barcelona are worlds apart:quality of the squad.Two years agothe Giallorossi were hugely less equipped than Garcia's team. Certain technical deficiencies werenot Luis Enrique's fault. But he's to blame for some fiascos: left-backJosè Angel(Asturian like Lucho) was clearly not ready to play in Serie A but the coach wanted him to be bought and insisted with him for all the season, exposing the player to poor showings. In the last two seasons, Josè Angel played 29 games overall for Real Sociedad. One game more than the entire 2011-2012 season. Perhaps he's not ready for LaLiga either. Another of Lucho's lost bets wasBojan Krkic: the wonderboy seemed to have lost himself far from La Masia.“I'll deploy a system which suits the players we have and gets the best out of them”, Luis Enrique said in his first press conference as Barcelona manager. It's a sage statement, and we really hope for the Cules that he will apply it. In Rome, he didn't. The4-3-3 system was immutable for himatlhough he didn't have the right men to apply it, especially in the defensive phase. Luis Enrique deployed a very high defensive line, but his centre-backs were Simon Kjaer and Gabriel Heinze: good players, but very slow and absolutely unfitting for such a defensive scheme. But that wasn't enough to change his mind. That's one reason why Roma conceded 60 goals. To make a comparison, this season Roma conceded 25 goals in Serie A playing with a 4-3-3 formation.It's all about how you implement that 4-3-3. One could say that Barcelona is taking a leap into the unknown (although they know Luis Enrique as a player and a youth coach) but we have to admit that Luis Enrique earned a lot of experience in the past two seasons with Roma and Celta Vigo, where he placed ninth. With the Galician side Lucho demonstrated to have learnt some hard Italian lessons. And he had the audacity to put himself to the test far from Barcelona.Good luck, Lucho.

honeric01:


Maybe he's working on a better 11 for us that can't be easily predicted? i can't really say all his decisions have been right but blaming him for using something different to solve an old problem to me is not fair. i also do not like the fact that he has used 17 different 11 so far, not holding brief for him on that. only vocal about our last game.

sebod:

Let's see it this way, if he had prosecuted the match with his strongest line up (which is yet to be known after over 25 matches) and lost, the questions would have been different. I don't have any issue resting any player as long as there is a reasonable reason for it. But starting Munir who has been under performing over Neymar in a game of such magnitude all in the name of finding solutions to an old problem is not acceptable. What if the players are injured? But they were not! Fans complain because of some poor decisions he has made so far which are not helping us. Can you imagine Mathiue playing as RB against RM? And yet,he had no justification for it. Coaches make mistakes and takes responsibility for them, but our oga never sees anything wrong in all his decisions. Fans have the right to shout bro.

coded01:


Are you a barca fan?


What do you think will happen if Messi decides to leave?

sebod:

Let's see it this way, if he had prosecuted the match with his strongest line up (which is yet to be known after over 25 matches) and lost, the questions would have been different. I don't have any issue resting any player as long as there is a reasonable reason for it. But starting Munir who has been under performing over Neymar in a game of such magnitude all in the name of finding solutions to an old problem is not acceptable. What if the players are injured? But they were not! Fans complain because of some poor decisions he has made so far which are not helping us. Can you imagine Mathiue playing as RB against RM? And yet,he had no justification for it. Coaches make mistakes and takes responsibility for them, but our oga never sees anything wrong in all his decisions. Fans have the right to shout bro.

Diario Sport is reporting that Messi will have a meeting with the rest of the captains (Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets). They want to hear Leo's side of the story and find out why does Messi have such a big problem with Lucho. The captains have already talked to Enrique about the issue.

After hearing from Messi, the group plans to have a meeting between players and Enrique only, to solve the situation and move on from the issue, sources say.

It started on Saturday night, when Luis Enrique got into a heated discussion withLionel Messi and Neymar Jr. when he told the two that they would be benched against Real Sociedad. It continued on Sunday, when Messi and Ney's absence for most of the game led to a disappointing loss. It got worse on Monday, when Leo missed an open practice because he is reportedly done with Lucho.


Then the club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, started cleaning house and fired Andoni Zubizarreta, who is no longer Barcelona's Sporting Director, which led to Carles Puyolresigning as Zubi's assistant after only four months at the job.


Now, the process of changing everything looks set to be completed. Sources told Barça Blaugranes on Tuesday that Josep Maria Bartomeu has informed the players and his board associates that coach Luis Enrique's contract will be terminated at the end of this week

Now, the process of changing everything looks set to be completed. Sources told Barça Blaugranes on Tuesday that Josep Maria Bartomeu has informed the players and his board associates that coach Luis Enrique's contract will be terminated at the end of this week, most precisely after Barça's match against Atlético Madrid in Round 18 of La Liga.

Bartomeu has a scheduled press conference for Wednesday afternoon, in which he'll clarify the situation and possibly announce the firing of one Enrique.

parrotibaba:
a man united fan n if Messi wants to leave den fine!! when cr7 wanted to leave united ,I accepted it

AbuMikey:


What's the Meaning of this na!?

Mtcheww!
This Yeye Board just spoilt My Mood!

honeric01:


Someone said they came late to training, hence the reason they were benched.

dmcdad:

Who permitted them? Lucho!

coded01:

I knew u be snitch...

honeric01:


And you know this for a fact?

homesteady:
I wonder why we are still arguing about this matter! The final verdict has been passed!
Messi and Neymar on the bench doesn't make sense

You want to play a park the bus team, and he chose this lineup
1) He knows our midfield is dead! It was even a defender - Mash that was even giving some defence splitting passes!
2)He left out Barca most creative Player - Messi! Doesn't Lucho check the stats of his players?(Maybe we should employ coogar to teach him how to check stats) doesn't he know that Messi has created the most chances in the team, and no one comes close?
3) We had only one player who could dribble his way to pass defenders - Iniesta! He can't do it alone now! And we had 2 great dribble masters on the bench!
4) When I saw the lineup, I thought he would want to use fast counters to play, but why put Xavi, who breathes on tiki taka? Why not put Rakitic who will also have the experience of counter attacks from his sevilla days?
There was clearly no plan!

dmcdad:

Of course! That's why it is more annoying.

honeric01:


SMH!

AbuMikey:
I've never trusted Enrique.

Go back some pages, and You would see where I clearly stated Lucho is a clueless, after the Loss against Madrid and Celta, I just knew he wasn't competent enough, considering the way we lost.


Let them sack him jor, I even prefer a Claude Le Roy over Lucho

parrotibaba:
@pharaoh I thought Messi missed training cos of stomach illness? aaah!!! snitch kwa , when u d gallivant around united thread u no d see me?