The Luis Enrique report by La Liga Cafe.

"Treble on his very first season" It is actually a big achievement for any manager and his team. Luis Enrique was the second manager from FC Barcelona to achieve this honour (after Pep). With him Barcelona even ended up winning 5 major trophies out of the possible 6 in the calendar year (2015). He was a hero for every Barca fan after that amazing season and he even got success in following season completing domestic double (La Liga and Copa Del Rey).  And after two great seasons expectations were high from every Blagurana fans in his third season in command.


Transfer Window
Luis Enrique is famous for his unpredictable and direct moves, which was seen on his transfer moves in this summer transfer window. So it was quite a busy summer for him as he brought 6 new players to strengthen the squad. Also big names like Dani alves, Marc Bartra, Claudio Bravo and Thomas Vermaelen (Loan), Douglas (Loan) departed with happy or unhappy faces. By signing Paco Alcácer from Valencia, Munir El Haddadi was subjected to move other way around for a season long loan spell, Sergi Samper to Granada was also his move for the youngster to develop and gain some first team minutes there.

Pre season 2016-17
Pre-season was full of high and lows for Lucho as he gave chances to La Masia players to shine and so their ability to break in in first team. Defeat against Liverpool was hard to accept for fans but the brighter side of it was that mixture of first team and La Masia players showed great chemistry in that game. Though it was not enough but at least not below par, which is always a good sign for a manager.



Season 2016-17
After great two previous seasons, expectations was high from FC Barcelona and specially from Luis Enrique.
Winning Super Cup de Espana against the newly appointed Sampaoli's side in Sevilla (5-0) was dream start for Luis Enrique & Co. but only loss was that Iniesta got injured in the first leg and was declared out for 3-4 weeks. They entered the La Liga with winning mentality and won fashionably (6-2) vs Real Betis. They also clinched the important away win at San Mames with help of Rakitic's rocket header. But they sufferrd a shock defeat of 1-2 against newly promoted side Alaves at home which was totally unexpected for the team and also for the manager. Lucho took the responsibilty for the loss and also stated that players played below their best which lost them vital three points. Barca came back stronger after that defeat and performed well in both competitions (La Liga & UCL) scoring 20 goals in 5 matches but that form also didn't last long and again this new style and midfield dilemma resulted in loss (4-3) against Celta de Vigo. Then Iniesta came back in starting 11 and gave barca the much needed form and team won 4 matches icluding 4-0 against Manchester City and important away win (2-3)at mestalla.

 In match against Valencia, Iniesta once again got injured just after 14 minutes following  a challenge from Enzo Perez, with Barca later confirming knee ligament damage for the midfielder. Which made Luis Enirque to shuffle his pack and find perfect replacement for "The Magician (Iniesta)" and the veteran gave chance to Denis Suarez and Andres Gomes to shine in absence of their captain but they couldn't perform as per par and which affected team at most and even with MSN Barca scored only 9 goals in 8 games. Also they dropped 6 points and now stands 2nd in the table with six points gap to their arch rivals Real Madrid.

Lucho on journey to find perfect midfield

Trio of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets took Barcelona to new heights under Pep Guardiola between 2008 and 2012. Those days, however, are long gone. But also many new faces have come to retain the same magic with new style. Players like Euro Cup winner Andres Gomes, La Masia graduates  Denis Suarez, Rafinha and even Rakitic mighy not be capable enough to replace THAT trio but they can give much more under Luis Enrique.

After watching previous two seasons one can easily say that Lucho has changed barca's style of play with more direct approach towards goal and addition of long passes with their short passing aka "Tiki-Taka" to counter more often.
With Iniesta sidelined frequently through injury, Busquets below his best and Ivan Rakitic off colour as well, Barca's midfield has appeared ordinary in recent matches and this led Enrique to try 12 different combinations in midfield.
Lucho needed to find perfect combination of midfield which can easily cope up with this mixture of long-short passing style and he tried many different combinations. With Iniesta's golden era coming to end it is compulsory for barca to find a replacement of him and play as fluently as before with all other available players like Busquets, Rakitic, Denis, Rafinha, Turan and Gomes.
Till date most used midfield is Gomes, Busquets and Rakitic which has won only 2 matches out of 5 played together. But combo of Denis, Busquets and Rakitic has shown good quality in every game they played combined winning 3 out of 4.  This doesn't mean that Enrique will be satisfied, he always wants more from his players in each game.
Finding perfect combinations is neither easy nor fast, it takes time and also costs some points but it is in favor of club as a long term investment.