Luis Enrique is off to a great start at Barcelona, but comparisons with Guardiola are dangerous and should be avoided.
Pep Guardiola has recently tipped Luis Enrique to do an even better job than he did at Barcelona, which – to say the least – is a very bold expectation considering many regard Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona one of the best, if not the best, teams of all-time, a claim backed up by the trophies won and quality of the football played. If you’re a Barcelona fan, expecting the Luis Enrique era to even come close to what Pep Guardiola did is, in all likelihood, setting yourself up for disappointment due to an impossible standard. The success achieved in that era was not only due to the unique coaching talents of Pep Guardiola, but an unprecedented and unlikely to ever be repeated generation of players coming from La Masia, led by Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and AndrAi??s Iniesta all in their prime.
Pep Guardiola found a team on the verge of greatness, or rather a team with all the ingredients to achieve greatness under the right guidance. Luis Enrique has found the remains of that team; the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi, despite remaining world beaters in the case of the latter two, are no longer in their physical prime – and obviously no one of the same quality has emerged to replace them -, Puyol is retired, Daniel Alves is only getting older… In other words, there are no miracles and Luis Enrique will most likely not be able to create a team of the same quality and unique impact in football history as Pep Guardiola did, not even remotely close. More importantly, nor should he – or anyone else – be expected to. Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona was a perfect storm, a once in a lifetime sort of thing that won’t be emulated. It’d be a very dangerous mistake to hold every Barcelona manager and team to that standard.
Luis Enrique’s job is not to match or surpass Guardiola, but to do the best with the squad at his disposal and put in a serious challenge for every major title, which is definitely Ai??a realistic ask with Barcelona being a top 2 contender for La Liga and top 5 for the Champions League at the very least. Ai??He will also be expected to renew the squad through signings but especially through promoting and integrating youth players, which he has done excellently so far, most notably with Munir – who has had a very bright start to the season. So far, although it’s still early to make any definitive assessments, Enrique started pretty well; Barcelona have won each of their first three La Liga matches without conceding a single goal, opening up Ai??a 6-point lead over eternal rivals Real Madrid in the process, which in La Liga is already a pretty considerable gap. The football hasn’t been particularly awe-inspiring, but it’s been solid and efficient and things are bound to further improve when Luis Suarez makes his debut next month and joins Neymar and Messi up front.
In any case, managing expectations is crucial, you can’t demand Luis Enrique a treble in his first season like Pep Guardiola achieved, or even anything remotely close to that. The time where basically everyone considered Barcelona the best team in the world by a margin is gone and has been for a while; obviously Barcelona are still a fantastic team with a squad that is the envy of most, but they’re now just another great team among the European elite as the likes of Bayern Munich and AtlAi??tico Madrid proved in the last two editions of the Champions League. Barcelona are not favorites to win the Champions League this year and that can’t be demanded of Luis Enrique, his work needs to be evaluated under ‘normal’ standards and not against the legacy of Pep Guardiola.
With all that said, Luis Enrique has everything it takes to be another ex-Barcelona player to become an iconic manager at the club; he knows the club’s philosophy inside out and he has already shown in his relatively shot managerial career that he’s capable of undertaking a task like this and help write another great chapter in Barcelona history. In football, things can change in the blink of an eye, but so far Luis Enrique has given Barcelona supporters every reason to believe in his ideas and his vision for the club.
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