After three seasons.
The Luis Enrique era is over after the latest Copa del Rey triumph. Ernesto Valverde of Athletic Club Bilbao will by every account be named his successor. But before we get swept up in the plans for the future, let’s talk about the era we just completed.
It’s sometimes overlooked that Luis Enrique was an important player before he was a manager. He spent 8 seasons at Barcelona, where he developed a reputation for being a jack-of-all trades and a reliable goalscorer. He also captained Barça and was one of their best players of the mid 90s to mid 00s.
After retirement, he became a manager. Lucho was a coach linked with Barcelona often because he had been highly successful as B team coach. He brought them back to the Segunda Division after an 11 year absence. After, he left to start a project at AS Roma in 2011, hoping to export the Barcelona model to Italy. Here he had a middling season while he tried to reformat the side. His team finished 7th, about par for Roma in those times (in the preceding season they finished 6th, in the next one 6th again.)
He left after one year and wouldn’t return until 2013, when he took over Spanish side Celta Vigo. Here he achieved his first success as first team manager. The year before Lucho arrived, the Galicians had finished two points above the drop thanks in large part due to top scorer Iago Aspas. When Lucho arrived, Celta sold Aspas to Liverpool. Yet Lucho’s men got into the top half of the table. They finished the season on a flurry of good results, four wins out of five... including a 2-0 victory over Real Madrid that ended Los Blancos' title hopes.
For his good work at Celta and longtime association with Barça, Luis Enrique became the Catalans’ manager in 2014. His first year started off very strongly but almost fell apart at the midway point. A loss in el Clasico and a memorable defeat to Real Sociedad started talks of a crisis that ended in the sacking of sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta.
Despite the doom and gloom, the team was not doing all that bad. They won their Champions League group, were in striking distance of the league, and were progressing in the cup. However, that shock seemed to jolt them into form, and from then on, they looked nigh-unbeatable.
Finishing with just the second treble in history - and becoming the first club to have two - was a phenomenal success for Lucho. More so when you consider his perilous Champions League path, which included Paris Saint-Germain in the group stage, Manchester City, PSG again, Bayern Munich, and Juventus.
His follow up season was almost as successful, with a domestic double, the European Supercup and the Club World Cup, and an iconic 4-0 win over Real Madrid. But Barcelona fell short in the Champions League, where they were eliminated by Atletico Madrid.
In this past season, it was another reduction in the number of trophies: just the cup this time. They were close in the league, missing out by just three points. But the Champions League campaign was chaotic. Yes, it produced one of the most memorable comebacks of all time, when they defeated PSG 6-1 in the second leg, 6-5 on aggregate. But the fact is they lost to PSG and Juve by appalling scorelines away from home (0-4 and 0-3). Against the Turin based club, they could not overturn it.
Luis Enrique was criticized for a sometimes confusing youth policy. He gave playing time to Munir El-Haddadi and Sandro Ramirez but both were shipped off for the expensive Paco Alcacer, possibly with little improvement in the process. Marc Bartra was let go partly in favor of veteran Jeremy Mathieu. Andre Gomes was bought with Denis Suarez, Rafinha, and Sergi Samper already in the team. Alex Grimaldo was never given a chance while Lucas Digne was bought.
Equally, he did oversee the renaissance of Sergi Roberto and brought along Marlon, who looks like a good player. Rafinha has Lucho’s fingerprints all over him, having coached him in the B team, brought him to Celta, then brought him back to Barcelona. Luis Enrique gave several young men their debuts, though it remains to be seen how many have a long term future at the Camp Nou.
A fitness freak, Luis Enrique emphasized maintaining physical condition with a very aggressive rotation policy, which sometimes landed him in trouble after fielding under-strength sides. He had a prickly personality that rubbed some the wrong way, but he was also a very witty guy that the players seemed to eventually warm up to.
There were also complaints about playing style and tactics, with a team set up to counterattack more often and a de-emphasis on midfield play. It was sometimes hard to forget that yes, Barcelona did dominate possession in nearly every game they played. And that over the years, the team was not always a model of tiki taka, and probably won’t always will be.
The complaint is there, but it’s a matter of taste. When it comes to results, there’s no arguing Lucho brought a slate of trophies most managers would be envious of. And in truth, only Pep Guardiola and Johan Cruyff surpass him when it comes to winners’ medals in Catalonia.
Luis Enrique might fall short of that high bar, but there’s hardly any shame in coming close to such a stratospheric standard.
Speaking earlier this year, Gerard Pique reflected: “When Luis Enrique came, we came from being absolute sh*t. I would like everyone to remember all the work he's done with us and all he left us in his time as player. We are with him to the death."
More recently, Pique went further: "He is one of the best managers in history. It's easy to just remember the titles, because there have been so many. However, the thing I'll remember is him as a person. He didn't always have the best relationship with all of us, but he eventually conquered the locker room. It's been three wonderful years."
How will you remember Luis Enrique?
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