“I don’t allow anyone to have a go at me. In Madrid, I did break a camera. I don’t have reasons to hide it. And I have already paid for it, didn’t need to go to the courts, after the journalist conceded and said he wanted to step on me, diminish me. To go over me, you need to do it by force. I impose myself. You can be taller, stronger, more handsome or richer, but you can’t step on me”.

Luis Enrique said that in 1997. That sums up his character, his macho attitude, his constant need to go against the press (even if breaking cameras is needed to do that), and to be seen as the alpha male, the type of people who see fit to impose themselves at all times, to show they are in control. He didn’t compromise an inch of his beliefs, be it as player, be it in his handling of the press, and, eventually, on how he treats his players as a coach.

A leader does not impose himself. He earns the players’ trust due to his actions, the way he talks to them, the way he makes them see all he’s doing is with one goal: to build a group of players that believe in his ideas, so they can play together, improve together and win together. Imposing yourself and not making compromises is not the way to achieve any of that, not only in football, but in any other field.

It’s easy to mention the following name, but since he was the last leader this group of players had, I have no choice: Pep Guardiola is a leader. All his players died for him on the pitch, and they did that after he had earned their trust. The very first thing Pep did as FC Barcelona’s coach was calling Messi. The 21 year old was angry at the club for not wanting to let him play in the Olympics for Argentina. Pep called Messi, said he would settle it for him. And Messi won the Olympic Gold. Guardiola, before even having a single training session with Messi as his player, had already earned his trust. A leader that got his star player to follow him through a phone call, and by seeing he needed to give Messi what he wanted, so Messi would give him everything on the pitch. 6 titles on the next 18 months was the result of that.

And that did not end there. Pep would arrive each single day at Ciutat Deportiva and ask around, to the employees and his staff members how happy Messi was, if they thought he woke up pissed off at something. Guardiola managed to make Messi happy, to keep him fit and interested for 4 years. 14 titles out of 19. And, after that magical night on Wembley, he warned us all that, as long as the club cared about giving Messi everything he needed to be happy on and off the pitch, the results would arrive. The leader who had made compromises to keep his star happy, had the playing style and the results to back all of that up, was making it clear none of that would have been possible if he didn’t have the full support of Messi and all the other players.

Roma

Luis Enrique’s first experience after leaving Barça B (where did a great job, but also didn’t have to deal with getting results and leading players who were already big names in professional football) was at the Italian capital. And on his first few weeks, he already was at loggerheads with the one player the fans treat as deity: Totti. On the Europa League qualifier round, he didn’t use Totti on the first leg. And lost 1-0. Then, on the second leg, when Roma was winning 1-0, he subbed Totti out with 15 minutes remaining. The team stopped creating chances, and conceded the draw. 1-1. Roma was out of the European competition.

All hell broke loose. Luis Enrique, who has just bought a house in the Formello neighborhood, famous for its huge numbers of Lazio supporters, after being advised not to, had now created troubles with Totti, the fans and the press in a single stroke. Gazzetta dello Sport called his decisions “senseless” and that his issues with Totti were due to “an attack of male ego”. The fans booed him heavily from the second he took their idol out, until the end of the match at the Olimpico. Then, Francesco Totti arrived on the next training session with a shirt that read “BASTA!” (Enough!).

Luis Enrique had arrived in a club with a great history, with one of the most passionate fans in the world, and was already trying to impose himself on the biggest player in Roma´s history, the man who has been at the club since 1993. And kept Francesco on the bench for the next 8 matches. Since the results weren’t coming, he conceded, Totti returned, and things started to work again. In the end, he managed to mend things with Totti, who always wanted to be respected and to see the best for the team.

But Enrique’s need to be the boss, created a very toxic environment on the dressing room. So much so, Roma even finished one match with 8 players, that showed that balance wasn’t there. The “boss” was not leading the players towards the same goal, and had lost control over several players, especially Osvaldo, the constantly ticking time bomb.

All of that happened while his team was not playing well. Sterile ball possession, slow defensive and offensive transitions, relying too much on stars like Totti, Pjanic and Lamela (sounds familiar?), and the press questioned him constantly. That’s how the press is supposed to work. Coaches need to talk to the press in a polite manner and answer them, because the journalists aren’t asking for themselves. The press is the way coaches tell the fans what is going on, and coaches owe fans that.

Luis Enrique has never grasped that notion. From his days as a player, even before he had worked under his idol Van Gaal (who always has had troubles with the press. “Siempre Positifo!”), he saw them as enemies, as we could see with the quote that opened this article. People who want to “impose themselves” on him. But it’s their job. To question, to point the finger on what’s wrong, to ask what the plan is. The fans want to know that, and every single coach who has a plan, who knows the way, should easily explain all that. But he didn’t. Before he left, he even told the Italian press: “You can rest easy now. Each day that goes by, is one less day you have to deal with me”.

Celta de Vigo

After leaving Roma and spending a year away from football, Luis Enrique took the reins at Celta de Vigo, who had escaped from relegation on the their last La Liga match on the previous season.

Just like it happened with Totti, he had a fall out with Orellana, who had scored 13 goals on the previous season and helped Celta on the relegation battle. “I don’t see him at the team, or the bench. Told him to look for another club”. But the Chilean stayed.

“He didn’t count on me. He didn’t like the way I worked, but I decided to stay. I kept training the same way, or even better, and ended up convincing him. He saw I improved and started to trust me. Then he started using me on the team”. The player made the effort to change his mind, and ended up being important for Celta’s season.

But Orellana, or any other Celta player, weren’t stars. Far from it. So the way Lucho imposed himself worked. The way he constantly used youth players also pleased the fans, and the club. His work at Celta was good. Playing 433, only one pivote, wingers up front, CMs that moved up and down the pitch. All of that while trying to play attractive football, using youth players and having a system that, even though it often suffered in the defensive and offensive transitions, were certainly good enough to beat Real Madrid and perform well against Barcelona.

But the fact is: coaching Celta is not like coaching a big club. The level of man management you need to coach at a big club is completely different. Dealing with players that have won every single title there is to win on European football requires actual leadership qualities. And that, as we’ll see on the following paragraphs, is his biggest flaw.

FC Barcelona

After being coached for a season by Tata Martino, the man whose training session were so soft even the grass rested (literally), and who once said he tried to win a match by “Making sure Messi touched the ball the least possible”, and, to top everything, lost La Liga on the last match of the season, at the Camp Nou, and couldn’t even take shots on target on the last 30 minutes, culers were dying to see hard work, meritocracy and energy back into our team.

So Luis Enrique was signed. There were fans (like me) who didn’t like it from the beginning, due to some of the reasons listed above, and because there were better options, like Valverde, who had had a superb season at Bilbao, but had given his word he was stay there for another year.

And Luis Enrique started with a wrong foot.

On his very first press conference, where he already showed the press his claws, the new coach kept at his need to impose himself. So he saw fit to say that he was “the leader of the team, the dressing room”. Leader of players you are yet to meet? Leader of a dressing room with players who have been at the club for 18, 15, 10 years? Most big name players, from Messi to the other captains, found that odd. How do you call yourself the leader of players who are yet to know you, to talk to you, to work under you?

Leadership is earned, it’s not something you force into people. But the players decided to wait and see how the actual work with the new coach was gonna be like. But, as I mentioned on the beginning of this article, while Pep had called Messi before he even started to make sure he would start working under him having already earned the star’s trust, Lucho’s first step was imposing himself over a group of players who won’t follow a coach just because he said he is the leader. Does not work like that.

Then, a few days later, Txema Corbella, a beloved kitsman who has been at the club for over 30 years, was sent away. Out of the blue. Just got called by Zubizarreta and was fired. What interest could Zubi, or any member of the board have in firing someone who was been important to hundreds of FCB players throughout the decades? Someone all players, especially Messi, adored? It was a request from Luis Enrique.

He thought Corbella was leaking info to the press, and he didn’t want the previous staff member to interfere with the work him and his new staff wanted to start. And it wasn’t gonna end there. Pepe Costa, who is very close to Messi, was also to be fires. But Bartomeu saw how Corbella’s exit had affect the team and kept Costa on the squad, something that meant a lot to Messi.

So the work began. Lots of physical activities that weren’t there the last season, and a “system” that never really impressed, and depended too much on Messi and Neymar. But since the beginning, Luis Enrique wouldn’t talk directly to the players. On his first season on a club like FCB, dealing with players such as these, he saw fit to have members of his staff dealing and talking with the players, giving them orders. How could you possibly earn the players trust if you don’t even talk to them? And to expect such players to respond to mere assistants on the same way they would the coach, well…

Luis Enrique started something, from the beginning, that had all players unhappy. He would not tell the squad of each match days in advance. He would only do it on the morning of each match, be it at home or away, and all the players would have to be ready (luggage, etc.) as if they were gonna make the cut. So imagine how happy they were after waking up early, packing their things, going to Ciutat Deportiva, only to be told they didn’t make the squad and could stay in Barcelona while the team traveled. Again imposing himself. Again acting more like a drill sergeant than a leader.

But that wasn’t the worst part, what pissed the players off the most. It was his choice of giving the starting XI 90 minutes before each match, and most times, telling how they were gonna play exactly at the same time. His constant fear of the press leaking his plans. Mathieu as LB at the Bernabeu was something the team did not train during the week. As we all know, that did not go well: https://lucasammr.com/2014/10/25/we-went-to-the-bernabeu-and-we-are-lost/

The players weren’t happy. Not playing like we used to, a system that was completely different from ours, and a coach who was making things way harder than they should be. But no one confronted Luis Enrique, as much as some big name players were already calling him “the worst coach I have had in my career”.
Then, ironically, Celta came to the Camp Nou. And won.

While the team did create chances, hit the post on 3 occasions and their GK had a great match, it was evident FCB had not played well enough. The midfield did not dominate, and the chances did not come from there. It came from the players upfront, as has been the case since the beginning. Real Madrid now was even further away from us. And Messi reacted.

He confronted Luis Enrique after the end of the match. Complained he hadn’t used the players that could implement our style, that he couldn’t perform his best if there weren’t players to help him, to make it easier for him. Leo wanted our usual playing system, something that has given us so much on the last few years. Lucho, obviously, did not like to have his decisions questioned. A leader would have listened, talked to his best player, and accepted that work needed to be done. But that didn’t happen. The relationship between them was never the same after that. They stopped talking since that day, on November 1^st.

The team continued to play the same way, especially badly on away matches. Messi was still being used far from his best position, starting matches as RW and having to drop as deep as Busquets’ position to start plays, since the midfield could never produce anything. Messi was running the team, and providing goals and assist the masked how poor the team was.

Then PSG came to the Camp Nou. And finally, a 343 was used. Messi behind Suarez, a midfield playing closer together, and actual wingers in Neymar and Pedro. It was a match where the team did well on the first half, and the fans (especially me) were excited to watch. But Lucho failed to see the positives from that match, sadly: https://lucasammr.com/2014/12/11/apples/, and never used it again.

2014 came to an end. And Luis Enrique saw fit to give Messi, Neymar and Alves extra vacation days, even though he was aware they would arrived 2 days before the match. And, on the first training session in 2015 happened, Messi and Lucho, who hadn’t talked to each other in over a month, argued badly.

It was a training session open to the players’ families and friends. Messi’s family was there. And after Lucho overruled one of his goals during a 5×5 match, Messi disagreed with him. They exchanged offenses, made threats to each other and almost came to blows. 2 days before the match in a stadium we had never won, and in front of several people. Messi and his family were vexed by the episode.

48 hours later, Messi and Neymar did not start the match. The team conceded early and produced an abysmal display on the first half. And Messi started to warm up before the break. And they argued again. The coach who had chosen not to start him, now needed him to save the team with only 45 minutes left. Messi told him that, then also argued with the coach’s shrink, one of his assistants that most players cannot stand.

Even though Messi, then Neymar, came on, the team only managed 4 shots on target. The system, the plan, the tactics simply weren’t good enough. Messi got tired of that, of playing in a way he knew would not lead the team to any glory, and exposed him as the savior of the project.

Then this chaotic week started.

Messi missed Monday’s training session, Zubi was fired, Puyol left, and Messi decided to put pressure on Bartomeu by following Chelsea on Instagram: https://lucasammr.com/2015/01/05/d10s-writes-straight-with-crooked-lines/

Two days after that, all the situation regarding the team and Messi/Lucho and especially all the errors committed by the board, made Bartomeu announce there will be elections in 2015. And Bartomeu has talked to Messi to say he’s with him, and if that push comes to shove, Luis Enrique will be replaced.

No Way Back

The fact of the matter is: the only way Luis Enrique remains as coach does not depend on his result against Atleti. We may win the match 5-0, with a repoker from Messi. Lucho will only remain as coach if he makes mends with Messi; and Messi, and the rest of the squad that aren’t happy with Lucho, decide to start again, to trust each other, to make the changes needed both on the training ground and the system.

But I don’t believe that will happen. Don’t see it at all. Lucho will not finish this season, and it isn’t because Messi and the other players want him out. It’s due to the fact he simply isn’t good enough.

26 matches and we don’t know what is our system, our style. The players are not happy with how we play, with how they are treated by the coach. Lucho set out to become the “boss”, but never cared enough to show the traits of a leader. A leader knows that he is the not the most important person on the group. The group, the wellness of the group is always the priority.

The club cannot have a situation like the one we saw on the Elche match. Chants praising Lucho being jeered by the majority of the stadium, that then proceeds to chant Messi’s name emphatically. It’s insanity. It’s not sustainable at all.

The danger of not being a leader and dealing with people who will only give their best under clear ideas, by being respected and feeling a connection towards the coach is that you cannot change things after so much has happened. Lucho just gave a press conference where he says all is well between him… and his staff. Did not mention the players. And, without them, he’s just as hopeless as we are of seeing our team perform well of win any titles.

Enough.