Guardiola assures Barcelona fans Enrique will deliver

Andy West 07:56 10/11/2014
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  • Unconvincing start: Luis Enrique.

    Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardio­la has backed his former Barcelona colleague Luis Enrique to be suc­cessful in Catalonia – but warned it will not happen immediately.

    The pair were team-mates for five years, winning the La Liga title in 1998 and 1999, and Guardio­la subsequently handed Enrique his first managerial role by appointing him B team manager when he took over at the Nou Camp in 2008.

    Guardiola knows exactly what it takes to succeed with Barca, hav­ing led the team to no less than 14 trophies during an unprecedented period of success between 2008 and 2012, but he cautioned crit­ics of Enrique that trophies do not come easily.

    “He’s going to be a success, but like all things in life, it’ll take time,” said Guardiola.

    “Football is a proc­ess. You can’t just turn up and then expect to win everything by November.”

    And although Enrique has received plenty of criticism follow­ing recent displays, Guardiola has urged the club’s fans to retain faith.

    He added: “You have to give it time and work hard.

    "Sometimes things are plain sailing, sometimes they are a bit tougher.”

    Enrique, meanwhile, could only find solace in the old maxim that champions are capable of picking up points even when they are below their best following Barca’s uncon­vincing 2-1 victory over Almeria.

    “To be successful you need to win playing badly,” he said.

    “But that doesn’t cover up the fact we played badly.”

    The game was another blank for Lionel Messi, who hit the wood­work in both halves but has now failed to score in three consecutive league outings after climbing to 250 career goals, one short of levelling Telmo Zarra’s all-time record.

    But Enrique was reluctant to assess the performance of his star man, insisting: “I’d rather analyse the team.

    "The individual players were below par and we suffered from a lack of precision. We need to improve to get our style of football back and to keep winning games and picking up points.”

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