#360view: Luis Enrique masterminds year to remember for Barcelona

Andy West 08:10 21/12/2015
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  • Triumphant: Luis Enrique.

    As years go, 2015 has been a pretty spectacular one for Barcelona. Sunday’s easy victory over River Plate in Yokohama took the Catalan club’s trophy haul for the year to five, adding the Club World Cup to the Spanish league and cup, the Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup. And considering the state of the team when the year began, that is quite a remarkable achievement.

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    Barca’s first game of 2015 was a 1-0 loss to David Moyes’s Real Sociedad, a fair result after a dreadful performance which saw Lionel Messi and Neymar both left on the bench. The week that followed was near-mutinous, with stroppy Messi skipping an open training session with an ‘illness’ and sparking speculation that he wanted to leave by provocatively following Chelsea on Instagram.

    Manager Luis Enrique was widely reported to be on the verge of losing his job, having perplexed everybody by implementing a bizarre rotation policy which saw him field uniquely different starting line-ups for each of his first 28 games in charge.

    The next league game after the feeble capitulation against Sociedad was largely perceived as a do-or-die affair, with none other than reigning champions Atletico Madrid visiting the Nou Camp.

    Instead of Enrique’s farewell, however, it proved to be the launch pad for a remarkable run of success, with Messi shining in a new right-wing role which would soon become his permanent home as he abandoned for his good old ‘false nine’ central position.

    Barca deservedly beat Atletico 3-1 with Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar all getting on the scoresheet and they have not looked back since, winning every available trophy with the exception of the least significant piece of silverware, the Spanish Super Cup.

    The run to their Champions League success provides the greatest indication of their invincibility: along the way, they comfortably defeated the reigning champions of England (Manchester City), France (Paris Saint-Germain) and Germany (Bayern Munich) before then disposing of Italian champions Juventus in the final.

    And as Barca’s golden year approached its climax, it was entirely appropriate that the opening goal in Sunday’s victory over River Plate was scored by Messi, because his magnificent form – arguably the very best of his career – has been the single biggest factor behind the team’s success.

    It was equally apt that Neymar teed up the goal, and that Luis Suarez later added a brace, because the remarkably synchronicity between the all-South American forward line has made them more or less unstoppable.

    The emphasis on the front three, indeed, represents a significant shift from the playing style of the club’s last all-conquering greats: Pep Guardiola’s side which won six trophies back in 2009.

    Back then, Barca were all about controlling the middle of the field, where Messi dropped back to team up with Andres Iniesta and Xavi in a possession-based approach which was little short of revolutionary and soon became known across the world as tiki-taka.

    Now, a similarly spectacular transformation has taken place, and Enrique deserves enormous credit for weathering the early storm to mould another worldbeating force. And if Barca’s stars can maintain their hunger and avoid injuries, 2016 may prove to be just as fruitful.

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