#3 Luis Enrique is an excellent man-manager
Enrique has won 5 major trophies with Barca in his two and a half seasons, but he has often been criticised for his tactics and lack of a backup plan. While that is subject to discussion, what is unquestionable is Enrique’s man-management techniques. He benched the reliable Ivan Rakitic yesterday and put Denis Suarez in his place. The youngster put in a composed performance and helped to dominate possession in the middle of the park alongside Iniesta.
It is obvious now that the Croatian will be used in the bigger games, given his work rate and game reading ability, while the ones against lowly opposition will feature either Andre Gomes or Suarez. This is further underlined by the fact that the former Sevilla midfielder has made only 3 appearances in the last 8 games, but those 3 have come away at Celtic, at the Clasico at Camp Nou and Real Sociedad away.
Given the number of league, cup and continental games Barcelona have to play and deliver trophies, Enrique needs to rotate his players so that all of them remain fresh, and it seems he has got his plan of action sorted out.
