Francesc 'Tito' Vilanova: The Disciple

Rotation Faith in youngesters Faith im struggling players (lost lamb especially...) Takes guts!

"Prefería perder un punto que dejar de sumar tres" - "Prefer to loos a point than miss a chance to get three" (help with translation if i messed it up). [sport.es]

I like what he does when we need to score. In my opinion he plays kind of 3-3-1-3 with Messi dropping a bit back. And when we score he gets Bussi to form a defense line of 4. This has worked 2 times now. But i am afraid it wont take long until some better team will punish us. On the other side, i too prefer getting 3 points than loosing 1, especially in the start of the campaign.

Tito FTW

Winning La Liga it is about how many points you lose than how many points you gain. So that philosophy is right.

Nice read over at El Pais by Luis Martin on the skipper

http://deportes.elpais.com/deportes/2012/09/23/actualidad/1348436381_187203.html

Francesco Totti & Francesc 'Tito'

Do they anything in common?

Tito: "I already said that Song has come to play as CB, because had he only been brought to play as a midfielder I wouldn't have, since he has one of the best in the world in front of him. He has more experience than Bartra and has to play minutes to adapt to the position"

Looks like this won't be Bartra's break-out season unless Busi gets injured.

10 bucks we don't play with a true CB for most of the season

Experience is nothing compared to natural tbh. Buying a natural CB rather than who has acknowledged the role of cb would have been choice imo. Not that bad, he can also cover Biscuits if needed and is fairly versatile.

Tito showing he is the boss again. Even though Messi can use this game to beat Mlers record, he will be benched. Tito said a record i less important than Messi having a good season in long run. I like this guy more and more

in Tito we trust...

I am liking this guy more and more.He has a very quiet demeanor and that can be misleading,but there isnt even a shadow of a doubt now about who is in charge of the team.
Benching Messi thrice
He may have more guts than Pep.

I've been very pleased with Tito. Benching Messi when he only has a few goals left to meet Muller takes balls of steel.

Messi only needs three goals with plenty of games left that he will play, Tito knows this Messi knows this so not a big deal, had this been the last game of the season I'm sure Tito would encourage Messi to play.

At the start of the season, I was liking him very much because he played two inside forwards plus interchanged his players very well and rotation was great as well. It looks like he is following Pep's feet in hanging on with Iniesta on the wing because of Fab and the last few matches since December we aren't interchanging and when we do very late...

I agree, his lineups are also very much predictable, while Pep atleast kept my predictions completely wrong with his surprise lineups lol.

Apparently Tito will remain in New York until the end of March

Roura looks to me like he is under too much pressure.

gondov wrote:
Apparently Tito will remain in New York until the end of March

Roura looks to me like he is under too much pressure.

he just misses his best bud pep
but in all seriousness, health > anything especially over football matches.
Roura hopefully will improve and learn more with his time on the pitch in charge.

Donuts wrote:

gondov wrote:
Apparently Tito will remain in New York until the end of March

Roura looks to me like he is under too much pressure.

he just misses his best bud pep
but in all seriousness, health > anything especially over football matches.
Roura hopefully will improve and learn more with his time on the pitch in charge.

I agree, health >>> all.

I have to admit though, when Tito swiftly came back after his surgery I sort of got under the false illusion that everything was gonna be fine now but obviously not.

I just hope these are routine check ups / treatment and not major complications.

Couldn't Guardiola possibly take over temporarily?

Would love him to but personally wouldn't be appropriate...

He wouldnt.

Too busy learning German in NY, complicates his life.

I am a little concerned, Roura is no head coach..he been an assistant his entire career..the 1 chance he got at head coach, he got his team relegated from the 3rd division. And if he is making calls from the sidelines, he has done a lesser than steller job so far.

I am only concerned for the Milan matches, La Liga is already won, Copa de Rey would just be butter on my bread

The problem is the adjustments I feel.

Anyone can pick the starting 11 really, its hard to go drastically wrong.

The issue is can you see problems? Cant you spot weakness? Can you make changes to fix/take advantage of these?

It seem so far no, not exploiting Essien was poor and subs seem to take far too long.

I'm actually worried against Milan...

Champions League is where tactics really matter and if I'm absolutely honest, I doubt if Barcelona will win it with someone like Roura on the bench. Pretty much every team in CL right now have better coaches than Barça so they will have the tactical upperhand. I mean you drew against a very mediocre Madrid side the other day where you would have handed them a manita 2 years ago. Hell, even a year ago.

I have to say I'm worried too. I have very little faith in Roura. I'd rather Xavi coach than him.