FC Barcelona’s manager Tata Martino is off to a great start after 20 matches in charge. His era kicked off by capturing the Supercopa and Barça are currently league leaders while enjoying being group leaders in the UEFA Champions League. Yet, there exists a minority of disenfranchised Barça fans who are not happy with the work done by Tata. Even though his system is different, it is still premature to criticize the manager.
There’s no need to go over the accomplishments of Pep Guardiola during his time as Barça’s manager. There’s also no need to re-examine Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’ era either. Both were memorable and high successful. Thus, to say Tata Martino had some gigantic shoes to fill was an understatement. Fortunately, he has been wise enough to just merely tinker with the system and not completely overhaul it.
Nevertheless, fans and even members of the Catalan media have been voicing their displeasure over the current style of football being represented by Barça. I am a firm believer that you can never please everyone in life since no matter how good you’re doing; someone will always be around the corner to criticize. Fortunately, Tata has proven that he is thick skinned in handling this problem from the get go.
The man is in charge and until he leaves or is fired, he is going to be the guy we need to throw our support behind him. I have criticized him in the past for ignoring the younger player such as Bartra and Montoya but I refuse to criticize him for the team’s performance. He has come in and has given this team what was exactly needed; a minor tinkering.
My mother used to tell me when I was younger that “repetition teaches the donkey.” In other words, if you keep repeating something, you will figure it out. Obviously Barça excelled under Pep after a couple of early mishaps and ruled the world along with capturing the admiration of many. However, the same can be said about Barça’s opponents finally figuring out how to slow them down over the past few years. What Tata brings is a change in the system to finally catch the opponents off guard.
The most recent Clásico presented us with a more caution but more clever Barça side. The end result was a 2-1 victory and they are currently unbeaten league leaders. Nostalgia is great but you cannot expect to obtain the same results when you keep repeating the style after so many years. You either change with the times or you find yourself playing catchup. He knows that and admitted that it’s not enough to just win when it comes to Barça but he has done a superb job thus far.
Unfortunately, Barça’s own friendly media can be very unfriendly towards its manager; just ask Louis van Gaal. Let’s wait till the season is close to an end before we start sharpening the pitch forks and light the torches, shall we. Thus, it is premature to criticize Tata Martino when the team is doing well and to some extent playing well with respect to the injuries and congested fixtures this squad has faced. So far, the season is going well and other players have stepped it up along with younger players finally getting some minutes. We still have a long ways to go and the least we can do is back the mister while he does what was expected of him to do in the first place; win.
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