Evolution Not Revolution Sees Luis Enrique Emerge from Rain Clouds at Barcelona

He obviously wasn’t concerning himself about the plight of Barcelona or Luis Enrique when he said it, but to paraphrase the words of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, “By George, I think he’s got it.”

Higgins, of course, was referring to Eliza Doolittle’s eventual success at correctly mastering the pronunciation of the phrase, "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain."

I don’t know about "the plain," but one thing is for sure, up until Barcelona’s comprehensive victory at Deportivo La Coruna in their last league outing, poor Luis Enrique could have been forgiven for thinking most of the cold water being poured on the country was falling mainly on top of him.

And to continue the water analogy, just like Archimedes running naked from his bath screaming when he realised the amount of water displaced was the same as the part of the body under the water, this truly was the Barcelona head coach’s own "Eureka!" moment; at long last, it looks like the peseta has finally dropped.

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Luis Enrique is clearly a man of strong personality—a man who will tell you he will not change his principles but will at least allow himself to be influenced by the opinions of others.

"Enough of this talk about revolution, let’s concentrate on evolution," seems to be the new philosophy.

At long last, Barcelona seem to have found a common ground—a compromise that has seen everyone have to give a bit. It doesn’t mean they are going to win any titles as a result, but it’s certainly progress.

What Luis Enrique decided from day one was this was a team in which the main emphasis would be on the strength of the forwards. The plan, therefore, was to get the ball to them as quickly as possible, thereby giving them more time and space.

It’s goalscorers who ultimately make the difference, especially in this more direct way of playing the game.

This is still, however, a side that relies very heavily on the passing game. In fact, no one passes the ball more than Barcelona, although this is mainly because most teams defend very deep against them, so they are always going to have more possession.

But what Luis Enrique has wanted from the start is a more direct approach, more pressure high up the pitch, and he has been successful to that end.

That requires a lot of work from your midfield and a lot of running from people who aren’t necessarily used to doing that, such as Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets and, to a lesser degree, Ivan Rakitic.

Couple that with a desire to see his defenders play more diagonal balls, and this is effectively what the Barcelona coach has asked—and got—from his players.

But what about the players? How did they see it?

Initially, Luis Enrique wanted two forwards to come inside and play close to Lionel Messi in a central role, but now he has been persuaded to have two players—Messi and Luis Suarez at first, but now Messi and Neymar—playing wide to stretch defences.

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It’s worked. Now, for the first time since the first year of Pep Guardiola’s tenure at the club, we’re seeing Messi playing wide again.

There have also, obviously, been words said about team selections.

Luis Enrique has always been an enthusiastic proponent of the rotation philosophy. Following something of a Damascene conversion, we have seen him select the same outfield players for three successive games, not even rotating the side against Deportivo—one match for which he might have been expected to make changes.

And this all bodes well for Barcelona and Luis Enrique particularly, bearing in mind he almost always tends to enjoy a better second half of the season.

What it also shows is that teams evolve by sensible, reasoned exchanges of views and not via hysterical outbursts, and that can only be good news for Barcelona as they go to battle alive and kicking in all competitions.

The flip side is they still tend to rely too much on individual brilliance rather than an organised team collective to find a solution when confronted by a dour, deep, defensive outfit.

And finally, while the team certainly looks a lot more comfortable with Messi and Neymar wide, they are still, in my opinion, short of playing that naturally, instinctive—what the Spanish label "automatismo"—type of football that was played in previous eras.

That said, this is now—and not before time—looking like a much better Barcelona.