Luis Enrique Making Far Better Use of Barcelona Youth System Than Tata Martino

One of the hallmarks of Luis Enrique's Barcelona side is that it features far more youth than Tata Martino's did last season. The Asturian coach is, of course, familiar with many of the younger players in the squad because he used to be Barcelona B's manager.

Martino, meanwhile, was preoccupied with trying to achieve instant results after taking the reins at the last minute after Tito Vilanova was forced to resign because of his illness.

The Argentine played with the tried and tested players, even when they clearly lacked form like Gerard Pique did, with Marc Bartra not getting many opportunities to stake his claim for a place.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

Eventually his stars tired and Barcelona lost several crucial games. They ended up with nothing, being knocked out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid, finishing second in La Liga to the same side and losing to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. 

Enrique, on the other hand, likes to use the younger players in the squad, who are more hungry and still try to achieve the same level of success that the likes of Dani Alves and Lionel Messi have already reached.

This will pay off for him and for Barcelona in several different ways, the most important being:

1. Rotating the squad means that when we reach the midpoint of the season then the key players will be fresher for the big games.

2. The more experience the young players get now, the better they will be if called upon because of injury or suspension.

3. If Munir El Haddadi goes on to be a huge success at Barcelona, people will remember it was Enrique who promoted him to the first team.

4. If Enrique is at Barcelona for a long time, he will reap the benefits of bringing through the younger players.

Christophe Ena/Associated Press

So far, Munir has been the chief beneficiary of Enrique's willingness to lean on youth talent. He started the first game of the season and made an instant impact, firing home brilliantly to help Barca beat Elche, 3-0.

Since then, Munir has struggled a bit, missing several chances against Athletic Bilbao, for example.

But the experience he gets from playing in games like these will be vital.

Another youngster who is enjoying life under Enrique is Sandro Ramirez. The young striker has been impressive when given a chance by the coach and scored the winner against Villarreal in the club's second game of the season.

Rafinha is a third graduate who has also featured, but injury has prevented him from making more of an impact. He has started both upfront and in midfield for Enrique, who helped him a lot while Rafinha was at Celta Vigo on loan last season.

Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

BR

Here, we look at an XI comprised of players that Enrique has used at some point this season.

While there are a few established stars like Neymar and Jordi Alba in there, it's a good graphical way of demonstrating Enrique's policy.

Per Sport, before the PSG Champions League clash on Tuesday night, Enrique had already given his debutantes this season (Munir, Sandro, Sergi Samper) 10 times as much playing time as Martino gave his. The former coach used Adama Traore, Jean Marie Dongou and Patric Gabarron but only gave them a total of 54 minutes.

Enrique had played his for 582 minutes, and that's before this week's clash. Those figures exclude the Copa del Rey, because Enrique's side are yet to feature in it.

Lucho has a lot of faith in La Masia, and it may well pay off for him.