Why Barcelona Must Not Panic and Keep Faith with Luis Enrique

When Barcelona appointed Luis Enrique at the beginning of the 2014/15 season, it was no doubt with a view to bringing a certain style, panache and swagger back to their play—something that had been missing for large parts of Tata Martino's reign.

As a former Blaugrana captain, and as recently as 2008/09 the manager of Barca B during Pep Guardiola's tenure of the senior side, Enrique is steeped in the traditions of the club.

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His appointment made sense for a number of reasons, not least that he could walk through the revolving door at Camp Nou and get down to business right away.

Here is a manager who knows exactly how things work at all levels of the club, and that part of the role cannot be underplayed.

It certainly should allow him more time to bed down in the role than was given to Martino, for example.

When you take on board his start in the hot seat too, then there are a number of other reasons why this Gijon native deserves the support of not only the club but also supporters, too.

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Certainly Lucho has no worries as far as his employers are concerned. Despite two recent back-to-back losses, per Mark Doyle of Goal.com, Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu told Esport3:

"

It's not a crisis. We are just 25 per cent of the way through the season.

It takes patience. Success will come. This is only the beginning and the trust in Luis Enrique is total.

There is a lot of La Liga left to play and we have a lot of talent. We have confidence in this team.

We're not worried but rather excited about what Luis Enrique is doing.

"

With only four goals conceded in La Liga and 23 scored—the second best in the division—it's arguable that there is little to reproach the manager for.

Barca were well-beaten in El Clasico, yes, to a better team on the day. It happens.

Celta Vigo took the points at Camp Nou for the first time since 1977, but has it conveniently been forgotten that the Catalans hit the woodwork four times, and goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez further saved his side on at least the same amount of occasions?

Enrique acknowledges "bad moments" are inevitable, but he shared insight on overcoming them, per Sport English:

Barca have always suffered these type of losses from time to time. Are memories also that short that the 0-2 reverse against Hercules during Pep's reign is conveniently erased?

There may be people willing to use the performance and result against Paris Saint-Germain as another stick to beat Enrique with and to highlight deficiencies within the squad, but surely the manager is deserving of some more time in the role before his tenure is judged.

When all is said and done, he has still only been in the top job for just 16 games in all competitions, 10 in La Liga. It's worth noting that only one win separates Guardiola's and Enrique's records in their first 10 league games of their debut seasons at Barca.

While the success that Barca went on to achieve in 2008/09 was unprecedented and won't be repeated this season, it does give us some perspective on Lucho's tenure thus far.

Suggestions that Barca are "in crisis" is mischief-making at its finest and not worthy of further comment.

Barca have already qualified for the next stage of the Champions League and are well-placed in La Liga; you might argue with a little more pressure removed now. Enrique noted a key component of his team strategy is being "unpredictable," per a barcastuff tweet:

"

Luis Enrique: "We have a clear philosophy. I won't change for a bad result. We want to control the game, but also want to be unpredictable."

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) November 4, 2014"

He hasn't guaranteed anyone a place in the squad, which is exactly the way a manager should be managing a high-profile set of players, and his team are playing in a way that is commensurate with the history of the club, so what else exactly is he supposed to do to assuage the doubters?

Cut the man some slack.