Barcelona: Luis Enrique Must Keep Rotating to Ensure Success

Luis Enrique took his Barcelona side to Mestalla on Sunday night for La Liga's game of the weekend.

Valencia, unbeaten at home and flying high themselves, would provide the sternest test so far of the credentials of this Barca side.

Aside from a goalless draw against Athletic Bilbao, each visitor to fortress Mestalla had been sent packing with their tail between their legs and three goals against them.

In Barca's favour however was their recent record at the ground, where they hadn't lost since Ronald Koeman was in charge of Los Che in 2007/08.

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

After two perfect results and performances in the past week, it wouldn't have been beyond the realms of possibility to have seen Enrique persist with the same team, however he tinkered once again.

Despite regaining fitness and being given the all clear by the medical staff, per FCBarcelona.com, Andres Iniesta didn't travel to the game.

The second surprise came when the starting XI was circulated an hour or so before the match. No Ivan Rakitic in the midfield either, but, for the first time this season, Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano alongside each other.

Would we see the double pivot that the manager had previously been vehemently against, telling reporters per Sport at a recent press conference "In principle I reject the idea of a double pivot; I've never used it. Our system works with one only"? 

For much of a feisty encounter that's exactly what we saw, Ian Hawkey of Fox Soccer describing it thus:

"

On the touchline Luis Enrique watched Busquets and Mascherano typically vigorous in their challenges.

And for an hour he saw Barcelona launch a higher-than-usual number of long balls up to the forwards, and a team who, with Lionel Messi heavily policed by Valencia players, lacked the sort of intricate passing that is emblematic of modern Barca.

The midfield double pivot, the Mascherano-Busquets pairing, left Xavi, their partner in that part of the pitch as the lone visionary, conspicuously the sole ambassador for tiki-taka soccer.

"

Was Enrique visionary in his tactical acumen, knowing that Valencia would counter-attack well and so therefore the double pivot allowed his side to retain control?

Or is he a "tinkerman" who is getting results more by luck than judgment?

Defensively, Barcelona were as good as they've been for some while, one or two lapses aside. They also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Claudio Bravo for keeping them in the hunt.

In attack, despite a wrong offside call which would've given the hard-working Luis Suarez his first La Liga goal, Barca were contained.

Lionel Messi's major contribution came in the 94th minute when his cross caused the panic which led to the winner, and that tells us much about just how well Nuno Santo's side had played themselves. Yet the record books will show a Barca victory.

That they managed to secure all three points in a game which was a "must win" surely denotes that the manager got it right?

Perhaps Busquets' most timely of interventions actually got Barca out of jail, and he stopped the line of questioning that would've inevitably followed the match were it drawn.

Barca fans aren't used to seeing a more defensive Blaugrana. They want to be entertained by an expansive, sweeping brand of football. One that has been inherited down the ages. 

But there is no shifting the viewpoint of a manager who has already defended his rotation policy once before this season, per FourFourTwo.

Again, after the Valencia game he fielded similar questions but was forthright in his answers to the waiting journalists, reported by Omnisport via SBS The World Game:

"

I'm convinced that the best way to get to the end of the season is by playing as a team and using as many players as possible in the best way we can.

I have always worked like that, and at Barca it hasn't been going badly so far.There are still some imprecisions, but we played well.

This team is ready to go hand-in-hand right until the end to get the win. We got our strategy right and managed to control the game.

We still need to improve, but so does every team in the competition. We're on the right track.

"

Enrique hasn't played with the same starting XI in two successive games this season and whilst the results keep coming, he is unlikely to be given too much of a beating by the press.

It's refreshing to see that Barcelona have a manager, post-Guardiola, that has the strength of character to do things his way, win lose or draw, ignoring any outside pressure and playing with a team and structure that he believes is best for the game ahead of him.

Vamos Lucho!