Luis Enrique Finally Has a Grip on His Squad as Barcelona Steamroll Elche

Was this so hard? Luis Enrique picked the right team to face Elche, and Barcelona won at a canter. On top of that, he gave the reserve players in his squad some fitness and confidence, handed debuts to two talented youngsters and rested his entire first team for Sunday's match. 

Compare this to the fiasco in San Sebastian a couple of weeks ago. It seemed like he was resting Neymar and Lionel Messi for the subsequent Copa del Rey game by allowing them extra Christmas holiday and then benching them against Real Sociedad.

Even before the game kicked off, it was clearly a bad idea to do such a thing at a ground where Barcelona have a bad record.

But to his credit, Enrique steered Barcelona to a superb victory over Atletico Madrid, and in the midst of a whirlwind of instability, the team actually seem like they can stand up straight now.

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They'll need that in the weeks ahead when they face Atletico two more times in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals, as well as Manchester City twice in the Champions League last 16.

There were a lot of benefits to Enrique's selection against Elche in Barcelona's 4-0 win. Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez were left back safe in Barcelona, avoiding the 330-mile excursion to the small city on Spain's eastern coast.

Instead, Pedro got to add a goal to his season's tally and a full 90 minutes under his belt, while Adama Traore got to show off his skills against a top-flight side.

Admittedly, Elche's first team weren't all out there, but it was still a greater challenge than the Segunda division.

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On more than a few occasions, Adama showed a heady mixture of pace, power and skill, leaving poor 35-year-old Edu Albacar in a twist.

The defender hacked down Adama about 30 yards out to stop him running through and was lucky only to be shown a yellow card for his foul.

No matter: Jeremy Mathieu (of all people) stepped up and banged the free-kick into the top right corner of Manu Herrera's net.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen continued to show that he may be the man to replace Victor Valdes long term, with excellent control on the ball and a smart, quick mind.

Gerard Gumbau and Sergi Roberto didn't put a foot out of line, with the former particularly impressive considering this was his debut.

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Alen Halilovic, who came on for Adama after an hour, was also making his debut, and you'll be hearing a lot more from him in the future.

Here, he impressed with some good touches and neat runs and also struck the post from distance.

Halilovic is the seventh youth team player that Enrique has given his debut to in the short time he has been at the club.

Perhaps the only person who may have been disappointed with his night was Munir El Haddadi. The young forward was accelerated to glory at the start of the season, scoring against Elche on the first day of this campaign, but things haven't worked out since.

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He played fairly well in this match, but strikers want and need to score goals, and he didn't threaten too much. Munir did, however, win the penalty that Pedro converted.

All in all it was a good day's work for Enrique and his men, and they travel to face Deportivo de La Coruna on Sunday with a fully rested first team and the wind in their sales.

Well, more of a gale really, but at least it's pushing them in the right direction.