ramaboy10
11 years ago
Edited
He sounds Ok, but I really want him to do some things
1) Get us a solid CB!
2) Get us a good goalkeeper
3) Make our football better against bigger teams
4) Win us at LEAST 1 trophy
Guardiola won the treble with his first season at Barca, Tito got us 100+ points in la liga and reached the semi-finals on the CL... I have high expectations from him!
Showing previous versions of this text.
He sounds Ok, but I really want him to do some things
1) Get us a solid CB!
2) Get us a good goalkeeper
3) Make our football better against bigger teams
4) Win us at LEAST 1 trophy
Guardiola won the treble with his first season at Barca, Tito got us 100+ points in la liga and reached the quater-finals on the CL... I have high expectations from him!
Gerardo 'Tata' Martino has been named as the new coach of Barcelona
but few people in Europe had ever even heard of the 50-year-old
Argentine before he started to be linked with the position vacated by
Tito Vilanova.
So why exactly have Barcelona plumped for Martino as their new boss?
Well, there is a strong connection between Martino and Lionel Messi which no doubt played a huge consideration in his appointment.
Like Messi, Martino is from the city of Rosario and Martino has
really made a name for himself as both a player and a manager at
Newell's Old Boys – the club that Messi supported as a boy and played
youth football for.
Martino was actually Messi's father's favourite player and holds the
Newell's Old Boys record for appearances at 509. In a poll of the club's
supporters, Martino was named Newell's greatest ever player.
Martino was an attacking midfielder who helped Newell's win three
titles over 14 years with the club as a player. He had three spells at
the club - broken up by a brief spell with Tenerife in 1991 and another
with Lanus in 1994/95.
While he was a star of the domestic game he only ever won one cap for
the Argentine national team. Near the end of his playing career he
actually played for Barcelona – but the Ecuadorian club of that name,
not the European giant he is taking charge of now.
The coach who most influenced him as a player was Marcelo Bielsa,
who managed Newell's from 1990-92, and Martino has taken Bielsa's
philosophy of expressive, attacking football into his own coaching
career. He has also cited two other former Newell's coaches - Jorge
Solari and Jose Yudica – as key influences.
His first coaching successes came in the Paraguayan Premier League where he won four league titles – three Libertad and one with Cerro Porteno.
Such success saw him named coach of the Paraguay
national team in 2006 where he had to rebuild the side after the
retirement of key players such as José Luis Chilavert, Carlos Gamarra,
Francisco Arce and Celso Ayala.
At the 2007 Copa America Martino's Paraguay shone in their opening
two games as they thrashed Colombia 5-0 in their opening match before
dispatching the USA 3-1 in the next match.
However, their open style was brutally exposed in the quarter-finals
when they were hammered 6-0 by Mexico and after that match Martino
reined in his attack-first philosophy against certain teams to avoid
such embarrassments.
They were highly impressive in qualification for the 2010 World Cup –
finishing on 33 points – just one behind best qualifiers Brazil and
comfortably ahead of the likes of Argentina and eventual semi-finalists
Uruguay. Over the course of their qualification campaign they managed to
beat every single other team in South America.
At the tournament itself in South Africa, Paraguay finished top of
their group, helping to knock out Italy in the process, and then beat
Japan on penalties in the second round.
In the quarter-finals they gave Spain one of their biggest ever scares during La Roja's current period of domination. In the 61st
minute of the game, with the match still 0-0, Oscar Cardozo had a
penalty saved by Iker Casillas. Just eight minutes from time David Villa
then scored the only goal of the game for Spain and the rest, as they
say, is history.
Martino stayed on to manage Paraguay at the 2011 Copa America in Peru
where they remarkably got to the final without winning a game. Three
draws in the group stage was followed by penalty shoot-out wins over
Brazil and Venezuela before they lost in the final 3-0 to Uruguay.
Martino quit after that competition and was heavily tipped to take
over as Argentina boss but that post instead went to Estudiantes coach
(and former Sheffield United and Leeds United player) Alejandro Sabella.
Martino instead took a year out from the game before returning to his
beloved Newell's and guiding the club to their first title since 2004
in the space of just 18 months. The achievement was all the more
remarkable when you consider that Newell's had finished 19th and 18th in the two seasons before his appointment.
His final game in charge of Newell's was the semi-final of this
year's Copa Libertadores when they lost to Atletico Mineiro on
penalties. Were the fans annoyed with this defeat? No, instead they went
outside Martino's house and started chanting his name and waving flags
to thank him for the way he had transformed the club.
Stylistically Martino seems to fit in well with Barcelona. He likes
to play a 4-3-3 with a false number nine, but has shown flexibility with
his formations and tactics in the past.
South American coaches have had a chequered history after moving to
Europe but if anyone has a chance of succeeding, it looks like Martino
is a man who fits the bill.