Quote (zarkadon @ 16 Apr 2014 12:59)
Barça went from being 15th placed, when they hired him in january, and only a few points above the relegation zone to qualifying for the EL just a few months later.
He also promoted Iniesta and Valdés, using the latter in place of worst-keeper-ever Rustu, which had cost the team a bunch of points. He also stopped using Xavi as DM...
He did almost everything right... he saved Barça's season and you complain about him being a crap coach that makes his teams play awfully
He was a crisis coach that`s it. He could boost the moral of the team, i give him that, but in terms of tactical aproach he was next to 0. Moving Xavi up the field is a mistake, his role should be a pivot in front of the back 4. Just like guardiola was. Years later, he is still coming deep to build up play. Almost all his successes are in that position or central mid with deep lying playmaker instructions. Also, the guy that promoted xavi and playing him regularly was Rijkaard. Same with Víctor Valdés, Carles Puyol, Messi and Andrés Iniesta. Iniesta settled as first team member back when xavi was injured for almost a full season. He used to play deep lying playmaker aswell. Concerning valdes, giving antic the credits for staying with him in goalie is a mistake. As rustu was a complete baddie, any keeper would have done better than him. It just happened that the sole keeper could have been valdes. Its not a personal decision, its a "everyone would have done the same" one.
And while you speak from statistics, i actually followed barcelona @ that time, seeing how crappy the team perform under Antic. The fact that he was crap was seen @ Celta shortly thereafter and at the national teams he lately trained.