I disagree with ur comment on Ibra being a bad signing, as we all saw in the Barca's game against Hercules at the start of the season, Barca could not manage to get the ball into the box, if they had Ibra they could have reverted to a plan B and gave him long balls to chase, Ibra always added a extra dimension to the Barca attack and he did decently too, no idea why he was loaned out
Masch is needed as a sub in games where Barca are trying to protect a narrow lead, Busquest does not have the physicaltiy like Masch to break up play and get stuck in, Masch can also be used in games such as against At Madrid where he is required to track the physically imposing Forlan by dropping deep and nullifying him, as Spanish football is more on techinality and not as physical as English Football, Busquests is able to perform his role admirably, i doubt he can reach the same heights in English Football but that remains to be seen and is a debate for another day
I'm not saying I disagree with you and I think the Ibrahimovic affair was a fiasco. But I trust Guardiola's judgement. If they're getting rid of Ibra, than it didn't work out. As for Masch, I agree, in that sense it was a smart move, but they should have found someone with that physicality who can pass better. To play for Barca you have to be an amazing passer, it's as simple as that.
Thats why i dont rate guardiola among the best managers. He has a pretty terrible transfer record.
I don't think he had much say in those transfers. Do you think he really wanted to go out and spend that kind of money on new players (particularly Ibra)? He's the kind of coach that has a lot of confidence in his players. I don't see him wanting to spend like that for a new guy that doesn't know the system. Same goes for Masch. If Pep wanted him, he would have played him.
Just look at the players that he can pick up for each game. That explains it
It's not exactly difficult to win trophies with the squad Pep has at his disposal. Any half decent manager would be able to with that squad.
Its somthing i bought up a little while ago. Look at Frank Rijkaard won lots of trophys at Barca and failed at Galatasaray and is struggling to get work.
You guys are definitely wrong about Pep. First of all, what has he done to prove he's not a decent manager? Yeah he has a great team, but he's had as much success as any manager in the past couple of years, so you don't have any proof that he's not good. As soon as they start losing, you do, until then, you don't. How many managers won the treble in their first season in charge of a club? As for Rijkaard, he failed at Galatasary because he tried to implement the 4-3-3 Barca system. He didn't have good enough/the right kind of players to make it work though, especially got killed for the forwards not tracking back (so I heard from Turkish fans). Also, keep in mind that they are insane about firing managers in Turkey, and he wasn't really given time to implement his system.
The main reason Pep is great is look at the on the field product. They play so well as a team, better than any team I've ever seen. It's not like they just rely on the individual skill of a couple of their players to get buy, the whole team works amazingly well as a unit. Of course the passing and off the ball movement is incredible but so is their defensive tenacity. We've seen plenty of great squads get messed up by poor managers, and Barca has been on a different level since Pep came. No Ronaldinho, no Eto'o the last two seasons, but they're smashing records right and left. I think the development of Busquets definitely has a lot to do with Pep, who was a DM as a player.