Luis Enrique cannot avoid comparisons with Pep Guardiola but his Barcelona legacy is still a proud one.
Luis Enrique leaves Barcelona on a high. La Liga and Champions League glory may have eluded him in a sometimes fraught final season in charge, but with goals from Lionel Messi, Neymar and Paco Alcacer in Saturday's Copa del Rey triumph over Alaves, he lifted his ninth trophy in three years.
It is a record which places him among the most successful managers in Barcelona's history, but how exactly will he be remembered? Luis Enrique has celebrated silverware on a yearly basis since his appointment in 2014, but expectations are as high as they come in Catalonia, and Pep Guardiola's shadow looms large over his achievements.
There is certainly no disputing his old team-mate's role in shaping the team he inherited. "The thing about Pep is that he changed the history of the game," said Spanish football expert Guillem Balague recently. "He changed a very bad dynamic at the club after two years without winning anything. He created the foundations that allowed Luis Enrique to be successful."
Those foundations included a spine of Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Messi - all of whom started against Alaves - but the scale of the job facing Luis Enrique when he took over should not be forgotten. Barcelona had won nothing under Tata Martino. Neymar was struggling to live up to expectations. Carles Puyol had retired and Xavi Hernandez would be next.
Barcelona needed to freshen up their approach and Luis Enrique managed it smoothly. With Xavi's powers on the wane and Luis Suarez arriving from Liverpool, Luis Enrique gradually shifted the emphasis from the midfield to the front three. Year after year, the football became more direct, sometimes bypassing the midfield altogether.
"He used Guardiola's foundations to take things somewhere else," added Balague. "That transformation has been criticised by some, including me, because I think it takes the team away from its essence. What we learned from Pep Guardiola and before him Frank Rijkaard and Johan Cruyff was that football is a midfielder's game. That is the essence of Barcelona."
But the shift in style brought huge success. Messi, Suarez and Neymar scored 122 goals between them as Barcelona won the treble in Luis Enrique's first season. They racked up 134 as Barca celebrated a double in his second. Guardiola may have created the best team there ever was, but there's never been a better strike-force than Luis Enrique's MSN.
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