Squad attends funeral of father goalkeeping coach

The whole Barcelona squad and technical staff, accompanied by members of the board, travelled yesterday to Navarre, in the north of Spain, to attend the funeral of the father of Barcelona goalkeeping coach Juan Carlos Unzué.






(see more picture here)

Barcelona squad attends funeral today

The death of the father of Barcelona goalkeeping coach Juan Carlos Unzué (41) has imposed a change of plans in the build-up to the Basle game.

The whole squad will attend the funeral this Monday afternoon in the region of Navarre in the north of Spain.

Barcelona manager Guardiola has therefore decided that the training session will be held this morning at 10:30 am. After a lunch at 12:30 pm, the group will travel to Orkoien where the funeral will be held at 4 pm.

Guardiola has his team in place

Barcelona announced today on its official website that new Barcelona manager Jose Guardiola has finalized the team that will assist him during his time as Barcelona head coach.

GUARDIOLA'S NEW TEAM OF ASSISTANTS

Sandra Sarmiento - fcbarcelona.cat

FC Barcelona’s first team coach already has his team of assistants in place: Tito Vilanova (picture left), Juan Carlos Unzué and Lorenzo Buenaventura.

This new team has four major goals for the 2008/09 season. They are to drive excellence and professionalism in the dressing room; to stress player performance and what impacts on it; provide more scientific parameterisation to monitor the players’ physical condition and health; and new training and fitness routines.

Coaching staff
Josep Guardiola will be head coach and will have three assistants: Tito Vilanova as assistant coach, Juan Carlos Unzué (picture right) as goalkeeping coach among other duties, and Lorenzo Buenaventura in charge of physical fitness and performance.

Lorenzo Buenaventura
Born in Seville, the physical fitness coach has come to FC Barcelona after a spell at Cadiz CF. Buenaventura has also worked at RCD Espanyol, Atlético de Madrid and for Argentina. He will be in charge of the team’s physical preparation with three aims:

- Tactical physical fitness work to make training more intense
- Planning individual and group physical training, scientific measurement and continuous assessment of levels of strength, stamina and speed of players.
- Managing all the variables which affect a player’s performance: performance on the field, individual physical preparation, diets, rest, avoiding injury, and sports physiology and psychology.

Fitness coaches
The first team will have three fitness coaches working under Lorenzo Buenaventura: Paco Seirul•lo as lead fitness coach; Aureli Altimira, who last season was with Josep Guardiola at Barça B, will be in charge of field work; and Francesc Cos will be in charge of strength work.

The doctors
Ricard Pruna and Daniel Medina will look after the footballers’ health. Medina was with Barça B and the indoor football team last season. New this season is the setting up of the physiology applied to top level sport department, led by physiologist Esteban Gorostiaga’s team. With extensive experience in professional football (Liverpool, Valencia, Osasuna, etc.), Gorostiaga is also a member of the Spanish Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission.

All the doctors, physiotherapists and chiropodists in the medical section will work closely with the physical fitness department to maximise physical performance and reduce injury rates.

http://www.fcbarcelona.cat/web/english/noticies/futbol/temporada07-08/06/n080630104769.html

pep's opinion:
the arrival of buenaventura was already known, but that he really becomes guardiola's assistant (kind of replacing eusebio) shows the emphasis guardiola will lie on the physical preparation. in that perspective the most important change could be the appointment of gorostiaga, who apparently could introduce some kind of "barça lab". one of my points of view about the team performance last season has been that the dramatic collapse of the team from february on can only have been caused by physical reasons, which makes me very pleased about this first 'revolution' of guardiola.

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Guardiola's staff

While it is believed that a deal has been reached earlier this week with future Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola (37) (read more here), it is also generally excepted that Barcelona B assistant coach Tito Vilanova will continue to be Guardiola's right hand next season (read more here).

The main lines of Vilanova's contract were also agreed upon this week. Josep Maria Orobitg, the agent of Guardiola, informed Vilanova on the talks on Wednesday evening and the assistant will most probably give his agreement shortly.

The composition of the rest of the coaching staff is not yet clear. Bulgarian newspaper Meridian Mach claimed last weekend that former Barcelona forward Hristo Stoichkov (42) had accepted an offer to become an assistant of Guardiola. This news was not confirmed and Stoichkov would now be negotiating with Red Star Belgrade to become head coach.

Catalan sports weekly paper Gol claims that Guardiola has suggested the appointment of Real Sociedad manager Juan Manuel Lillo (42) (picture), who has a very close relationship with Guardiola, as assistant but that this was vetoed by the Barcelona board (read more here).

The club thinks that Lillo has a poor track record. But most of all, during the election process of 2003, both Guardiola and Lillo were part of the candidacy of Lluís Bassat, then the main rival of Laporta. Letting the duo Guardiola-Lillo take charge of the team would be like admitting that the Bassat project was in fact the right one.

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims nevertheless that Lillo could be added to the coaching staff when the competition in Segunda División ends next month. Catalan sports paper Sport claims that there simply won't be a second assistant coach next season.

Sport says that current goalkeeping coach Juan Carlos Unzué (41) would be willing to continue, although he could also accept an offer by another club to become head coach. Barcelona B goalkeeping coach Carles Busquets (40) is a valid alternative for Guardiola.

Madrid sports tabloid As claims that Guardiola has rejected the continuation of Unzué, despite attempts of Barcelona officials to convince the new manager. Catalan sports weekly paper Gol claims that Guardiola wants to take Busquets with him and doesn't want to give in to the pressure from the club to keep Unzué on board.

In the physical department it is expected there will be some serious changes, but all of this is yet to be confirmed.

Although no official announcement has yet been made, it is generally believed that former Barcelona player Luis Enrique will replace Guardiola as manager of Barcelona B (read more here). This week, Luis Enrique has been following some training sessions of the team.

Fernando Hierro, sports director of the Spanish football association, confirmed earlier this week that Luis Enrique will not accept his offer (read more here) because he has chosen to coach Barcelona B next season: "After a few meetings, Luis Enrique has in the end taken the decision to accept the offer of Barcelona. His motivation and the possibility to stay with his family in Barcelona have been decisive."

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Who will assist Guardiola?

Together with Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard (45), his assistants Johan Neeskens (56) and Eusebio Sacristán (44) will have to leave at the end of the season. The situation of Barcelona goalkeeping coach Juan Carlos Unzué (41) is unclear: it is not yet decided if he will stay or if Barcelona B goalkeeping coach Carles Busquets (40) will take over.

Rijkaard's successor Guardiola is expected to take a part of the Barcelona B technical staff with him to the first team. His currect assistant Tito Vilanova (picture, at the left) will most probably continue to act as Guardiola's right hand next season.

Former Barcelona captain Luis Enrique (38) was mentioned as a possible candidate to return to Barcelona as assistant coach, both in case that Guardiola or Mourinho would become the next Barcelona manager, and felt ready for the job (read more here).

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo nevertheless claims that Luis Enrique has received some offers in the meantime and would be close to accept an offer from the Spanish football association to work with several youth teams. Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Guardiola has urged Barcelona to sign his former team-mate as Barcelona B manager.

Juan Manuel Lillo (42) is being put forward as another possible assistant. Lillo was Guardiola's coach when the latter ended his career playing for the Mexican club Dorados and has in the past been coaching Salamanca, Oviedo, Tenerife and Zaragoza when they played in the Spanish Liga.

Since a few months he is the coach of second division team Real Sociedad, who he still can lead to the Primera División. Asked about the rumours linking him with a move to Barcelona, Lillo, whose contract with Sociedad expires in June, said at a press conference that he's now totally focusing on his club and will not pronounce on his future before the season ends mid-June.

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