FOOTBALL has often been likened to chess and few coaches would understand the comparison better than Quique Setien.
The new Barcelona boss will hope to do enough to impress the Nou Camp hierarchy – but is also adept at working with a different kind of board.
Setien has been out of management since leaving Real Betis in MayCredit: Reuters
There could be concerns that the 61-year-old, appointed on Monday, will be more of a pawn when faced with Barca kings Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique.
But he is no stranger to taking on great thinkers at chess – Setien has previously given grandmaster Garry Kasparov and super computer Deep Blue a decent game.
He once admitted: “I often prefer to play chess than watch football. I like chess because it isolates me.
“It is a game that I find exciting, you will never be able to control it. There is always someone who will beat you.
“There is a lot of depth in chess, and the same thing happens in football.”
As a football man, Setien has the Barca way in his blood and we can expect more slick moves.
Setien in action against England on the beach football sceneCredit: Sportsbeat Images
The Spaniard is a big fan of the chessboardCredit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IofwzUSAzK4
Possession-based football (including square passes) and attacking creativity are the two fulcrums of his game – and arguably the reasons he got the job.
Writing in The Coaches’ Voice, Setin recalled: “I remember when Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona came along.
“You played against them, and you spent the whole match running after the ball. I said to myself: ‘This is what I like. I would like to be in this team, and know why this is happening’.
“How can you get a team to have the ball permanently, so that the opponent is running after it for the whole match?
“From then on, I started to make sense of what I had felt throughout life, through my career.”
Setien tried to replicate that way of playing when he was Real Betis boss.
In fact, Barca anchorman and archetypal tiki-taka midfielder Sergio Busquets once gifted Setien a signed shirt in appreciation of his team’s style.
He wrote: “To Quique, with appreciation and admiration for your way of seeing football. A hug. Sergio.”
Setien has had to work his way across the board to get to be king of the castle at the Nou Camp.
In 2006, he spent a brief period in charge of Equatorial Guinea and bounced around Spain’s second tier.
Indeed, his career across the lower leagues, including a long, promotion-winning spell with Lugo which led him to his top-flight coaching debut with Las Palmas at the age of 57, has earned comparisons to Maurizio Sarri.
He will have to draw on all his experience to mould Barcelona back into the free-flowing, all-conquering side that lost its way slightly under Ernesto Valverde.
Setien got the better of Valverde in November 2018 when his Betis side recorded a stunning 4-3 victory.
The former boss did enjoy success but his pragmatic style was largely the reason he lost his job on Monday.
Setien is more of a wildcard and spent six years playing beach football after hanging up his boots – even turning out for Spain.
He also made the national squad for the 1986 World Cup (on grass) as a player after impressing for Racing Santander and Atletico Madrid, but he never got off the bench.
Of course, a slightly less-than-legendary playing career is certainly no longer a barrier to coaching success – just ask Sarri, Jose Mourinho or Jurgen Klopp.
Instead Setien has built his reputation gradually, making his moves carefully, and he will aim to become the Nou Camp grandmaster starting against Granada on Sunday.
We’re just hoping you’re worth that cheque, mate.
Barcelona announce appointment of new manager with ’10 things about Quique Setién’ video
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
