Meet Gerardo 'Tata' Martino – the next Barcelona manager

Gerardo Martino

Gerardo Daniel Martino or ‘Tata’ Martino as he’s nicknamed, is set to take over as manager of Barcelona on a three-year contract.

The 50-year-old Argentine will replace the outgoing Tito Vilonova, who had to resign after a cancer relapse. Martino will be the first non-Spanish manager at Barcelona since Frank Riijkard’s exit in 2008, and the first Argentine since Cesar Menotti in 1983.

Martino has been in management since 1998, managing teams in South America. The Barcelona stint would be his first foray outside the continent.

He led the Newell’s Old Boys to the Argentinian Clausura title in the 2012/13 season but had recently quit the club. Prior to his time in Argentina, he had managed the Paraguay national football team from 2006 to 2011, and before that he won 4 Paraguayan Premira Division titles at Libertad and Cerro Porteno.

He played as a midfielder and his playing career stretched from 1980 to 1996, where he played for many South American clubs like Tenerife, Lanus and Newell’s Old Boys.

He appeared for Newell’s Old Boys in over 400 games, and was recently voted as the club’s greatest ever footballer. At the club, he played under manager Marcelo Bielsa and alongside Mauricio Pochettino (current Southampton manager). He also has one appearance for the Argentine national team. He later went on to become Bielsa’s assistant.

In his last six seasons as a club manager (which have been with three different clubs), Tata Martino has won the league five times. He has been called a “Bielsista” for the influence of his former manager’s tactics in his game planning.

Since Pep Guardiola’s style of play of possession and pressing at Barcelona was also heavily influenced by that of Bielsa, Martino would find it easy to get the team to play his game style.

His brand of passing football with a slow tempo would be easily accepted in the Barcelona team which is used to playing with the tiki-taka philosophy.

Just like Bielsa, he also has an open line of communication with all his players, and more importantly with those who don’t start the matches. His tactics involve playing with high lines and pressure, and he demands constant movement from the players.

One aspect of the game where he differs from Bielsa and Guardiola is that he understands the need for flexibility. He is not so rigid as his mentor and yet will not go into the tinkering that Guardiola does to make his side more dynamic. He believes that tactics have to be moulded to the players available instead of using a system.

Martino is said to be able to understand his players and adapt to the conditions well, and this trait should bode well for him in his stint at Barcelona. His fitness coach Elvio Paolorros has said, “One of the positives of Tata is his ability to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the country where he is living in. When he was in Paraguay, he adapted to the players and their way of living.”

Martino’s appointment will be popular with the Barca’s star player and his Argentine compatriot, Lionel Messi, who had started his career at Newell’s. Messi’s father Jorge considers Martino as one of his football idols.

Messi has been quoted saying, “I like Tata Martino. He is a great coach, and he showed that in the Clausura with what he did for the team, the way it ended and how he did it. He gets his teams playing well and we all respect him.”