Luis Enrique, a GPS vest and how rotations are managed at Barça

Eliot Ness used to boast of having a handful of men available to him that would never fail. It was the 1930s in the United States and prohibition had led to the appearance of various mafia organisations and Al Capone was rampant in Chicago. 

Ness, an American prohibition agent, became so successful in his crusades against these types of people that his team became popularly known as The Untouchables. Luis Enrique has created his own Untouchables at Barcelona, professionals who always show up and never fail. 

Evidently there are three figures who stand out above the rest: The Blaugrana’s trident. The three best forwards in the world do it all, without pretensions. Even though there are notable differences between Messi, Neymar and Suarez, there are no problems. 

Suarez is currently the most used of the trio. He has played almost every minute and has never been substituted, accumulating 3,450 minutes in all competitions. 

Neither Messi nor Neymar are close in terms of these numbers, with the Argentine’s season disrupted by an injury. Leo has played 2,669 minutes and has been substituted twice, while Neymar has been taken off once and has played 2,966 minutes. 

With so much confidence shown in him, Suarez has responded and he is the top scorer in Europe and a serious contender for the Golden Boot this season. But his constant exposure to football at Barcelona could soon be altered. Why? Because his ban from playing for Uruguay - due to his bite at the World Cup - has ended and he can now be called up again. His international return has a date: March 24 against Brazil. 

Don’t forget that until now, Luis Enrique has been able to ‘abuse’ Suarez a little because he has only been playing club football and has not been ‘burned’ by international commitments. That bonus, as far as Barça are concerned, is now about to disappear. 

CALCULATOR 

If Luis Enrique has demonstrated anything during his time as Barcelona boss, it’s that he knows how to manage and plan the minutes his players play with mathematical precision. This can be understood by the fact that Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan, two players who began playing competitively in January, have played almost the exact same minutes - 698 and 692 respectively. 

But there is more data which proves how controlled Luis Enrique’s planning is. After Suarez, who breaks some rules due to his international ban, the following four players with the most minutes - Busquets (3,021), Mascherano (2,999), Rakitic (2,969) and Neymar (2,966) - are separated by a little over 50 minutes. 

Evidently, though, there is another section of the squad: those outside of the law. In this case we are talking about Douglas and Masip as the two clear losers, above all the former, who has played just 117 minutes this season, even though he does have an injury as an excuse for large parts of the campaign. After that there are others who may feel marginalised, like Sandro (848 minutes) and Bartra (1,056 minutes), who have not been heavily used by Luis Enrique.   

THE GPS VEST

The Asturian coach has a great ally when it comes to working out how to effect rotations. We are talking about the vest which has been used in training since last season to great success - it was brought in by fitness coach Rafel Pol. Thanks to a GPS application on the vest, Barça are able to calculate the number of runs, jumps, effort, sprints and a series of other variables in every player. 

This tool has helped Barcelona decide on rotations and will continue to do so. In fact, more than one player has been left out due to the results of the variables revealed by this vest - such as possible muscle fatigue, which would then lead to resting a player to avoid injury.