Luis Enrique could leave Barcelona with a better La Liga win percentage than Pep Guardiola – but only if he triumphs in 12 of his remaining 13 matches in the Camp Nou hot seat.
Wenger plays down Barcelona talk
The former midfielder announced his Barca departure on Wednesday, confirming that he will leave when his contract expires at the end of the season.
Barca remain in the running for three pieces of silverware, which means Luis Enrique has a chance to add to the eight trophies he has already won for the Catalan giants, including two league titles.
But how does he measure up against his predecessors?
Here, we use Opta data to compare Luis Enrique's league record with that of Guardiola, Tito Vilanova and Gerardo Martino.
Here's how Luis Enrique broke the news of his departure, moments after Barça's 6–1 win over his hometown team... pic.twitter.com/GX47mTB8Ki
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 2, 2017
TITO ON TOP FOR WINS, LUIS ENRIQUE PUSHES PEP
It is actually the late Vilanova who boasts the best win percentage of Barca's last four managers, leading his side to victory in 84.2 per cent of matches as they won the title in his only season in charge.
But the battle for supremacy between Luis Enrique and Guardiola could go down to the wire.
Guardiola left Camp Nou having collected three top-flight crowns on the bounce and 116 victories from 152 matches at the helm gave him a win percentage of 76.3% .
Luis Enrique stands on 75.2% after 101 games in charge, but could reel in his former team-mate with 13 fixtures of the 2016-17 season remaining, including a Clasico against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu.
Eleven wins would pull the outgoing Barca boss level with Guardiola, while a 12th would be enough to edge him in front.
Martino's stint ended with a La Liga win percentage of 71% .
BARCA MAKE CHANCES COUNT UNDER LUIS ENRIQUE
Guardiola's Barca side peppered the opposition goal with 7.24 shots on target per game, yielding an average of 2.71 goals , while Vilanova ( 6.32 shots on target , 3.03 goals ) and Martino ( 7 shots on target , 2.63 goals ) generated similar figures.
The Catalans have been somewhat more wayward under Luis Enrique – despite matching Guardiola's 16 shots per game, the team have only managed an average of 3.12 on target .
However, Luis Enrique's men have been far more economical when they have found the target, netting an average of 2.9 goals per game.
It helps when you have Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar to lead the line.
POSSESSION AND PASSING A PRIORITY
Barca became known for passing opponents off the park under Guardiola and the team enjoyed 69.37% of possession when coached by the current Manchester City boss, playing 654.07 passes per game with an accuracy of 87.91% .
Vilanova's brief but successful tenure carried on that approach, having marginally more of the ball (69.44%) and attempting more passes (746.5%) with increased precision (89.53%) .
Those figures tailed off slightly under Martino (68.13% possession, 655.32 passes per game, 88.31% accuracy) , but the perceived demise of Barca's tiki-taka style is not entirely borne out by the stats of the Luis Enrique area.
Barca have continued to enjoy 68.04% of possession , playing 648.13 passes per game with 87.27% accuracy .
LUIS ENRIQUE BEST AT THE BACK
One area where Luis Enrique does come out on top is in defence, with Barca conceding an average of 0.7 goals per game under his leadership.
That edges Guardiola, who comes in at 0.72 , with Martino on 0.86 and Vilanova on 1.05 .