Tito Vilanova out of his depth

What I find totally unbelievable is the notion that Eric Abidal cannot get a contract extension because the Barca board feels that he may not be able to play the required number of games that a top professional is supposed to play in a season. That is between 30-50 games depending on the number of competitions the team is playing in.Fair enough to Zubizaretta, Tito and Sandro Rosell for coming to this conclusion and deeming the French international surplus to requirements, after all football is now a business. Before you dismiss this argument, Abidal spent 13 months without playing and Barca stood by him and did not try to re-negotiate his contract. However, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Using the same logic Tito should not be sitting on Barca’s bench. He was away in New York for many months during his illness but he now feels capable of sitting on the bench and churning out mediocre instructions and formations to the team. Fair enough, the team equalled the record set by Madrid in reaching 100 points but what was the cost of trying to beat this target.Let us start with team selection, rotation and giving a chance to the Barca youngsters. Already there are indications that Marc Muniesa’s contract will not be renewed. Marc Batra only played literally when there was no one to play central defence. In the Champions League second leg quarter-final against PSG, Adriano, a jack of all trades was picked ahead of him. Remember Adriano was only coming back from a hamstring injury which injury was duly aggravated after several twists and turns by Lucas Moura, Ibrahimovic and co. Marc Batra came on and did an excellent job. Alex Song a defensive midfielder by vocation was at the beginning of the season chosen ahead of Batra at centre half and we all now know how disastrous that experiment turned out. Batra would only get a game when there was no one else yet he is supposed to be the next big thing in central defence. How will he live up to his nickname of Batresi (a moniker he got from the great Italian defender of the 1990s Franco Baresi).Even when David Villa, Pedro, Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas could not score to save their lives, youngsters like the speedy winger Christian Tello continued to be marooned on the bench. It was evident every time Tello got a chance to play, he either created a goal scoring opportunity or scored and created great danger for the opposing full back. Tito did not agree.Martin Montoya was supposed to have been Dani Alves’ heir albeit a better defensive version. He only got to play 15 La Liga games. It was evident Alves’ form had dipped and he requires more rest in order to be on peak form. Tito does not agree.Thiago Alcantara is a more curious example. He is now available for transfer at 18 million Euros and the Manchester teams and Madrid are lining up for his signature. His contract stipulates that if he played less than 60% of the games his buyout clause falls from 90m to 18m. In hindsight, Xavi was asked to play in games even when he was injured and on pain killing injections and chances were denied to Thiago. Again Tito saw it differently.It is rumoured that Tito used to conduct training sessions and coaching during games from his New York hospital bed although it was his assistant Jordi Roura that was relaying the instructions. This curious arrangement went on for several months until the teams started to lose a couple of games, including against Real Madrid in the Copa de Rey, AC Milan in the Champions League and Madrid again in the league. By coincidence Xavi did not travel to Madrid for this last Madrid encounter and watched from his living room.He saw what the rest of us had been seeing all along but because he was involved in the action, he did not see it before. Barca no longer applied the high pressure game and was too predictable in the build-up of moves. The ball moved so slowly in the build-up and opponents had time to park the bus. Xavi took over the coaching of the team for the return leg against Milan albeit on the field. We all saw vintage Barca take apart Milan in that 4-0 game.So if Barca is more than a club and prides itself in giving a chance to its La Masia graduates, how do you explain Tito not trusting the very same players that he helped groom and develop at a young age? Is he trying too much to step out of Guardiola’s shadow or is he simply out of his depth?