10 facts that the Culés don’t know about new Barça coach, Quique Setién

10/10 – An excellent chess player

If he is such a good strategist, Quique Setién probably owes this to chess, which he has always said to be inspired for building a game based on control of the ball, time and space.
Since his adolescence, the Spanish coach has been a big fan of this game. He also finds similarities with football. This addiction already took up a lot of space when he was a player. When he was playing at Atlético Madrid (from 1985 to 1988), he was offered an electronic chess table.
“In chess as in football, it is essential to control the center,” he said, “The important thing is not where the pieces are placed at the moment, but where they will be after”. The ex-Betis coach then compared Joaquin to the Bishop and especially Messi to the Queen, because he “does everything well”, and he’s always a step ahead.
Passionate enough to participate in exhibition games against the big masters Karpov and Kasparov, the replacement for Valverde also claims to have gained in tranquility. “Before, I was a much more impulsive player than today,” he says. “Take the time to think, don’t give in to the first thing you can see, analyze. It brought me all that. “
All this is rather reassuring for Blaugrana fans, even if Valverde was also a fan of this discipline.