There is a lot of speculation on Tito Vilanova nos that he has been appointed as FC Guardiola's successor.

Part of this speculation, obviously apart from his being the shadow coach, floats around the idea that Tito Vilanova might be the mastermind behind Guardiola's successful tactics. Whoever thinks like this is not well informed of how FC Barcelona works on the inside.

The truth is that most of the tactics and strategies displayed by FC Barcelona players have their origin in the hard working team work made by Guardiola and Vilanova. Many of the decisions have most of the time been agreed, worked on, discussed and planned by both Guardiola and Vilanova. So to claim ownership of tactics on or the other does not make justice either to Guardiola or to Vilanova.

Vilanova has been elected as Guardiola's successor because he shares the same ambition and idea of forward, attacking playing as Guardiola and the rest of players and, more importantly, he know very well the institution from the inside and from top to down, something crucial for a team under constant pressure from the media.

It is also possible that the decision to appoint Vilanova has political overtones due to the conservative profile of FC Barcelona's governing body. That might be true. To have someone from the "house" coaching Barcelona guarantees more discretion and stability for the club than choosing a star coach with his own predilections and decisions in a team where Messi and Pique need to be handled very tactfully.

But this can only be part of the truth and is inconsitent with Barcelona's long list of successful foreign coaches (Van Gaal, Rijkaard, Cruyff) who have been able to manage the pressure of coaching a top team like Barcelona in a successful manner.