As detailed by Diari Ara in an article on Saturday, Tito Vilanova is choosing the coaching staff that will work with him this season. The original article can be found here.

Jordi Roura has been appointed as assistant coach. The reasons, as Tito explained to the press, were many. “First, is that we will have a lot of work to do, so I need someone who understand the system and can work fast. He was part of our team when Pep was in charge so he knows how this works. He knows the way we work here.”

Roura is a former Barça player, who made his debut for the team under Johan Cruyff’s command, in 1988/1989. He played as a midfielder and sometimes as a forward. He played 10 games for Barça, and then left for Murcia first, then Figueres. He suffered an injury that forced him to retire at 25. Roura has been working in Barça’s scouting team since 2007, which was directed by Carles Planchart and Domènec  Torrent. Both also worked with Pep Guardiola on analyzing rivals and Barça’s performance. They will continue helping Tito by studying rival’s strategies.

In the physical coaching department, after the departure of  Lorenzo Buenaventura, Aureli Altimira has been appointed as head of this department. Altimira played alongside Tito and Roura at Figueres, where they managed to get the team into Spain’s first division for the first time in its history. After that, he played at Malaga and other teams in Catalunya. He’s been a fitness coach for the entire Pep era, but now he will have more responsibilities.

Tito has recently said that his staff is not finished yet. There is expectation to find out who will take Unzue’s place as goalkeeping coach. Fitness coaches as Paco Seirul·lo and Francesc Cos, who worked with Pep, will stay, as well as doctors Ricard Pruna and Daniel Medina, and physios Roger Gironès, Jaume Munill, Emili Ricart and Juanjo Brau.

Source: ara.cat; Image:  LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images