Barcelona coach Charly Rexach is a nervous man. Last season the Catalan soccer giants won absolutely nothing, for the second year in succession, and only just scraped into the Champions League on the last day.

More of the same will just not be good enough to keep Barcelona's 105,000 supporters' club members happy and Rexach knows that results will have to arrive quickly or else he will not be in the same job next May.

However, many pundits believe that the saviour of the club - and the coach - has come in the form of Argentine sharpshooter Javier Saviola, who was signed from River Plate.

Saviola is only 19 but already a senior international and was the top scorer in the Under-20 World Cup earlier this summer, which Argentina won.

He has already shown that a mature head lies on young shoulders, having had an impressive pre-season, despite the tragic distraction of his father's death, and has also shown he is unlikely to wilt under the off-the-field pressures that a 25.9 million dollar price tag brings with it.

"I have to say he's surprised me at how well he has dealt with it all," said Barcelona president Joan Gaspart earlier this week.

"It has only been a few months since signing for a prestigious club like Barcelona, and for so much money, and after the death of his father."

There is every indication that Rexach will use Saviola a part of a three-pronged strike force - The Trident, as it has been dubbed by the media - that is intended to combine the talents of the young Argentine, 1999 World Player of the Year Rivaldo, and the Dutch international Patrick Kluivert within new 4-3-3 formation.

Last season Rivaldo scored 23 league goals, despite the debilitating effects of regular trans-Atlantic trips to fulfil his obligations to Brazil and a long-running wrangle with the club over his contract.

Kluivert added 17 goals and there were useful contributions from Spanish international Luis Enrique Martinez and Dutch midfielder Marc Overmars, who scored nine and eight goals respectively.

But, perhaps worryingly for Barcelona fans, Rexach still seems unsure of his tactics.

"If The Trident doesn't work then we will adopt another system," said Rexach. Goal scoring though should be the least of his worries.

The 57 league goals that the defence leaked last season was the worst tally in the top half of the Spanish first division.

Rexach, as part of a spending spree of more than 70 million dollars which brought six new players to the Nou Camp including Argentine international goalkeeper Roberto Bonano, signed French international defender Philippe Christanval and his Swedish counterpart Patrik Andersson to toughen things up.

Nevertheless, the back four is still looking short on understanding, if not individual skill.

"We have to get better, it is as simple as that," commented Rexach. His other concern will be keeping his players' egos in check, an issue that regularly spilled into the public domain last season.

"We can only have non-European Union players on the pitch this season and with players like Overmars, Geovanni, Saviola, and Rivaldo and Rochemback in our squad, it is almost inevitable that every week one of them will be on the bench. I can only put 11 men on the field," reflected Rexach.

For the first few months, there is no doubt that there will be few grumbles from the dressing room as all concerned toe the party line.

However, if Saviola fails to find his magic touch, or Barcelona make another premature departure from the Champions League, or they fail to make an impact on the domestic front again, it is possible that Rexach could be scanning the 'jobs vacant' columns in the newspapers during the Christmas holidays.

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