FC Barcelona Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

aaronh007 wrote: »

As much as I like our business this summer, I'd still like to see a proper CB brought in. As much as Masch and Sergio are capable of playing there, I'd much rather a strong CB. Although I'm also wondering what's happened to Marc Muniesa?? Was heralded as the next Pique no more than 2 seasons ago but haven't heard much since, other than a few paper stories linking him to United.

(WFI) Barcelona - a byword for brilliance in the modern game. Their style, rooted in superb off the ball movement, quick and accurate passing, aggressive ball recovery, and the predatory instincts of Lionel Messi, surpassed even that of the great Brazilian side of 1970 last season, establishing the Catalans as the gold standard for quality football.

Inevitably, because of their success, Barca have begun to spawn a number of imitators.

In the Barclay’s English Premier League, for example, Arsenal copy the Catalans slavishly. And did anyone notice the Barca-esque goals scored by Anderson and Nani of Manchester United during the pre-season tour of the USA and Community Shield respectively?

On the international stage, Argentina and Brazil each paid homage to Barcelona’s style during the group stages of the Copa America despite lacking the creativity to make it work. And even at the Women’s World Cup the comparisons between Japan and Barca were obvious as the Japanese passed their way to an unlikely world title.

Imitation, of course, is the sincerest form of flattery, so it’s ironic that in trying to emulate the game’s greatest ever team the Barcelona wannabes can so easily shoot themselves in the foot.

Arsenal, under Arsene Wenger, has been chasing the Barca dream since losing to the Catalans in the 2006 Champions League final, but the outcome, thus far, has merely served as a cautionary tale of promoting style over substance.

Wenger’s Barcelona caricature having proved great to watch but ultimately unsuccessful, as evidenced by the Gunners’ lack of a trophy in the past six seasons.

United, for all their pressing in the final third during the Community Shield, were twice caught on the break by Manchester City and had to play their get-out-of-jail free card to snatch an unlikely victory courtesy of a defensive mistake.

Argentina, even with a Barcelona presence that included Messi, produced only a pale imitation of the Spaniards’ tiki-taka style during the early part of the Copa America and ultimately joined Brazil, whose talented individuals never gelled as a team, in making an ignominious exit in the quarter-finals of a tournament each had been tipped to win.

Only the Japanese women managed to make the mimicry work consistently. Even then they had to compromise, as their World Cup final victory over the USA came in the wake of a gritty rather than stylish display that marked their least Barca-like performance of the tournament.

Barca's Total Team Ethic is Unmatched

So, if Barcelona’s style is universally acknowledged as “the way to play football”, why is it largely ineffective when adopted by others?

After all, in essence it’s not hard to understand. Play on the floor, keep possession, pass and move, create angles and options, and, when you do lose the ball, put a full-court press on the other team so you can to get it back as soon as possible. So how come it’s so hard to copy?

Here’s my take. Theory and execution are obviously two different things, and Barca are currently playing an idealistic form of football with technical ability, stamina, timing and a speed of thought that verges on automaton. It’s almost like watching a computerized form of the game where every move and movement is etched on a microchip available for instant replication time and again.

For example, during last season’s European Champions League final against Manchester United Barca made a staggering 777 passes, more than double that of their opponents. They enjoyed a whopping 69% of possession. Xavi alone made a tournament high 148 passes and managed a success rate of 95.3%! That’s machine-like but emblematic of the whole team, which boasted a successful pass rate of 90%.

Barca’s precision and work rate makes the complex look deceptively simple, when in reality it’s a classic case of “Don’t try this at home".

But it’s more than just the technical prowess of the players that makes their style hard to copy it’s also their human qualities.

Many top teams might be able to match Barcelona for industry and individual artistry but none can equal their united approach to the game. This, as everyone knows, is a golden generation of virtuosos, however, by some strange alchemy it’s also been uniquely combined into a unit that’s even greater than the sum of its parts.

Barca don’t play the blame game. When a move breaks down for whatever reason you never see hands thrown in the air or lip read a barrage of abuse between one team-mate and another. It’s an all for one and one for all mentality. Let’s re-group, recover, and start again with no recriminations.

What’s more, Barca don’t cater to fragile egos. For example, look at what a short stay Zlatan Ibrahimovic enjoyed at the Camp Nou despite his goal-scoring prowess. If you can’t put the needs of the team above your own you’re out!

Consequently, what we’re seeing in Pep Guardiola’s men is not just total football but a total team ethic applied by a perfect storm of individual talent. It’s a star team within which no-one is considered a star, despite the plaudits ladled on Messi by those on the outside.

No wonder then that even sides with great players of their own fail to reproduce what Barcelona do.

You can buy great, as the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Manchester United have done, but you can’t buy empathy, and without that key ingredient attempting to play the Barcelona way is a hit and miss affair that can even negate some of the qualities your team does possess.

So, while Barca play the beautiful game it’s my belief that you seek to imitate them at your peril. There’s only one Mona Lisa, there’s only one Hope Diamond, there’s only one Barcelona, and lightning in a bottle is rarely captured twice.

worldfootballinsider

Pep Guardiola was telling the truth all those years ago when he told the midfielder he would one day wear Barcelona's No4 shirt.

When Francesc Fábregas was growing up, there was one possession he treasured above all the others: a Barcelona shirt signed by Pep Guardiola. The former Barcelona ballboy who became the club captain, a Catalan and the metronome that kept the Dream Team ticking over from the middle of midfield, Guardiola was everything that Fábregas wanted to be. No wonder he was so enamoured with that shirt. On it, Guardiola had written: "One day you will be Barcelona's No4."

Now he is. There was a squeal as he emerged from the tunnel at the Camp Nou, then a huge roar from the fans who had turned out to see him – perhaps as many as 20,000. Although Barcelona had taken advantage of a bank holiday and it was a glorious day, it was not the best-attended presentation in history and could not compete with the 80,000 who packed the Santiago Bernabéu to see Cristiano Ronaldo make his way down a catwalk. But nor did it matter: this was different.

Eight long years later, the prodigal son returned. He recovered his original colours: blaugrana, blue and purple. A Barcelona kit with "Fabregas, 4" on the back. And although Fábregas sheepishly conceded that "it doesn't really matter", to him it does. At Barcelona, it is more than a number: it is an identity and Fábregas was grateful to Thiago Alcântara – "a star" – for ceding him the shirt. Here he was, a ball at his feet on the Camp Nou pitch wearing his shirt. "I was a bit nervous," he admitted. And when the fans chanted for him to kiss the Barcelona badge, he did.

Empty gesture? Hardly. Barcelona are conscious of the need to add depth to the squad and secure succession after Xavi. They are also deeply aware of the difficulties outsiders often have in adapting to Barcelona's style.

"Barça DNA" has become the cliche. But the emotional, almost political need to bring one of their own home – a Catalan and a Barcelona product, clearly locatable on that midfield continuum from Guardiola to De la Peña to Xavi to Iniesta and Thiago – does help to explain the zealousness of the pursuit.

Officially, Fábregas will pay Arsenal €1m a year, his salary dropping from €4m to €3m to facilitate the move. He refused to countenance offers from Manchester City and Real Madrid. Had it not been for Barcelona, he says he would have stayed where he was. The reason was simple: many players claim to play for their childhood club; Fábregas really will. There was a hint of sadness in departing Arsenal but this was what he wanted. Arsène Wenger said: "This was not about money, it was about him going home."

In the Paris room at Camp Nou, across the gangway from the stadium, tourists milling around below, two screens showed footage of Fábregas playing for Barcelona as a kid. There he was ploughing across gravel pitches to a soundtrack of Police's Every Breath You Take. A couple more familiar faces flickered across the screen: Gerard Piqué, Fábregas's best friend. Leo Messi, the kid they nicknamed "el mudo", the mute one, when they were kids in the days when Fábregas travelled by taxi from Arenys for training every day. "I have known and played with two of [the current squad] since I was thirteen," Fábregas said.

He had departed a 16-year-old, Arsenal taking advantage of a power vacuum to bring him to London with the promise of first-team football within two years. They were as good as their word and both Fábregas and Guardiola have been quick to credit Wenger with his development. Deep down Fábregas wondered if one day he would return home. He described it here as a train that he always aspired to catch; what he did not know is if he would be able to. When he renewed his Arsenal contract four years ago, he thought not. When the possibility emerged, Arsenal would not let him climb aboard.

On Monday he did. "I have come home," Fábregas said. "These have been weeks and months that have been very hard for me; I have suffered – I didn't know what would happen in the future. There were talks and talks and talks and I saw that it wasn't ending and I was unsure what would happen. I am so glad it has been resolved now." Almost as pleased as the president Sandro Rosell: he had succeeded where his predecessor and rival Joan Laporta had not.

But much of the normal cynicism did not appear to fit here. From the doorway to the club's offices, with its huge Barcelona badge, to the pitch where, up in the stands, his mother, tall and striking, applauded. Francesc senior stared silently at his son, the picture of a proud papa. Sister Carlota was there too. The whole family was.

Kick-ups done, everyone headed to the Paris room. They took their seats, shifting each other along, shooting inquisitive looks each others' way, giggling and joking, as they nudged each other along – you here, no here – like a family occupying pews at a wedding. Before them stood Fábregas, who left eight years ago, departing home at 16. He has been in London a third of his life. To his left sat the vice-president Josep María Bartomeu and alongside him the sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta.

In his hand, a Barcelona shirt. No4 on the back.

Sid Lowe

L'prof wrote: »