A lot of analysis of Barcelona is going on at the moment and for good reason. As the "experts" delve into this football organisation, it quickly becomes evident that it is a very elegant and socially responsible football culture. So much more than just a few extravagantly talented players. There are so many lessons to learn from Barcelona, on and off the field. All of it is directly transferable to our football environment here in the ACT.
Lets start by making the Capital Football development regime a loud echo of Barcelona's academy, then it on to Clubs, many of whom have the ordinary, socially responsible attitudes so apparent in the Barcelona Football organisation.
Barcelona's motto is "Move than A Club". So it is. Dalglish makes that point in a very Football fashion.
It's the way Barcelona play that makes Xavi and Messi look so good
by Kenny Dalglish, Manager Liverpool FC
13th March 2011
Robin van Persie's controversial sending-off in Barcelona should not disguise the fact that the right team went through to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Barcelona, not Arsenal, deserved to be there. They had 20 shots on goal at the Nou Camp and Arsenal, unusually, had none.
You can never say for certain that a team from one era could beat another from 30 years ago but the time has come when it’s legitimate to compare Barcelona with all the legends from years gone by.
There are certain teams who will always be remembered by their generation as the best ever, to be revered down the ages — the Real Madrid team of the late Fifties and early Sixties with Puskas and Di Stefano; Brazil in 1970 orchestrated by Pele; the AC Milan of the Eighties and Nineties with the three great Dutchmen Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard.
Now you can add Barcelona to that list, and deservedly so. Many years from now, younger fans will listen attentively to tales of Xavi and Iniesta, who worked in tandem and never gave the ball away, or the wizard Lionel Messi, who scored 45 goals in a season before the middle of March.
Van Persie was unjustly sent off because, even if he saw the offside flag before shooting, there wasn’t enough time between the two actions to prove it was intentional. But, despite the fuss being made about it, we mustn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Barcelona were a class apart.
Their manager, Pep Guardiola, will watch this week’s Champions League games featuring Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Inter Milan with interest but not fear. I don’t think he minds who he gets in the quarter-final draw. But I think everyone else will be praying they avoid Barcelona.
Clearly there is a way to knock them out. Inter Milan did it under Jose Mourinho last year with a supremely disciplined performance in defending the 18-yard box. But to do that, and also score three goals in the home leg, is a very tough call.
Mourinho’s Real Madrid showed that without that discipline you can get hammered, as they were 5-0 this season. Arsenal were better than that on Tuesday night but not tight enough and they couldn’t pose a goal threat either. Barcelona’s principles are world renowned. I wouldn’t say other clubs see that and say, ‘We must copy the way they play’ but, of course, we all try to look and learn.
We have two former Barcelona coaches in our academy at Liverpool and that must tell you something.
What is interesting is that, despite the incredible individual talent at the Nou Camp — they had three nominees for World Player of the Year — the team is king.
The first-team players have been educated to play a certain way since they were kids. If you went to see the B team, I bet their style is very similar to the style we saw against Arsenal.
On top of the world: Xavi, Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta were shortlisted for the Ballon D'Or, with the Argentine scooping the prize
Xavi and Iniesta are rightly lauded but would they look half as good if they went to another club? I think the Barcelona players look great because they play in a system where they trust everyone around them. Maybe if you took them out and stuck them somewhere else, you’d realise that individually they aren’t quite as great as you thought.
Even Messi, one of the most talented players you’ll ever see, wasn’t quite the same when he was taken outside the Barcelona comfort zone and played for Argentina in the World Cup. It is not a criticism of him, just a compliment to the methods that they use at the Nou Camp.
Whatever ability their players have, it is tutored and doctored in the right way. And they make their team-mates look better as well. ........
But irrespective of who Barcelona face, you’d fancy them now. Youngsters today should be glad they are able to watch a team who compare with anything their fathers — or grandfathers — saw in the past.