Barcelona, How They Continually Produce Attractive Yet Efficient Football

Barcelona, How They Continually Produce Attractive Yet Efficient Football

Ever since the beginning of the Guardiola era, Barcelona has blessed us football fans with some of the most attracting football displays. After stepping in for Rijkard as the Blaugrana's head coach back in 2008, Pep has taken the world of football by storm, winning every single trophy his team competed for, during his first year in charge. What's really impressive about Barcelona is that they have found a way to play what is considered by many as the most attractive football in the world, while winning at the same time. The question is how do they do it?

Barcelona's greatest strength is its identity. Few people worked harder than Johan Cruyff on forging this identity. He assembled the so called "dream team" in the 90s, and delivered what had been identified up to now as FC Barcelona's best years. Cruyff believed in the beautiful football, and made it his number 1 goal, claiming that results would logically follow. For playing under Pep, Guardiola has embraced this principle and made it his own now that he coaches the team. Guardiola's Barcelona doesn't seem to fear any opponent. They seem to impose their football style upon any team they face. Pep was able to develop real total football in Barcelona.

On paper, Barcelona's squad is not the deepest, and probably not the richest in Europe. The team doesn't possess as many star players as say their rival Real Madrid, but they without a doubt possess the most versatile squad in Europe. This versatility is what allows them to play total football as preached by Pep Guardiola and his mentor Johan Cruyff. Total football is based on the idea that any player should be able to take on any position on the field. The current Barcelona team comes closer to that than any other team. Take a player like Iniesta for example, during the course of last season he was deployed in 4 different positions: left midfield, right midfield, left forward, right forward. He seemed equally at ease in any of these positions. Similarly, a player like Pedro is also frequently switched from left to right forward position, with great effect depending on the game. Even a player like David Villa who only joined the team this past summer has also walked straight into the team's plan and style, and plays either as a central striker or left forward, depending on the coach's plans. But the most telling example of the total football philosophy at Barcelona FC was when Pep Guardiola played Gerard Pique, one of his central defenders, as an additional striker towards the end of the semi-final match against Inter, in last year's champion's league semi-finals match in Barcelona. The team needed some height and muscle upfront to match Lucio and Samuel's physicality, and Pique was not only able to provide that, but also scored a very well taken goal. Going from defense all the way to offense, every single Barcelona player can take on at the very minimum 2 different positions, with some of them like Iniesta, able to fit in 4 different positions. This summarizes the players' versatility and the team's spirit.

To support this identity, the club chooses to grow players from within rather than buy super stars. Players who go through the Barcelona mold have that beautiful football DNA en-grained in their veins, and come out ready to fit into the first team when called upon. The most recent examples are Pedro and Busquets. Both are now Spain international and world cup winners. Busquets has established himself as an influential defending midfielder, while Pedro is establishing himself as a tricky and versatile winger. Again both can play 2 to 3 different positions each.

As a football fan, I have to say that Barcelona's performance against Real Madrid in this year's edition of the classico was the most dominating and attractive performance I've ever witnessed. Madrid were humbled not destroyed. The Catalans completely over shadowed their opponents, and how they did it was by playing complete total football. It was almost impossible to tell Barcelona's shape in that game, or what their tactics were. They attacked, and defended as a single block. Players kept moving positions interchangeably and with great ease, which completely through off Mourinho and his Madrid team. This performance was the apogee of the Guardiola era. Long live total football. But i don't believe this is the end of madrid. Mourinho will bounce back with them

By soccerCrave soccerCrave on Bleacherreport.com