Busquets bashing

The Champions League is back this week and with it comes one of the games most divisive players; Sergio Busquets.

Ridiculed in the UK and vilified by Internazionale fans after exaggerating contact from Thiago Motta to get the midfielder sent off, the 23-year-olds ability is often lazily dismissed and his contribution to Barcelona and Spain's success are quickly overlooked.

Busquets was not developed in La Masia, and came to the Catalans relatively late in 2005 from Unio Jabac aged 16. He was a mainstay of Pep Guardiola’s B team in the 2007-2008 season and after helping the team win promotion he followed Guardiola in being promoted to the full squad for 2008.

Guardiola’s first season in charge was a revelation; the Catalans won the first ever treble in Spanish history, which included a stunning 2-0 win over Manchester United in the Champions League final. Prima-donna players like Deco and Ronaldinho were moved on and in came a midfield three of Xavi, Andreas Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, one of the first names on the team sheet at 19 years of age.

The tika-taka style which Rijkaard had implemented was refined by Guardiola and with the repositioning of Lionel Messi as a ‘false number 9’, rather than out wide, Barcelona soon became the most impressive club team in football. Busquets was an integral part of the side and his tactical intelligence and constant availability meant Xavi and Iniesta could impose their game higher up the pitch.

In winning the Champions League in his breakthrough season, Busquets also joined an exclusive club of father and son combinations to have both won the Champions League with the same team (the Maldini’s at Milan and Manuel Sanchez Hontiyuelo and Manuel Sanchez Martinez of Real Madrid are the other two). Carles Busquets kept goal for Barcelona in the 90s and was backup during the 1992 European Final at Wembley.

The younger Busquets has gone on to average 48.5 games a season since stepping up to the full squad, more appearances than Iniesta and Pique for instance, but yet he is rarely appreciated as a player outside of Barcelona. He might have exaggerated contact to get Thiago Motta a second yellow card, but in a game of professionals if the other team is reduced to ten men then your side have gained an advantage. It was not Busquets fault that Motta was already on a booking for instance.

As it turned out, the sending off did not swing the tie away from Inter, who defended brilliantly (and rode their luck, Bojan’s goal should have stood) to eliminate Barcelona. Busquets was caught on camera glancing up from his ‘injury’ to the bench and it was this knowing wink that enraged football fans. Didier Drogba has committed far more flagrant dives during his time at Chelsea, yet his reputation is as a bullish goal-scorer rather than a ‘diver’. His reaction in the quarter finals of the Champions League tie versus Napoli (see video below) was appalling, but were largely glossed over by an English media exultant to see an English side progress.

Drogba won the lot during his time at Chelsea and is clearly an excellent striker. By contrast Busquets aged 24 has won the following; thee La Liga’s, two Copa del Rey’s, two Champions League titles, a European Championship  and a World Cup, not bad for what has been a four year career. Busquets deserves at least equal the praise that Drogba earned during his time in England but it seems unlikely that the English media will budge from their lazy stereotype of the Spanish midfielder.

He wasn’t part of the EURO 2008 squad but since coming into the national set-up Spain have dominated the game and I would argue that his presence in midfield is second only to Lionel Messi’s new deployment as the false 9, as the fulcrum behind Barcelona’s form these past four years. It can be no coincidence that since Busquets has come into both sides, they should start to dominate at club and international level and hopefully the rangy midfielder will earn respect from outside of Catalonia. 

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic appreciation

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is like Marmite. Some people love the enigmatic Swede. And some people are wrong.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the narcisstic thug/footballing god.

1. "It's true I don't know that much about Ligue 1, but Ligue 1 knows who I am."

2. "This has been a massive thing in the media, people chasing me in my home. This is not normal, I will chase them back."

3. “Then Guardiola started his philosopher thing. I was barely listening. Why would I? It was advanced bullshit about blood, sweat and tears, that kind of stuff.”

4. “It was the fault of David Trezeguet, who made me do one drink of vodka after another. I slept in the bathtub. Now I hold my vodka much better.”

5. “(Guardiola) was staring at me and I lost it. I thought ‘there is my enemy, scratching his bald head!’. I yelled to him: ‘You have no balls!’ and probably worse things than that.

“I added: ‘You are shitting yourself because of Jose Mourinho. You can go to hell!’ I was completely mad. I threw a box full of training gear across the room, it crashed to the floor and Pep said nothing, just put stuff back in the box. I’m not violent, but if I were Guardiola I would have been frightened.”

6. “An injured Zlatan is a pretty serious thing for any team.”

7. His response to being asked about the Pique picture (and gay rumours) "Come over to the crib with your sister, baby, and I'll show you who's gay!"

8. “First I went left, he did too. Then I went right, and he did too. Then I went left again, and he went to buy a hot dog.”

9. (Answer to criticism from John Carew that Zlatan’s moves are pointless.)  “What Carew does with a football, I can do with an orange.”

10. (After Sweden were eliminated from EURO 2012, but before his wonder goal) “I don’t five a shit who wins it, I’m going on holiday.”

11. “I was being too nice. I’ve done 325 kilometres an hour in my Porsche Turbo and left the cops eating my dust.”


12. (After being frozen out at Barca) “The Rosengard lads wanted to come down and smash the place up and of course that was nice of them, but it didn’t really seem right”

13. “I was the bicycle thief”

14. “Some idiot father in the team went round with a petition, ‘Zlatan must leave the club it said’. Ok I’d headbutted that dad’s son, but my manager tore it into pieces. He was a good bloke, Ake.”

15. (And finally here is one from Ibra’s agent Mino Raiola) “Now I think the people in Paris will have something else to see besides the Mona Lisa"

Golden era for Spain?

Malaga's best player, Cazorla, is expected to leave this summer

All two La Liga fixtures were announced last week, with the first El Clasico taking place on 7th October at Camp Nou before Madrid host Barcelona on March 3rd.

Real start as slight favourites to defend their title at 4/5 and Barcelona are virtually at odds on as well, they are available to win La Liga at 6/5

Then comes a band of three teams in the betting; Malaga, Valancia and Atletico Madrid. You’ll struggle to find odds under 100/1 on any other team winning La Liga in 2012-2013 with Atletico and Malaga both on 104/1, with Valencia further back at 123/1. (with Betfair)

However none of these teams looks closer to mounting a challenge to the top two; Malaga have transfer listed their best player in Santi Cazorla due to financial issues, Valencia sold their best player to Barca for the princely €13 million and Atletico have yet to beat Real Madrid this century.

Malaga were the subject of a multi-million euro takeover by Qatari investors and despite investing over €50 million into the club they could only finish fourth, 42 points behind winners Real. To exacerbate matters Santi Cazorla and Isco, widely regarded as their two best players, have both been transfer listed in a dispute that relates to unpaid wages.

Valencia lost converted left-winger Jordi Alba for just €13 million, which looks like daylight robbery if United end up paying as much for Leighton Baines, and despite adding Fernando Gago and Sergio Canales in midfield they look short in attack. Roberto Soldado is one of only two recognised strikers in their squad and he was a cast-off from Real Madrid B (Castilla).

Bilbao under Bielsa are the purists favourite, with Guardiola apparently suggesting the Argentinian's name to the Barcelona board when he decided to step down, and are likely to be plundered this summer. The only other contender (baring a Levante miracle like last season) are Madrids working-class neighbours Atletico. If they can keep Falcao and adequately replace the outgoing Diego, then they look a great price to finish ‘best-of-the-rest’ at 7/2. 

International success for Spain has increased the gap between the top two and the rest of la Liga, and most football fans in Spain also support one of the two super-clubs as well as their local side.

The two giants are first and second favourites to lift the Champions League at Wembley next year, and with television revenue not negotiated evenly by all the clubs this financial imbalance shows little sign of abating.


Barcelona and Madrid negotiate their own TV rights separately from the rest of La Liga, so clubs with existing popularity and appeal can essentially charge whatever they like. There is no instant financial reward for pushing and finishing higher up the table like the PL. Without changes to this process Spanish football could soon turn into a tiki-taka monopoly.


EURO 2008 Final - Spanish starting XI (six club teams represented)

Casillas (Madrid)

Ramos (Madrid), Marchena (Valencia), Puyol (Barca), Capdevila (Villereal)

Iniesta (Barca), Xavi (Barca), Senna (Villereal), Fabregas (Arsenal), Silva (Valencia)

Torres (Liverpool)

EURO 2012 Final - Spanish starting XI (three club teams represented)

Casillas (Madrid)

Arbeloa (Madrid), Pique (Barcelona), Ramos (Madrid), Alba (Barca)

Iniesta (Barca), Xavi (Barca), Alonso (Madrid), Busquets (Barca), Fabregas (Barca), Silva (Man City)

The Spanish team that started the Euro 2012 final featured just one player outside of the Barcelona and Real Madrid elite (Man City's Silva), indicating just how much the two giants now dominate Spanish football domestically.

'Boring' Spain march on

Spain face Portugal in the first semi-final of Euro 2012 and the build-up has been reduced to whether Ronaldo can beat Spain single handedly and whether Spain would change their approach after being labelled 'boring'.

Both statements are founded in ridiculous hyperbole and have reduced the amount of interesting journalism undertaken in the (English) mainstream press. CR7 has had quite a good tournament; scoring in five successive tournaments for Portugal isn't bad, but to suggest that the rest of the Portugal side are a side show waiting for Ronaldo to rescue them is to ignore the depth of experience in the side.

Other than Miguel Veloso, the indifferent Raul Merieles and the absence of a out-and-out striker, Portugal have one of the form teams in the tournament and they have an enormous amount of continental experience. Pepe and Bruno Alves have looked imperious at the back, while the two full-backs are amongst the most dangerous in Europe. Joao Moutinho has been superb and with two seasons under his belt at Porto looks like fulfilling his early promise. Nani came to Poland and Ukraine on the back of a poor league season but has impressed thus far.

Ronaldo has found some form at Euro 2012, taking 30 shots will help, but to suggest that Portugal are a weak team without him is foolish. The have shown enough to indicate that they will give Spain their toughest test at Euro 2012 and the Portuguese looked close to matching Germany, despite showing them too much respect in the 1-0 defeat.

After posting eight goals in their first four games, only behind Germany with nine, people seem to have got it in for Spain and the 'boring' tika-taka football that they've produced this tournament. After conceding just one goal in games against Italy, Croatia and France the Spanish squad have genuinely had to answer questions about their playing style and whether they would change it.

That the whole world was fawning over tika-tak football two (and four) years ago has been conveniently forgotten, and Xabi Alonso and Andreas Iniesta have had to declare in press-conferences that Spain would be sticking to their principles and passing philosophy.

Guillem Balague alluded to the extraordinary scrutiny and pressure that Spain are under and it seems to be fashionable to pick holes in the Spanish at present. The Chelsea Champions League win falsely reinforced a notion that playing ultra defensively will regularly defeat a passing machine and this has contributed to a footballing culture more happy to critique possession football.

Chelsea's win was down to some extraordinary luck in at least three of their European ties and was supposed to be based on the model that Inter perfected in 2010. The main difference being that Inter produced a masterclass in defending, so good it is unlikely to be matched, whereas Chelsea rode their luck and thumped it up to man-mountain Drogba. To defend that well, to a man, and eliminate Barcelona will happen 1 in 10 matches and Inter also rode their luck regarding Bojan's legitimate goal.

To contend that Spain need to change their approach is an absurd statement and from where I'm sitting their football this tournament has been superb. I can count two clear chances that they have conceded in four whole matches; the Di Natale goal and Rakitic chance v Croatia. Both were created on the counter and required two pieces of excellent individual skill, a step over and perfect pass from Pirlo and a mazy run and outside of the boot cross from Modric to come close to breaking Spain down.

As part of tika-taka football Spain will monopolise the ball and unless they come up against a foolhardy side, they will have to break down three walls of opposition players, quite a challenge. By keeping the ball for longer and playing less openly Spain are protecting Sergio Ramos and Gerrard Pique, which is a raw partnership and less stable than a Pique and Puyol or Puyol and Marchena.

The Spanish have now gone eight knock-out games without conceding a goal, which is normally a great way of progressing at competitions. Spain are not here to play entertaining football and put on a show for the public. They come to Poland and Ukraine looking to be the first side to win three successive tournaments and based on their form and resilient displays so far, look favourites to do that.

Where next for Messi and Barca?

The 'greatest club team on the planet' were dumped out of the Champions League this week with Guardiola also stepping down leaving his tika-taka disciples in the hands of his assistant Tito Vilanova. 

Guardiola revealed in an emotional press conference that he had been having doubts about his role at Barcelona since October and that the la Masia graduate was applauded off the stage by his employers and current players reveals the level of admiration the man will forever enjoy at Barca.

Despite the clubs success over the last four years the head coach role at Barcelona is one of the most pressurised roles in club football. We think football is king in England, but the fervour Barcelona and Real Madrid inspire in Spain surpasses it, the dual club dominance only rackets up the pressure at these two great institutions.

Sadly for football purists Guardiola decided to leave the club, indicating that he found it difficult to keep motivating the players and that he himself had burnt out. The timing of the announcement is puzzling as Barcelona still have the Copa del Rey final to compete for in May, and may have been influenced by the raw exit they suffered mid-week and the Real defeat at the weekend.

They may have suffered disappointment in Europe and in the race for La Liga but that should not prompt a wholesale change of approach. Vilanova's appointment will presumably see as little transition as possible; two defeats in the space of a week do not make this Barcelona squad a bad side and the Spaniard will be hoping he can build on Pep Guardiola's incredible legacy.

Arsene Wenger was one of the first coaches to express his sadness that Guardiola had stepped down, and I find myself agreeing with his own desire to have seen the youngest ever Champions League winner return next year with full trust in his philosophy and fight back.

Wenger posited : "The philosophy of Barcelona has to be bigger than winning or losing a championship. Guardiola is one of the representatives of this philosophy and made this philosophy triumph so I would have loved him, even going through a disappointing year, to stay and come back and insist with his philosophy. That would be interesting."

Guardiola knows the club inside out and would have been one of the best man to helm Barcelona towards further success without radically altering their ideology. The appointment of Vilanova is the next best thing and he has the greatest chance of replicating Guardiola's success. Both graduated at the same time from Barcelona's famed la Masia academy and the assistant has been working with Guardiola for over five years.

However, while Guardiola went on to play for and captain his beloved Barcelona side for almost a decade, Vilanova didn't quite make the grade at the Nou Camp and his playing career reached a nadir at Celta and Mallorca. Guardiola's playing experience on the biggest of stages must have shaped him as a manager and it will be interesting to see how Vilanova interprets the Barcelona ideology with his, by contrast, inferior playing career.

For a club of Barcelona's recent success and domination in Spain and continentally, to finish the season with only one major trophy, looking likely to be the Copa del Rey, is simply a disappointment when compared to their previous three seasons.

Barcelona may have already claimed the the European Super Cup, Spanish Super Cup and the World Club Championship but these competitions are not the pinnacle of a footballers career, winning these trophies will hardly go down in history.

In the space of three games Barcelona have gone from playing the best football in Europe to a season in disintegration. This is partly bound up in media hyperbole, but the Barcelona of Tuesday night looked an entirely different proposition to the swaggering unit that put seven past Bayern Leverkusen.

Tiredness can affect players mentally and physically and it looked as if the creativity that we associate with the current Barcelona side had dried up. Barcelona started Tuesday night brightly, Messi should have scored when one-on-one with Cech, before the Catalans stepped up a gear and hit a goal either side of John Terry's ridiculous red card.

However, after Messi's penalty miss the 2011 Champions League holders started to wane in confidence. Passes were sprayed wide to no great success and the Barcelona midfield did not have the confidence or mentality to play through the middle of Chelsea's back nine. Gone were the one-twos that dissected the very best of defences as Guardiola's men grew in insecurity and desperation as the match wore on. There was a real crisis of confidence and Barcelona looked as if they didn't have faith in their own system of play.

Messi seemed determined to make amends for his penalty mistake and although he forced a brilliant save from Petr Cech he failed to play in two well-placed Barcelona players in the second half.

Guardiola took objection to comments before the match that alleged that Messi was on a goal drought, of two whole games, and the 24-year-old drew another blank against Chelsea on Tuesday. Messi is clearly the focal point in the current Barca side and there have been accusations that they are overly reliant on his magic to overcome teams.

His re-positioning to a false number 10 position since Guardiola took the hot seat has coincided with the Argentinian winning three successive Ballon D'Or's and Barcelona's recent trophy surge. He hit a phenomenal 38 goals the season before Pep came in, but since becoming the orchestrator and finisher off the Barcelona brush-strokes he has finished the last three campaigns with 47, 53 and so far this year 63 goals.

Messi is still the best player in the world. His nearest competitor choked in the Champions League again on Wednesday and Messi hasn't become a worse player after three low-key performances. Barcelona simply came up against three defences that put in better performances then the Catalan offensive line and failed to break them down.

The loss of Guardiola will become more quantifiable next season, but to promote from within, from their own academy in effect, is a shrewd move and given time Vilanova may be able to forge his own Barcelona legacy. Barcelona have become more than a club, more an idealistic interpretation of football, and to make any wholesale changes on the back of two defensive master classes and two disappointing performances would be a gross mistake.