I still remember the first La Liga match I ever watched. Real Madrid, and the great Hugo Sanchez (who was a billion times better as a player than he is as the national team coach, but that's another story) were playing Barcelona. Pretty much everyone I watched it with were Madrid fans, so of course I backed Barca. I was the type of kid who always had to go against whatever was popular (I also rooted for the bad guys in wrestling) so when I learned that Real were the richest, most powerful, and most successful club in Europe, I had to root for their arch rivals.
I've followed Barcelona ever since. Through the good times (Champions of Europe in 1992 and 2006) and the bad times (the title drought to begin this decade, the departure of Figo for hated Real, their collapse last season). They got off to a slow start this season, but appear to be turning things around. However, if they come up empty and don't take home any silverware this year, something must be done.
There is plenty of blame to go around for Barca's early struggles. Injuries, national team commitments, and age certainly haven't helped, but I think the main scapegoat has to be the manager, Frank Rijkaard.
Now, many Barca fans will think I'm crazy to question Rijkaard. In fact, I'm sure that if Ray Hudson is somehow reading this blog he's frantically trying to trace my IP so that he can hunt me down and "edit-face" me Go_Outside_Nurd style. Rijkaard certainly has taken the club to great heights, and I definitely don't want Barca to turn into Real Madrid where the manager is fired every single year, but I think that his style of play and his influence on the players has grown stale.
Rijkaard has relied too much on Messi (one of the best players in the world, but injury prone due to overuse), Xavi, Deco, and Iniesta (all far too inconsistent), and youngsters like Dos Santos and Bojan (great talents who still aren't quite ready for the main stage). Veterans like Ronaldinho, Henry, and Marquez still have a lot to offer, but are no longer among the elite players in the world and can no longer be counted on to win games single handedly.
This isn't meant as some sort of eulogy for Barca's 2007-2008 season. Actually, I'm very optimistic going forward. Madrid's lead in the league, which was 9 points just a few weeks back, has slipped to 2, thanks to a crazy few weeks including Barca being handed a win against Zaragoza on a bogus penalty last week, and Madrid losing to Getafe on a bizarre goal yesterday. In addition, the team looked phenomenal (and Messi proved that he's back to his pre-injury form) in a 3-2 road win against Celtic in the opening leg of their Champions League round of sixteen matchup. They also have to be considered favorites to win their 25th Copa del Rey title.
Things could go either way for Barca at this point. They may very well win the treble. But, if for whatever reason they don't win anything, injuries can no longer be used as an excuse. Changes will have to be made and it should start with the manager.
-Dizzer
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3 comments:
I think i'd like to see barca play in 4-4-2 on a rotation of central midfielders. switch around Touré, Deco, Iniesta and Xavi a bit. But i just want to see Ronaldinho and Messi on the sides and E'eto and Henry up front.
Every time I've watched Barca this year, I've thought one thing: why is Rijkaard giving Bojan and Giovani so much playing time? Sure injuries have been somewhat of a problem, but these players seem far too young to be getting the amount of time they're getting. Their inexperience shows a lot during games. I'm just surprised Gudjohnsen isn't given more time. Don't know if anyone else agrees, but just what I've been thinking about lately.
word, gudjohnsen is such a good player that is so underrated. he needs to leave Barcelona =/
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