THE DEBATE

It was enough that Piqué said that Barça, basically at Guardiola’s era, was "slave of tiki-taka" to ignited the debate about the club's playing style. Pautasso (Gerardo Martino's assistant), said in the previous of Rayo-Barça on Saturday that sometimes you didn’t have to be so offensive, that if Barça was leading 2-0 against Sevilla, you could be more or less close at the back and go to the counter. What's more, Barça, after a lot of official matches, had less possession than his rival, precisely against Rayo.

First consideration: has anyone explained to Mr. Pautasso in which Club is he? What do the members and fans of the club want? Has anyone said him that here is not enough to win, much less at the Camp Nou ?

Second consideration: precisely those media that have been more considerate "Barça" (ie, very close to the current Board), are the ones that have given more reason to Piqué, that it is enough of such possession and passing game, that you need to play in another way. Interestingly, those media that charged more against Pep Guardiola at that time. Coincidence? I do not think so. And the nonsense I'm reading lately on the newspapers is confirming that many talks for not being silent and that many write because they have to fill pages, no matter what they say.

Third consideration: the "tiki -taka" was born with Maguregui, as I have said more than once and he referred, ridiculing, this game touching and passing. The current problem is that many of those who criticize this kind of game do not even know what it is and, above all, how it is worked (trained). It is not to touch for the sake of touching, or to pass for the sake of passing. The first thing to consider is what Cruyff said: If I have the ball and you do not have it, and you have two problems to score a goal. The first one is to have the ball The second thing to consider is what Guardiola said : Do not touch (pass), if you are not pressed . That is, FIRST running with the ball than passing.

Fourth consideration: the basic for the possession game is the position, but not the position of the players. It is the team's position. It is that the team keeps the shape wherever you have the ball and whoever the player who has it, and it is what Guardiola said also, that I have said many times: The ball give us order. Depending on where it is, the players have to be. Whatever you do, whether playing with "false 9”, either the cross comes from the full-back or the winger, either you have one or two players arriving from second line, etc. everything depends on the positioning of the players. Whether players are poorly positioned, the attack is bad and causes the turnover many more options for the opponents. Maybe people should start looking at this, before we talk about changing the style.

Fifth consideration: Any Club must have a structure where everyone plays the same idea. The same game is impossible, since players are not the same and, therefore, every team will have variants depending on the type of players. There are not two equal right full-backs, or not two equal central midfielders, and there are no two Messi. It's that simple.

Sixth consideration: With everything I've said before, it can be a debate about the style, obviously. Now, this debate has to be clearly about football ideas, and not poisoned with "politic ideas" on the issue (the newspapers are full on this and other: just remember that cover about Valdes saying "leaves us on the floor" or Racionero’s writings about Valdés or, what Vehils said on Iniesta about selling the “cracks" or, everything that has been said about this "change of style" ), and that is a debate that affects the way FC Barcelona plays. All teams, not the first team. Why to make the left back of U -14 or U -16 to play in one way if, when they arrive to the first team they play in a different way? Does anyone see any sense on this ?

Final consideration: Barça has got the respect and admiration of football’s world because how they won in previous years. About this, no debate.

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP

JELOU, MAI NEIM IS ANN

(NA: Spanish pronunciation for “Hello, my name is Ann”)

For various reasons I have been many days without putting anything in the blog. I wanted to talk about different things, but I’ve found this as the one that I think it deserves some thought now.

Like many people, yesterday I saw how Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics. Like many people, I saw how they said “NO” to Madrid, for the third time. If you watch the Spanish press (newspapers, TV, Radio, whatever), Madrid's bid was the best, the one that offered more, the one that did better presentation, the one that...

IOC members, however, are a bunch of corrupts, who think only about their interests, that have no idea and therefore they didn’t chose Madrid. Some media said that the candidacy of Madrid had secured 50 votes (that means absolute majority on the first ballot). Suddenly, just 26. What about the others 24? Have they been bought by the enemy? Have they added wrongly?

Well, let this aside, which is not the subject of this article. Beyond Spain's economic problems, beyond not to be strong enough with the issue of doping, beyond that many structures of sport in Spain must be removed, I am with something else: The first thing to change is the Spanish educational system. To see the Prime Minister how he only spoke Spanish and to see the level of English of the Mayor of Madrid suggests that something is wrong. When traveling through Europe, you see children 11-12 years with a level of English unthinkable in Spain. Most children can have a more than acceptable conversation in English at that age. And they learn it at school. No private academies. Spanish children, a little bit more than "Good morning" and "My name is...". And, later, of course, it happens what it happens. At 18 there is no one who is able to have a conversation in English, except those who have studied on their own. Those who have studied it at school, nothing at all. And, many of these are then going to be later the country's ruling class. And they have to go abroad to negotiate, whatever. Of all the Presidents of government that has been in Spain since democracy, I think that Calvo Sotelo was the only able to speak English. The others, nothing, zero. Neither Suarez, nor Gonzalez, and Aznar (unless he does it in private, as he does with Catalan, according to him, of course), nor Zapatero and nor, obviously, Rajoy. They leave home with a translator, because they can not ask for "café con leche" (NA: coffee with milk), as Ana Botella said yesterday (which, for those who do not know is the wife of Aznar) . Let them say whatever they want, but it is not acceptable. In any way. I felt embarrassed listening to them. And I did not understand anything she said. From what I've seen, more than one member of the IOC didn’t understand anything neither.

I remembered that Louis de Funes movie, "The Gendarme in New York", where the group received English lessons. The pronunciation was obviously horrible. Like yesterday. To do this, it is better to make the speech in Spanish: it’s bad, but no one laughs at you. And we're talking about the person who runs 5 or 6 million people, many more than those who live in many countries. Then, the usual talk about that if there is a “mania” against the Spanish, if they are not wanted in the world, if this, if that. How do you want to be loved if they do not understand what you say?

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP