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

AND GUARDIOLA TALKS

The “thing” was relatively quiet, with the usual rumors as all summers, whether this player goes here or there, whether or not that manager will start the season, about the millions this or that club is spending when, suddenly, all went crazy.

Pep Guardiola, now Bayern’s coach, during the pre-season the team is doing in Italy answered to a question from a journalist on the statements of Vice-President of Club Santos. It seemed like it would not be a complicated answer and suddenly, Guardiola was about 5 minutes talking, breaking faces right and left, accusing the Board of Sandro Rosell of not getting him along.

Guardiola reminded us that press conference at the Bernabéu Stadium, before the Champions League match against Real Madrid, where he made famous the phrase "fucking boss". Angry, but without losing his composure, said everything that was hurting him, or at least, all he said was hurting him.

At another point, he was asked about Thiago Alcantara, and he confirmed that he had said Bayern to do everything possible to sign him. Much has been talked so far this season on Thiago’s buyout clause. Until August 1st, it is 18M€. Given what has been paid for some players, it looks like a cheap player, seeing its enormous potential. And, to be clear, I personally think that Thiago should remain at Barça.

Well, with these two things, the mess we have now is amazing. All the “usual” have come to give their opinion. And the feeling I get is that everyone is very nervous, too much nervous. Sandro Rosell plans tomorrow (Monday), to go to a TV station, which is supposed to discuss the issue and tell his.

Until now, it was that if Manchester United or Real Madrid wanted Thiago, that was fine. If Bayern (Guardiola) wants him, this is not good. Guardiola said he was not going to sign players under contract at Barça. Right. But it turns out that the player, for whatever reason, that I will not comment, as it is not my idea here, wants to leave. And it appears Guardiola, who knows him well and says he wants him. And everybody beat him from everywhere. I do not understand. What is the difference between these clubs? Those do not take advantage of circumstances and this one (Bayern) does? Depending on who do things, they are lawful and correct and, depending on who do, these are not?

At the time, a newspaper from Barcelona put in the cover that Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova had not seen each other in New York when the latter disease. Guardiola was very clear and explicit. Yes, they did. This same newspaper on Friday harshly criticized what Guardiola had said the day before, asking for clarity in their "accusations". Need more light? Still? Because the question and the answer were in Catalan. That is, there are no problems of bad translations and/or interpretations. And something that must be very clear: The Club is NOT the Board. Barça is a club owned by more than 160,000 people and the members elect the Directors. And, many times, if someone has disagreements with the Board (without addressing if he's right or not), seems to mean attacking the Club. And that's not true. In any way.

The most important, however, in my point of view, was when Guardiola said that if any of what he said was not true, it had to be told, but as he said, not through intermediaries or friends. Come those involved and say if it's a lie. Will it happen?

Guardiola never let one indifferent. You like more or less what he says and how he says it, but always thought provoking. And the other day I think everything was understood everything, or almost everything. Guardiola talks. The "fucking boss" is back.

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP

TIKI-TAKA: THE ORIGIN

The "tiki-taka" is back in fashion, if it ever ceased to be in recent years. Pep Guardiola's return to the bench, in particular to Bayern, has made a return to speak with strength about this concept and even some German media have already renamed "Tikki-Takken". Now, where this "tiki-taka" comes from?

Well, the first thing to say is that the name "original" is "tiqui-taca" and is, although not enough, a derogatory term to refer to this style of play where the players touch and touch the ball, according to some, so boring.

In Spain, many people think that the origin is in the journalist who died a while, Andrés Montes. Montes became very popular, first as a commentator of NBA games for Canal+. A different style of storytelling and clever use of certain phrases as well as giving nicknames to the players made him very famous. Later he commented football in "La Sexta", starting at the World Cup in Germany. The truth is that Montes made popular the term "tiqui-taca" (or tiki-taka), but the origin is much older.

Other people attribute this word to the coach Javier Clemente. Clemente, like others, also referred (or is referring actually), so derogatory to this type of game. From Clemente are sentences like "The best attack is a good defense." No comments.

The truth is that the first I heard this word is Jose Mari Maguregui (the "Magu"), former player and former coach in many teams. As a player he was basically at Ath. Bilbao, although he was in Sevilla, Espanyol and Huelva. As a coach at Racing Santander, Espanyol, Celta, At. Madrid and Almeria, among others, and in some of them, 2 or 3 times.

From the time at Espanyol, (1980-1983), is the "tiki-taka". Maguregui did a television interview where talking about different ways to play the game referred “possession” in this derogatory manner. Maguregui, like many at the time, defended a very direct game based on physical strength of the players, not the technical qualities. In the cAt Barça, there were players like Schuster, Landáburu, "Tente" Sanchez, Rubio or Estella, and Maradona would come a few years later. Although not as much as it is now, the Barça’s style has always been a style of touch and not about “power” (see the players mentioned) and Maguregui referred to them in this way, in the sense that "touch" and "touch" was boring. Hence the "tiki-taka": touching-touching.

The truth is, it was originally written "tiqui-taca" and no one else remembered it until Montes, as we have said before made it again popular from 2006. This also coincides with the "Champions" won by Barça in Paris against Arsenal. They were Xavi and Iniesta and Messi missed it because an injury. All this and, above all, from the EURO 2008, made the term popular worldwide. As "tiqui" was pretty hard to pronounce for those who do not have the sound "qu" appeared "tiki" like spelling pronunciation. The rest of the story is well known by everybody.

As the saying goes, "to Caesar what is Caesar's" and "to Magu what is Magu’s".

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP 

CREATIVITY AND MISTAKES

For the past few years, there is much talk about creativity in football. It is said that there are no creative players as before. That so many tactics at younger ages is not good. That we have the players to do by their own on the pitch and to "experience" with mistakes. I very much like this. But, we have to distinguish, because I think there are too much mixed concepts.

On one hand, it seems that creativity is only to do 1v1 anywhere. And, it is much more than this, adding that this action can be wrong many times. Creativity can be a 40-meter pass that no one expects to switch the orientation of the game. Creativity can be to make a bicycle shot from the edge of the box. Creativity can be delaying the game to wait for your teammates to arrive. Creativity can be many different things. The problem, as always, is when to be creative. Going out from the back dribbling when you have teammates better placed to receive a pass and get out of the pressure, is it to be creative? Make a 40-meter pass, from side to side of field, when a 10-meter vertical pass makes a partner to be alone in front of the goalkeeper, is it to be creative? Making a clearance, using a bicycle, when you are alone inside the box and you can control the ball, is it to be creative? Making a heel’s pass, not knowing if there is any partner to receive, is it to be creative?

And, with a misunderstood creativity, mistakes are coming. And, when I talk about mistakes, I mean unforced errors, which could be avoided: incorrect passes, unnecessary dribbles, all these types. Let me give an example. Imagine a 12 year old who wants to pass, the pass is intercepted by an opponent and finishes in a goal. It is a mistake, many will say, we must let them to make mistakes. But, which is the mistake? Could he make another pass easier? Did he choose the wrong pass to make? Did he kick the ball with proper surface? Did he check that there were no opponents who could intercept the ball? The child has made a mistake, yes. But which of these that we have said? Are you sure the child knows what is wrong? Because, if you do not have in mind all the variables, are you sure that he will know how to correct the mistake?

A few years ago I watched on television an international competition for youngster (U20). The left Full-back of one team always wanted to go out dribbling. Finally, he lost the ball, was forced to foul and, also, he was booked. As he had one card, he was sent off. His team was down to 10 players and lost the match. Is this creativity? Are you sure? For me it's something else.

And the one million dollars question comes. Who has to make the player to see what is wrong? The coach, right? And here comes most of the problems. There are many coaches who defend this "creativity" and these "mistakes" because they do not know what the mistakes are. It looks good to say "I give the kids freedom" when in reality, you do not know what to “fix”. The guided discovery and the trial/error process, so fashionable actually, are often confused with a lack of knowledge. And, this is often linked with that about "our time (coaches’) is in practice, the match is the time for the players." I strongly disagree with this statement. Always is "our time" (for players and coaches). Football is a team game, not only, 11 individuals on the pitch. It is one team. And, we are coaches of a team from Monday to Sunday and players are team players from Monday to Sunday. And do not confuse this with training individuals. It has nothing to do one thing with the other.

One of the classic mistakes, as coaches, is to think that the systems (formations), are what makes the way of playing of a team. It’s just the opposite. It is from the way you play (the style or model of playing), that you will choose one system or another. And the way you play is worked, as everything has to be worked. If we think that putting the players on the pitch in a certain way, we’ll play in a certain way, we are completely wrong. If we do not have clear this, how can we be clear about the mistakes of our players?

What the players must know are the different options they have and, from there, choose the one that can be better. How is this achieved? Working in practices. Not doing so is a big mistake.

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP

THE ENGLISH PROBLEM

The elimination, once again, of a National Team of England, in this case, in the European Under-21 played in Israel reopens, if ever it was closed, the debate about football in England.

As possible causes of this new defeat, different options are considered:

1) The level of the coaches is very low and, therefore, the educational level of the players is too.

2) Player’s salaries are so high that foreign players come at the expense of local players.

3) The typical system of play in the Islands (the famous 1-4-4-2), is not suitable to the current time.

It can be a bit of this and, perhaps, other things, though, the issue of wages does not seem to serve as an excuse. If a player is good, you will want him and you will pay him well, regardless of nationality. Perhaps, we should look at the problem in reverse: Why there is almost no English players and no English coaches outside the Islands? Is it possible that the fact of being quite well paid make them not to want to go outside? Or, maybe, there are other reasons.

And, the issue of the "system", is not convincing anybody. You know that I'm an advocate of "styles" and for me, the "systems" (formations), are just players put on the pitch in a certain way when the game begins. The most important thing is how you play.

The first thing you see when you watch the matches of the English selections is that the "A" team plays one way and the rest, in a different way. If you look at Spain, Germany, Holland and Italy (to give some examples), we find that everyone plays the same. From the U-16 to the “A” team, the style and the system ("formation") are almost identical. In England, it does not happen. I do not value what way is better. I consider that they are different. How do you want to succeed in a Club/National Team if every team plays differently? Sorry, but I do not understand it.

What also surprises me about England is the lack of competition. Competition in the sense understood in Spain. That is, any team can be champion of Spain at U-19 or U-16. In England Elite competitions are only between what is known as "Academies" which are the most important teams. In Spain and, more specifically, in Catalunya, which is the case I know best, any child of 15 years may have the option to play against Barça and Espanyol, regardless of the category where the 1st team is. A team may play 1st Catalan Division (5th Division), but U-16 team can play the Championship of Catalonia as any. That is, the competitiveness is very high. In England, "B" teams play Reserve League. In Spain, any "B" team can play in the 2nd Division (I mean sporting merit, obviously). It is true that Latins are very competitive by nature, but, the fact of playing in a league every week, knowing that you can have, as a bonus, to play the following year against one of the "big", it sure helps. Moreover, to improve, you have to play against people who are better than you. If you always play against people worse than you, hardly you get better.

Coaches are good and bad everywhere. In England, Spain, Germany, Holland and Italy. Moreover, today, it’s very easy to exchange/share information (Internet, Training Courses worldwide, etc.), Access to ideas, training methods, etc. is very broad.. This blog has followers of more than 50 countries across the 5 continents. So, to say that in England Coaching Courses are not good and, therefore, that the knowledge of coaches is not adequate is, at best, a half truth. One can get his badges and then continue their training and learning without leaving home, with a simple "click" on the computer. And coaches who believe they already know everything once they have the badge, there are everywhere.

Competition is the key to success. Competing players. Competing coaches. And, do not confuse to compete with winning at any cost, which are two completely different things. I personally want to win always. I do not like to lose even when playing alone. But I don’t want to win using any way.

Jordi Pascual

You can  follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP

I'M OUTRAGED

I am outraged, really outraged. This morning I woke up and I found a message from a friend saying that he had seen an old blog of my own ("Pensant sobre futbol", "Thinking about football"), in which I spoke about building up a style of playing, copied, point by point, on the website of a regional federation of Australia.

When I could, I have gone to check it and, my surprise has been a major one. It was a simple "copy and paste". Not even corrected the grammar and spelling errors. Not that. The saddest thing is that there was no mention of the source. Yes, there were sentence from Mourinho or Guilherme Oliveira whom mention was made.

What’s that? That I'm not famous or well known and there’s no need to quote me? Only the "cracks" can do good things? Because obviously, the document in question is a normal document. Is the "Technical Development Plan" of the federation. For the avoidance of doubt, the federation is the "Football NSW Southern Branch" of Australia and the responsible for this invention, Mr. James Muir. I contacted them, of course, asking for explanations about the fact and that's the answer I received:

" Hi Jordi,

Thank you for your e-mail.

The technical document is a draft document just for our local club coaches to help them with their teams and is not being sold or for profit. The document was not meant to be put online and was just for discussion and to show how we are trying to plan our club philosophy with content coming from a wide range of sources that is in line with Australia’s National Curriculum.

We do use Academy Soccer Coaches as well as other programs such as Soccer Tutor.

Once we get sufficient feedback we will acknowledge all sources and will not be using any original material, as this is just meant to start discussion.

I apologise for any inconvenience and have asked for it to be taken down.

Regards"

Fair enough, but I wonder: If it doesn’t have to be on-line, why is it? If it is a starting point for discussion, why not quote the author as it’s done with others? Could it be because, as I said, I'm not famous or known and no one will find the origin of the document? Why? Why? Why?

Make it clear that, from the moment that I have a blog on the internet is to share ideas and knowledge. So, I'm not worried, instead, thank you to the people who like my stuff, because it means that I don’t do it so badly. I, like everyone, take stuff from other blogs and websites for my work. Clubs, coaches and football lovers. Now, to copy 24 straight pages without mentioning the source and post it on the web it seems too much.

But it is what I said before. Since I'm not known, nor train neither trained at any “big” team I guess they think that they can act with impunity. At the end of the day, they think that no one will believe this person if he ever says he is the author of this writing.

And so, I am outraged.

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP