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Barcelona, the one and only “Dutch” team

April 8th, 2009 | By: Jan | 27 Comments »

i always say that barca play dutch football – in real madrid it can be 11 dutch players they even wouldn’t play as dutch football as barca do. the dutch tradition is always there even without any dutch player. pep guardiola was johan cruijff’s creation and he considers johan as his mentor. laporta does the same. and we can see the result. – Ferenc

This is a quote by Ferenc, and I owe him an apology. From the start of all the Dutchies playing for Madrid, he kept on claiming that despite that fact, Barca is the real team with orange blood in it’s veins.
I ignored it. Why? For starters, because I don’t get to see Barca play that often but mostly because I tend to follow the Dutch players. And having six (and counting) at Madrid, made Real Madrid the team of choice.

How wrong that was…

Real Madrid might have tried to play Total Football under Schuster, they certainly don’t today.

Whereas Barca is going to prove to the world – yet again – that results and art go together. They will win the title in Spain and things must go really bad for them if they don’t win the Champions League. 6-1 against Arsenal or something…

And Barca plays 4-3-3. It still exists. It is possible. But also taking into account that the fearsome threesome at front do a lot of defensive work!

So, let’s compare:

Left winger: Henry vs Van Persie
Robin can do what Thierry does and more. Is my humble opinion. Thierry is 30 something and losing pace (just a tiny bit) and Robin will only improve.

Center Striker: Eto’o vs Huntelaar
Eto’o may be a tad more explosive, Huntelaar doesn’t miss as many changes as the Barca man.

Right winger: Messi vs Robben
Messi is The Magician, Robben his apprentice, but Robben is the only player coming close to the Argentine danger man.

Left midfielder: Iniesta vs Sneijder
Iniesta appears to have more depth and speed than the Angerman. Wesley has more tools in his utility belt, in particular the free-kick.

Center midfield: Toure vs…De Jong/Bommel/Schaars
This is where we probably lose it a bit. Toure plays like two holding midfielders in one. He has vision, lungs, speed and is ferocious in the challenges. De Jong or Schaars could get close. One day. Maybe. Hopefully…

Right midfield: Xavi vs Van der Vaart/Kuyt
Xavi (and Iniesta) are the Princes of One-touch. The simple but masterful foot-flick. The through pass. Van der Vaart is more a dribbler and inconsistent moment-man. Kuyt is too much muscle.

Left back: Pique vs Gio
Don’t know the Barca man well enough to compare but Gio left Barca some years back, so the new guy must be better. De Cler? Nah… Braafheid? Hmm….maybe…in two years?

Center back: Puyol vs Van Bommel
See, it put Van Bommel as libero. Puyol and Bommel share their “sensitivity”. Puyol is probably the better of the two, great header, wonderful lungs and tremendous energy and stamina. But, every game Puyol will make his Frank-de-Boer… (Dutch football lingo for slip up).

Center back: Raf Marquez vs Heitinga/Ooijer/Bouma/Boulah
Marquez is definitely the better looking one. That’s one other thing we lack: good looking defenders. But seriously, Marquez is good but is he that good? Don’t know…

Right back: Dani Alves vs Greg van der Wiel
Van der Wiel wants to be the new Alves. He said so himself. He’s got it all to make it happen. Bar experience. So maybe, in two years time, we’ll read how Alves wants to be like Van der Wiel …

Goalie: Victor Valdez vs Stekelenburg/Vermeer
Hard to say. Barca’s goal keeper doesn’t have to be good. He needs to look good . Because the Barca strikers will always score one goal more than the opponents, at least.

There you go. It’s doable.

Oranje under ex-JC protege Van Basten couldn’t cut it. The Fallen Angel has now taken Ajax under his wings and has to do without Cruyff’s advice/meddling (strike whatever doesn’t work for you).

The other protege, Pep, is doing not too shabby.

It’s not enough to compare players of course. The way they play is more of an issue. As stated, the forwards put in a lot of work. Rijkaard will have started that process (particularly with Henry) but the lads do what they’re told now. Guardiola is a tough task master. Just watch the game vs Bayern again and see how many repossessions the golden wonder boys were responsible for. Oh, and another thing. Messi and Henry keep the pitch wide. Very wide. Once they have the ball and the opportunity, they’ll move to the center.

Than midfield. No pirouettes or roulettes, no nutmegs, no flashy turns. Just simple and efficient. Bam bam bam bam… looking for the free man and only dribbling when there is no other option. Iniesta/Xavi are constantly looking for the through pass. The destroyer – Toure – plays 100% totally in service of the team and covers for the full backs when they press forward.

The full backs are wingers in Barca. In particular Alves. So, in possession, Xavi and Iniesta – and most certainly Toure – cover the back line like a rugby team would organize it. Henry and Messi drift inwards, Eto’o is always sharp and on the edge of off-side. When Iniesta moves in, Xavi drops back. When the full backs engage, Barca plays 3-2-5.

Like this:

————Valdez—————–
—-Marquez – Puyol – Toureh——-
——–Xavi – Iniesta—————
Alves – Messi – Eto’o – Henry – Pique

It’s not as static as this of course, but it does show the way the lines operate. Xavi and Iniesta play holding midfielders and playmaker at the same time.

Oranje would look like this:

—————–Stekelenburg——————–
——Ooijer — Van Bommel –De Jong————-
———Sneijder Van der Vaart—————–
Van der Wiel Robben Huntelaar Van Persie Braafheid

Hot news: Oranje is only 2 points away from number 2 Germany on the FIFA Ranking list…. 1360 points vs 1362 points… It won’t be long… Spain is a lone wolf with 1792 points, so let’s win a WC or something…

Tags: Ferenc, Group C, Guardiola, Henry, Huntelaar, Messi, Robben

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By Tiju | April 9th, 2009 at 12:48 am

then who is Mister quarter finalist-its none other than” Sven goran erickson”

Posted from India

By Tiju | April 9th, 2009 at 12:49 am

then who is Mister knock out?
Its San marco or who else?

Posted from India

By Tiju | April 9th, 2009 at 12:51 am

Barca proves that JC’s football brain is unique with longvision so without anyquetion we sholud accept that if we want to win any trophy .Laporta and Guardiola did that

Posted from India

By alaa | April 9th, 2009 at 1:46 am

@jan ,

thanks man, i love this article. and yes i totally agree, barcelona is the only “orange” team in the world.i loved how they played today. they are the netherlands with non orange jerseys. you guys were so happy with the oranje performance against macedonia last week, i was notttt, because thats not how the netherlands we always loved should play football. there was no total football.
barca has toure’ who is just the best defensive midfield player in the world, the guy is perfect for this position. then they have marquez who might not be an exceptional defender but he is very good for the build up with very good vision not like oijer or mathijsen who lack the build up and vision quality. we have a major problem in the defensive line, barca is much better in this line.

but one thing for sure, is that you feel this orange spirit in the barca team always, even if there are no dutch players or a dutch manager now, but still it looks like the orange style runs in the blood of this team.

i hate it when people talk about how great manchester united is. man what the hell, man united style wise is nothing compared to this barca team. if you are a real orange fan then for sure your favourite club in soccer will be barca.

too bad ajax has become just a machine that produces talented players to sell them later on, ajax in 1994-1995 was a verrrrrrryyyyy “total football” team. i remember that 5-2 victory over bayern that year in the semifinal. that game was a school of total football!!! now ajax cant make it to the semifinal of the uefa cup which is a worthless cup!!!

By Jan | April 9th, 2009 at 2:52 am

@alaa, my pleasure, but thanks should go to Barca and Ferenc .

I agree about Marquez. He’s got the attitude of a great center back, like De Boer, Krol and Koeman also had.

I do not agree about the Macedonia game. I did see some total football there. Hunter moving back to midfield. Robben backtracking and appearing left right and center.

I am really eager to if AZ can keep their players for next season in the CL. Should be fun to see Louis back on the big stage.

By Jan | April 9th, 2009 at 2:53 am

Oh, forgot: Feyenoord and yours truly don’t think the UEFA Cup is worthless

By Jan | April 9th, 2009 at 2:53 am

Question lads: which Oranje player would fit seamlessly in this Barca team?

By ferenc | April 9th, 2009 at 3:27 am

thx Jan for quoting me:-) one small correction: yesterday puyol played left back and pique was marquez’partner in the central defence. (pique is one of the good surprises and revelations of this year.) usually abidal is the left back but he’s blessed now. yaya toure is fantastic and he’s got exceptional dribbling and technical skill as well. for your question – to be honest i can’t see too many oranje players fitting in this barca team: maybe stekelenburg instead of valdes,gio (who’s actually ex-barca) or emanuelson instead of abidal,and rumours say that van persie will be henry’s heir. robin and thierry are almost at the same level. to be honest: that’s all. i wouldn’t change dany alves,rafa marquez,puyol,yaya,xavi,iniesta,messi and eto’o for anyone. btw,did you notice who intelligent marquez was in the dying minutes when he was booked? he obviously wanted this card because he will miss the munich-game,but will play without any danger in the final.

Posted from Hungary

By Jan | April 9th, 2009 at 3:53 am

Yeah, it’s an awesome bunch. Is Puyol getting on, age wise? And do you agree with my assessment that he will always have his slip up?

And while we’re on the topic, how do the socios look back at Van Gaal as their coach?

By ferenc | April 9th, 2009 at 4:06 am

you’re right about puyol. van gaal? they consider that he was a very good coach but still don’t like that too many dutch players were there especially in the defence. they think barca needed kluivert,cocu,reiziger but not 7 or 8 especially in the positions where the spansh/catalan players were at lweast as good as the dutch players (luis enrique versus ronald de boer). but they don’t forgive him not winning the cl in 99/2000 (elimination by valencia in the semis 1-4,2-1). on the other hand,the socios really love the other dutch ex-coaches: johan and frank. there ara 2 dutch players they will always love: ronald koeman and gio van bronckhorst.

Posted from Hungary

By Michel-Olivier | April 9th, 2009 at 5:35 am

“i always say that barca play dutch football”
i agree

Posted from United States

By sonneveld | April 9th, 2009 at 7:27 am

I think Robben and Robin could both take out Henry.

Sneijder might be able to take out Iniesta

By ferenc | April 9th, 2009 at 9:28 am

robben plays a different role,robin maybe,but no way for sneijder to replace iniesta. iniesta simply brilliant and technically better. i respect wesley as well but consider iniesta as one of the 10 best players of the world. i saw barca without him,and there is a big difference.

Posted from Hungary

By Alex | April 9th, 2009 at 9:52 am

V.Persie can easily make it into this team, just to bad he is still very vulnerable when it comes to injuries. Robben finally only small discomforts occasionally, but Robin VP still very injury prone.

At this rate, I say in another 2-3 years V.d.Wiel could easily keep Dani Alves out of Barca’s squad. BTW Marquez good player, but not extraordinary center back, If Heitinga can adjust better to La Liga in next seasons, I rate him about the same , yep really .
Puyol is going down hill in my view, more mistakes than before, and getting slower.
But we must not hype up players, I mean Sneijder and V.d.Vaart in the EC were just as good together as Xavi-Iniesta. These days, there’s a fine line between the “best” players and the “second best”. the quality differance at the top is minimal, and the title of so called “best” mostly depends on public opinion which reacts fast(almost week to week) and intense to injuries, amount of goals(averages and such), recent club performances, amount of starts for club and country/playing time. Even if V.d.Vaart doesn’t get any playing time, he’s still one of the best playmakers in europe.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | April 9th, 2009 at 11:56 am

just found a magnificent dutch article about Wesley Sneijder, i could try to translate it entirely but it would lose some of its appeal i’m afraid.

Posted from Netherlands

By Bart | April 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

You mean this one don’t you?

http://www.vi.nl/Achtergronden/ColumnsOverzicht/NicoDijkshoorn/IkZieWesleyGraagReserveZitten.htm

I am afraid I am a horrible translator, so someone else will have to do it.

Posted from Canada

By Jan | April 9th, 2009 at 6:40 pm

I’ll do it . I love Dijkshoorn’s poetry, hahahaa…

I fully agree with Ferenc on Iniesta. He’s one of the top 5 players in my book. Saw him come on as a youngster, years back and he doesn’t play football like most, it doesn’t take an effort.

Heitinga vs Marquez is a big call for me too….

I can’t help but see most Ajax talents as spoon fed spoilt kids who need to learn to be a man when they enter the Ajax 1 team. Blokes like Marquez learned to be a man much earlier in life.

Also, Vaart and Sneijder tend to want to do too much with the ball compared to Xavi and Iniesta. They pass the ball as a priority, and do fancy stuff only when the situation requires it. Big big difference.

By Anthony | April 10th, 2009 at 12:20 am

Barça may tactically be like the dutch team, but on the pitch Real is as Dutch as a domestic squad gets.

By ferenc | April 10th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Alex: if sneijder and vdv had been as good at the ec as iniesta and xavi oranje would have won the title and not spain. oranje were beaten by russia 3-1,spain won against russia 3-0 (and 4-1). i wouldn’t say that the difference is so huge,but try to be objective. it is not huge at all,but spain seems to me the best team of the world at the moment. just behind them oranje and argentina (despite their humiliating defeat against bolivia – at 4000 meters altitude…).

Posted from Hungary

By Anthony | April 10th, 2009 at 6:54 pm

ferenc, how can you say that Holland would have won the title? We were solid through and through and played the best football throughout the whole tournament. We played flawless match after flawless match and besides Italy, no one even really challenged us. Then again, it is rather hard to play against 11 defenders, but we’ll save that rant for another time. Holland did play well but so did Russia and we beat Russia twice so what are you trying to imply by that? If Russia defeated you and we whipped them twice, surely basic mathematics shows that we’re better than Holland.

Argentina is average, sure they have very good individual players but when they come together they’re really “same old, same old”. Problem number one is that Maradona is coach, that’s enough said really and number two is that they focus too much on Messi and not the team as a whole. If you look at us in Spain we don’t focus on any one or two specific players but rather every player on the team is an integral part to our success.

By ferenc | April 11th, 2009 at 3:09 am

Anthony: i wrote exactly the same as you did. i mean xavi/iniesta were (and still are) better than sneijder/vdv and the spainish team was better than oranje. i really appreciate your football (especially because of xavi and iniesta) and if oranje were not there would surely support spain.

Posted from Hungary

By Marc | April 11th, 2009 at 5:17 am

Anthony.. theres no such things as maths in football… In 1998 we beat argentina in the quarter finals… argentina at that time beat brazil 3-1… and then we ended up losing agianst brazil in the semis… no logic or mathematics involved there.. Russia beat us because their dutch coach who happens to be hiddinck… knew us very well and knew exactly how to play us. But bring on the Spain vs Holland match, surely im sure ull be trembling on the edge of your seat once you see huntelaar van persie sneijder van der vaart kuyt and robben step on the feild. Untill then let us avoid such a pointless argument.

Posted from Switzerland

By Caleb | April 13th, 2009 at 12:07 pm

Yep, Marc is right, there’s no “math” in football. Different teams match up well/poorly against other teams, there’s off days, etc. etc. But let’s leave off the pointless argument, like Marc said.

Anyways, I watched the Barca-Bayern match – what an outclassing! Messi really is awesome, and Iniesta plays some very nice through passes. I love players like him, always looking to play the perfect release ball – I wish I had an Iniesta on my team to supply through balls for me!

As for Oranje players in Barca, I really hope Van Persie doesn’t go there to “replace Henry”. Henry going there to become a winger has really put a damper on his career. At Arsenal (playing striker) he was arguably one of the best players in the world, at Barca he’s nothing special anymore. Van Persie isn’t a winger, he’s a striker/shadow striker, so playing a winger at Barca would not be a good move for him. I do think Robben could easily replace Henry though. Robben seems to be more of a team player on the left, so I think he would fit in just fine if he played left wing. Could you imagine a team with Robben on the left and Messi on the right?? Then Huntelaar in the middle to finish off all the chances?? Almost blows your mind, doesn’t it?

Posted from Canada

By ferenc | April 13th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

sorry,Caleb,but i wouldn’t give my favourite player,samuel eto’o for huntelaar. he’s the best striker of the world and we need noone to replace him. a less selfish robben would be an interesting solution. but honestly – despite your argument – i’d prefer van persie. you certainly have not watched too much barca games this year otherwise you wouldn’t say that henry is nothing special. it was true last year but not this year. he’s outstanding,scored a lot and accepts the fact that he cannot be the striker because there is someone who is even better than him (samuel eto’o).

you’re right about maths – calculations don’t work othertwise we would know every results in advance. some teams do not fit to other,bad days,misfortune etc.

Posted from Hungary

By Caleb | April 14th, 2009 at 11:55 am

Yeah, it’s true that I haven’t seen too many Barca games this year, so I can’t comment too much on Henry lately – I still would bet he’s not shining as bright as his Arsenal days though. Also, I still wouldn’t want to see Van Persie go there just to be a winger. It would be a waste of his talents.

As for Eto’o, seems lots of Barca fans are fed up with him missing many chances – that’s what I’ve been hearing at least. With a guy like Huntelaar you don’t every have to worry about that. Personally I think Eto’o is a great player too, but maybe more in the mold of Kluivert – great player but some days he might get 4 excellent chances and only score 1 (or 0! like in some important games…).

Posted from Canada

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