During his time as manager of FC Barcelona, Helenio Herrera made a name for himself for a number of reasons. I would like to name just two.
The first was as a very good psychologist. He was disdainful of other managers who failed to engage with their players and to bring about a real change in their attitude to the game. Herrera claimed to be able to look into the heads and heart of each of his players, and to be able to turn this to the team’s best advantage. The was a touch of a sorcerer in him . In fact he encouraged superstition as long as he could control it. He used to tap Luisito Suarez’s wine glass when he wasn’t looking because the player was convinced that a small spill meant that he would score a goal.
Herrera was also an extraordinary tactician. While at Barca he experimented with some innovative attacking football. He never saw any contradiction between the football he played at Barcelona and the catenaccio,the system he promoted in Italy whereby the sweeper stays behind the defence, with the rest of the team marking man to man and the letting the opposition attack . In Herrera’s view, the catenaccio got a bad reputation as being synonymous with a defensive style of football only because it was misused by others. In his system, he always insisted, while the centre-backs in front of the sweeper were markers, the fullbacks had to attack.
I was thinking last night about Herrera aboard the good ship Bar & Co (the best football bar in London) as I watched Pep Guardiola’s Barca battling with AC Milian in the Champion’s League quarter finals first leg at San Siro.
Guardiola knows a thing or two about psychology. Who can forget the famous Gladiator video he showed before the Champions League final in Rome in May 2009? And it is Guardiola who has been instrumental in ensuring that Messi’s genius flourishes at Barca.
Guardiola has also developed a team whose form of play is now held up as an example of a new dawn in football. From school kids to Alex Ferguson, much of the football world seems to be seeing how best to emulate Barca.
And yet last night Barca found themselves frustrated and out manaoevered by an AC Milan team that Herrera would have been proud of. Ok, we also saw what should have been a clear penalty on Alexis, and there were a couple of other near Barca misses.
But Milan also created chances on the counter-attack while ensuring for most of the match that Barca’s possession in the mid-field rarely progressed into anything resembling a lethal choreography. I know that Budha suggests that the best way to deal with a wall is to get round it. But you also need to try and find more effective ways through it. Barca’s main weakness became only to evident as the first half progressed. Milan crowded the central highway down the middle of the pitch , with Alves the only real wide player in the initial line-up chosen by Guardiola.
He could have done with Abidal (almost certainly unavailable now for the rest of the season as a result of his liver transplant) . Pujol is a tough defender and a good header, but he simply does not have the speed down the wing. Pedro does, but he was only brought into the game belatedly along with Tello. The much needed extra fire power nearly clinched it but that seemed to sum up Barca’s whole game of failed expectation.
The second-leg will prove a real challenge for Guardiola.I suspect that whoever prevails in the second leg will eventually go through to the finals- against Bayern Munich. Barca needs to spill a bit of wine in the coming days.
