Barca's Wonderful Era Is Not Over..

There is no way to make this sound better, the truth is that the past seven days have been a nightmare for all FC Barcelona fans. 

Losing the championship title to their eternal rivals Real Madrid in the Nou Camp; a Champions League exit at home to a team that sits in sixth position of the English Premier League; and the saddest news of all: that their most successful coach of all time and mastermind of their brilliant football, Pep Guardiola, has resigned after four years due to the stress of coaching a club that expects and demands success. Furthermore Barca fans have had to endure the commentary that perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the Barcelona era. An era that has included winning 13 titles in 4 years with some of the most breathtaking football the world has ever seen.

The only good news (and this of course remains to be proven!) is that at least the man taking over from club legend Guardiola is his assistant Tito Villanova, who is steeped in the club's traditions and style. Although his playing profile is not one to write home about it has been confirmed by all within the club, including Guardiola, that his coaching contribution to the recent success of Barcelona has been immense and that he has the necessary skills to more than adequately perform the job. 

This however is not enough reason to expect that Barcelona will continue to dominate. Instead there are other factors that are just as important that point to Barcelona remaining a force to be reckoned with for a few more years. 

 

AGE:

If you look at the great Ajax, Bayern, Milan teams that have defined great eras in the past their winning cycles have come to an end due to the age of the playing group nearing the 30’s or when they have been forced to sell star players, as occurred to Ajax when they sold Johan Cruyff to Barcelona. 

 

This Barcelona team however will not be hampered by this for the  following two reasons: as far as the transfer merry-go-round goes Barcelona could be seen as top of the food chain and their players are still at the peak of their powers.  Messi is still only 24 years old and the likes of Fabregas, Busquets, , Iniesta, Pedro, Sanchez, Pique, Adriano and Valdes are at a similar age whilst Alves, Villa and maybe Puyol still have two more years at least at the top.

 

Further to this and keeping with the clubs traditions, Guardiola has given significant playing opportunities to young La Masia Academy graduates this season (Thiago, Cuenca, Tello, Fontas, Montoya, Muniesa, Bartra) and although they may have not set the world alight this season, have gained valuable playing experience and made their transition to the first team seamlessly. In contrast to this, their great rivals Real Madrid has not unearthed any new players this season with the exception of Callejon, and Mourinho has mostly stuck with the same starting XI. 

 

FORMATIONS:

One of the things that made Barcelona so successful last season was the consistency of being able to play 4-3-3 all season long. Consistency leads to familiarity and therefore even more flowing football. Unfortunately this season due to injuries to key men like Pique/Puyol/Abidal at the back Guardiola had to experiment with only three at the back. Another reason he may have had to do this is partly because he didn’t want his team to become too predictable. So this season he may have taken a few risks that resulted in dropped points, however the team has become more flexible tactically than ever before and able to play 4-3-3, 3-4-3 and 3-3-4. This can only hold them in better stead for next season.

 

DEFENCE:

What was clearly evident in the 2 key games of the past seven days is that Barcelona’s defence desperately missed the likes of Pique and Abidal, and Puyol was missed at the start of the season which had a significant impact on the team. In addition the youngster Fontas, who has great potential was also out for most of the season. Whilst last summer the club added to their attacking strength with the additions of Fabregas and Sanchez, there is no doubt that this summer they will add one if not two defenders to the squad. If Pique and Puyol can avoid injury next season then the club will not have to rely on Mascherano or Busquets, converted midfielders, to hold the fort at the back.

 

ATTACK:

There is so much talk at the moment about Plan B being required after their failure to break down Madrid’s and Chelsea’s defences but it’s more a case of missing pure finishers like Villa and Pedro to injuries and more adventure required to take shots outside the box, as was done in last season's Champions League final against Manchester United.  The fact is that Barca created so many chances in these last 3 games that had they converted them we could have been talking about an astonishing 6 trophies this season, alas it was not meant to be. But hopefully next season Villa and Pedro will return in top form and with Sanchez and Fabregas fully integrated into the team's pattern of play the attack should be more formidable than ever. Particularly if Messi repeats the form shown this season.  

 

PRESSING:

Apart from their 'tiki-taka' football, Barca is known and respected for their immense pressing tactics that put so much heat on opponents they are forced to make mistakes and result in Barcelona regaining possession. 

This season the players have had to play more high pressure games than any other club. Pre-season games in USA, won the Spanish Supercup after a tough and violent two-legged tie against Real Madrid, won the European Super Cup, won the World Club Cup, and is in the final of the Spanish Cup after knocking out Real Madrid in another two-legged tie  in January. They have also been involved in an immense tussle with Madrid for the league, with every opponent wanting to knock off the greatest team on the planet. With such a heavy workload its no surprise that Barca’s players are suffering from fatigue. In particular to play the high pressing tactic that they specialise in for a 70 game season is almost impossible. Unfortunately it appears that fatigue set in at the worst time of the season, in the crunch games of last week. Without a distracting European Super Cup and World Club Cup to play for next season, avoiding Real Madrid in the Spanish Cup until the final, and even more depth in the playing squad then this season, fatigue shouldn't be a problem next year.  

Taking into consideration the factors above there is no reason why Barcelona cannot remain at the top for a couple more more years yet, maybe in time for Guardiola to return from his sabbatical!