Are Spain Boring?



They don't look boring

 It is unbelievable, at least to myself, that there have been quite a few rumblings complaining that the Spanish national team are boring to watch-huh? Have their mesmerising passing brand of football really become boring to watch? Back in 2008 when they were European Champions, they were hailed as an attacking, entertaining, highly skillful and brilliant team to watch and were regarded as the model to follow for all national teams. However, as of the day before their Euro 2012 final clash against Italy, many fans are complaining that all Spain do is pass, pass and pass, with no end product and no goals. Forget the fact that they haven't had to score many goals to win games, since they've only conceded one goal so far this tournament, Spain are a defensive team all of a sudden they said. Excuse me! Defensive? How could the most talented team in the world, whom half the squad are made up of Barcelona players, be accused of playing defensively? The critics claim this is true because in the past Spain used their possession to create many goalscoring chances, whereas today they merely use possession as a defensive ploy to keep the opponents from scoring goals against them. Forgive me if I come across a bit harsh, but I want a few paragraphs to dispute the critics.

Was it not just a few months ago when Pep Guardiola declared he was to leave Barcelona, a team he built which was uttered in the same breath as Ajax under Michels, Sacchi's Milan and Puska's Madrid. Was it not in the last four or so years where Barcelona's football was the pinnacle of football, where their football was the most sophisticated, technical and most seductive form of football in the world. Was it not every nations dream to cultivate players who could reproduce their type of football and use it to strengthen their national team. They say imitation is the best form of flattery. Perhaps the biggest compliment and ultimate form of respect that Barcelona could recieve is that they have impacted the way the world thinks about football. No longer is it acceptable to play negative football, not least in the top leagues. To support my point, I give you the example of the criticism Chelsea received when they won the champions League. Even Roberto di Matteo was second choice to Guardiola for the position of manager. So what do Barcelona have to do with Spain. If you haven't figured it out yet, Barcelona and Spain are very similar to each other and that gives us a direct comparison to evaluate. If the two teams play similar football, why is it that Spain are boring and Barcelona are entertaining. It doesn't make sense. Keep in mind that Barcelona have been the most successful club team in the past four years and Spain are the most successful national team in the past four years. So why is their a distinction between these two different (but similar) teams?



Sacchi talking with his players

 One fascinating aspect of human psychology is that we are very fickle. We expect too much sometimes, especially when we have experienced a lot. Perhaps this applies to Spain as well. You see, we have been spoilt by Barcelona and by extension, Spain with their possession and unbelievable technical passing skills. While this led to opposition teams being crushed and goals flowing freely, we celebrated their philosophy of football. However, when there are a few games in succession where they haven't been able to score as many, the fans all of a sudden start to doubt- or perhaps a better descriptive phrase is 'grow impatient.' It's not that we get impatient with Spain's possession style of play since we never grew tired of it four years ago, rather it is a negative response to the type of football match that Spain inadvertently create- predictable. By that, I mean the flow of the game is slowed down as a consequence of Spain's unyeilding possession. And this is the issue when Spain play. Unless Spain can create additional excitement, in the form of goals, the match becomes predictable and loses the reason why sport has become a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. That reason is unpredictability. It is the reason football is so popular worldwide. Football creates unpredictability like no other sport because of the very foundations of the sport. It is a free flowing sport, where their are no phases of play and its unstructured, unlike American football. Perhaps the reason that American football is so popular in that country but not in any other is indicative of their culture and their people. Even sports like basketball, baseball and ice hockey are much more structured sports than football in almost every aspect. In baseball for instance, their is a clear start-stop flow to the game where play resets after every phase of play. The fans of football and the culture of football demands a blank canvas where the creativity of the players can be expressed by the players and seen by the audience without artificial interventions like phases of play, timeouts and even specific positions on the pitch. (Teams in the NFL play with two teams - one for the offensive phase and one for the defensive phase). The feeling with Spain is that the canvas is already half painted with the La Fura Roja enjoying the possession of the ball. There is not much different you can paint on the other half, exept to complete the canvas by more painting more Red Fury.

It is a symptom that Spain have created for themselves. It is a bit like a catch-22 situation where Spain have become so good at what they do, that they simply are better than everyone they play. They have become so good at passing the ball and keeping it that they have gone beyond the point of using it as a style of play which suits them. It has become precious to them, a philosophy, a way of thinking, a way of living even. The two entities, the players and the system, have ceased to exist as two autonomous entities. Instead, they have morphed into one body, they have entangled between each other and are engrained so tightly that it may never be able to be separated. Like a woman and her baby, the bond is universally strong. The system does not change with the players and the players do not change with the system. The players are the system that they play and the system are the players that play within it. It's the same way we associate Neil Armstong with the Moon. We associate possession tiki-taka with Spain and no other team. Spain have become the sole rightful holders of their way of football and no-one can take it away from them. It has become almost a secondary goal of any match they play, where they want to keep their soleful right of their way of football. If they don't, they lose their identity, and many of the worlds conflicts are the direct consequence of people fighting for their identity. As in life, people tend to stick with what's worked in the past, and for Spain, possesing the ball has won them two major trophies in two years and they are in the final for a third in a few hours time. Spain's football is not boring and has never been boring. It just so happens that some people find watching Spain playing matches in a constant fear of losing their identity boring.

I've heard the phrase familiarity breeds contempt. I would like to change it to familiarity breeds boredom. Perhaps this simple phrase can explain how people who hailed Spain as the brilliant modern version of football can now claim to be bored by the very same football. Trust me, Spain are not boring and I certainly don't find them boring. Instead, I find their passing football brilliant and I urge you to enjoy it until their generation of brilliant footballers end and we are left to lament that they are gone. I am bored of people saying that Spain are boring because they are just not.

Prandelli doesn't think Spain is boring-http://www.goal.com/en/news/2898/euro-2012/2012/06/30/3211321/prandelli-expects-spain-to-try-and-suffocate-italy-insists

Who's the Better Manager, Pep or Jose?

This is an interesting question which many football fans have argued over for a few years now, with Pep having just quit Barcelona and Mourinho about to manage in his third season at Real. In many ways, this debate is just as interesting as the Messi vs Ronaldo debate, but perhaps less discussed and certainly much less tedious that the debate surrounding the two best players in world football. In many ways, the two managers reflect the two individuals they are managing, or in Pep's case, managed. Like Ronaldo, Mourinho has been well traveled with stints in Portugal, England, Italy and Spain currently. In Guardiola's case, he has been a one club man like Messi. Mourinho has been a top flight manager for 12 years whereas Pep has been Barca head coach for just four. While this does not necessarily mean that Jose has learned more throughout his career and therefore has accumulated more knowledge than Pep, it does mean that by definition, Jose is more experienced than Pep in that regard. Whatever your opinion is, it is hard to argue that Jose has experienced different tactical cultures and other things not related to anything on the football field, for instance, the media, supporters and even different styles of referees. While these factors certainly do make anyone a great manager on its own, it certainly contrasts with Pep's only experiences of these kind being restricted to Champions League games. Taking these things into consideration we can now start to judge more important things like results and style.

Let's start with the style of teams that these managers have gotten their teams to play. It is quite blatantly obvious that there is one clear winner here: Barcelona. Pep got his team to play football that has not been seen since Johan Cruyff's Dream Team. Pep is quite well known as a believer in the possession orientated philosophy, but one thing is to dream and another to actually implement and achieve. With players like Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Alves and Messi in his team, Pep redefined the term "possession football." He managed 246 games in four years and his side have had at least 50% possession in every one of those games, quite incredible. But was this the result of Pep's brilliant skills as a coach or was it simply that he inherited an unbelievable group of talented footballers. I would tend to steer clear of accusing Pep as a lucky man who happened to stumble across these said players. There are countless examples of teams who have had a great bunch of talented players but could not produce football to match. Pep is a smart man and he figured a way integrate and mold the players to produce the football they do. Perhaps his biggest quality is that he believes in a single philosophy and would never change it. His belief in this system and the way he made his players believe in it as well was the crucial element and the starting point of the making of his team. To go along with style, he has overseen a team that has won a total of 14 trophies including 3 Liga titles and 2 Champions League titles. It also included the famous sextuplet in his first season as head coach. It is these trophies which has led to the labeling of this edition of Barca as the best ever. While Pep's records are undeniably impressive, Mourinho has won more trophies in his career, a total of 19 including seven league titles across four countries. This equates to 1.58 trophies per season for Jose and 3.5 for Pep. While Pep's average is better, I point to the fact that Mourinho has had 8 years longer as coach than Pep and he has won trophies in four different countries. While the value of each manager's trophy tally is debatable, most people would agree that Mourinho's influence on his teams in terms of aesthetic style is dwarfed by his Catalan counterpart. Mourinho famously made his Chelsea team a highly organised and extremely watertight in defence. In 185 games in charge of Chelsea, they conceded a miserly 119 goals which is a very low number. This theme has continued across his time at Inter and Real Madrid with a prime example of this defensive prioritisation represented in the 2010 Champions League semi-final first second leg between Pep's Barca and Mou's Inter. That night, Inter defended for their lives and Barca completely dominated the game. Eventually, Inter made it through courtesy of the first leg result. In many ways that game summed up the two managers perfectly. Mourinho wanted to get the desired result no matter the method while Pep stuck to his guns and failed, or more like refused to adapt, like a child who refuses to eat his spinach. Ultimately, Jose is a master tactician but Pep is a purist of the highest order.

Whatever may bring Pep in the future, his time at Barcelona has revolusionised the old philosophy of tiki-taka football and brought in into the modern context. Jose on the other hand has revolutionised football coaching for different reasons- by being one thing: a winner. I guess it comes down to personal preference in terms of what kind of football you want to see. In fact, Jose's Madrid actually play quite nice attacking football so there might not be reason to doubt the prettiness of his teams' football, but that's for another post!  At the proverbial end of the day, I love football and I understand football. So in that sense I appreciate Mourinho just as much as I appreciate Guardiola and I appreciate Pep just as much as I appreciate Jose. So who's better? Who cares. They're both awesome!

Clash of Philosophy

It is startling to read about so many comments on various footballing websites to the tune of 'Chelsea were lucky' or 'Chelsea do not deserve to be champions.' To me, it seems that in this day and age it not only enough to win trophies to earn the respect and applause of the general spectating populous. You have to win with style as well. Easier said than done. It seems that the globe has been spoilt rotten by Barcelona and their once in a generation mesmeric style of football, better described as 'tiki-taka,' where playing the 'right way' is to keep as much possession as possible (usually mid 60%) and to never play the ball long, but always keeping the passes short. Uruguayan football journalist and pundit Jorge Ramos who works for ESPN Deportes, recently presented his top ten teams in world football right now. Who did he put first? Reigning European champions Chelsea? Nope. Runners up Bayern? No. Real Madrid, winners of the La Liga? Not a chance. Number one on his list was Barcelona. Where did Chelsea fit in his top ten? He placed them number six. Fellow ESPN pundit Tommy Smyth was asked to compile his own top ten. On his list, Chelsea were number one and Barcelona were number seven. For the record, Barcelona have not won a trophy this season whereas Chelsea have won two. In this example one can assume that Ramos places more importance on the 'means to an end' philosophy in evaluating the greatness of a team. On the other hand, Smyth places more importance on an 'end's to a mean' mentality. Whatever your view, one thing is clear: not every team can play as good as Barcelona. This is not to be confused with playing like Barcelona. The criticism of Chelsea is not because they are not as good as Barcelona, but because they chose not to play football the 'correct way' in the final. That is, they chose to 'park the bus' and play 'ten men behind the ball.' The other side of the argument tells us that defending is just as important as attacking and the ultimate aim of football is to win. But that seems to not impress modern football fans.

The clash between Chelsea and Bayern Munich represents a fundamental evolution of football. This theory of football evolution can be described as a clash between teams who represent the Chelsea model and those who represents the Barcelona model. In simple terms- attack vs defence. This clash is viewed out on the pitch, but when two polar opposite football philosophies clash, it not only represents just another game. The game represents a clash between two two ways of thinking. Two opposite ways of thinking. History is littered with clashes on the battlefield that represent more than just a battle for geographical position-it represents two ideologies between different nations. That is why there is so much discussion and opinion when games like this happen. This year- defence won. It also won in 2010 where Inter Milan beat Barcelona on their way to the Champions League, where coincidentally they beat Bayern in the final. Barcelona won the trophy in 2009 and 2011. When Inter or Chelsea win, it is a travesty to football. When Barca win, they are worthy winners. There are those who argue that efficiency in front of goal and taking your chances is part of the game. Chelsea scored from their only corner of the game. Bayern could not score a single goal from over 20 corners. In that sense, Chelsea deserved to beat Bayern. Former Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich often tells us that football is played in the middle of he field but it is won in both boxes. Quite true. Smyth's top five teams have all won a trophy this season: Chelsea, Real Madrid, Man City, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund. Ramos' top five are: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Man United and Man City.
Who will win next year's Champions League? Or more importantly, which philosophy will triumph?

Here's a link to Tommy Smyth v Jorge Ramos
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/video?cc=3436

Hello! My first post

Welcome my fellow football lovers from across the globe! This is a brand new blog about the beautiful game and this is the very first post on Stop Talking Nonsense. To briefly introduce myself: I live in Sydney, Australia but I am obsessed with football and love to ramble on about it so I decided I needed to blog about the world game- from the craziness of Balotelli to the tactical intricacies of Barcelona. And everything in between. Just to be clear, I support Chelsea. After Chelsea's heroic win four days ago in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich, I decided it would be a great time to start posting my thoughts to the scary world out there. I am here to write about interesting things-not merely to give you match reports and tell you the possession and shots on goal statistics from the previous game. So I look forward to sharing my thoughts on the beautiful game. Don't be afraid to leave your views and comments as well. And I never talk nonsense!