There’s so much talk about Barcelona’s style of play in large part because it’s just that: a style. And styles are not easy to come by in soccer. The term can mislead, because it suggests mere aesthetics, how a team looks. But a genuine style is more than that. Just as a poet’s style is not just a few habits of sound-making but a whole way of organizing experience and language, a coherent strategy for marshaling forces of thought and feeling and then deploying them, a soccer style is a complete approach to the game. This is why some sports journalists like to call it a “philosophy,” but “style” is better: it suggests thought embodied, thought enacted on the pitch. And it nods to the aesthetic element, which is real, though not everything.
Catenaccio is a style; “total football” is a style. But those are pretty firmly in the past now (though not without having left permanent marks on the way the game is played). At the moment, does anyone other than Barcelona and its imitators (Arsenal) play a fully-realized style of soccer?
There’s a kind of anti-style, I think, that emerges from the galactico model, whether practiced at Real Madrid or Manchester United. It involves setting players of extraordinary skill on the pitch and simply waiting until one or two of them link up: Kaká wins the ball in midfield, rushes forward to find Cristiano Ronaldo in space; Nani charges down the flank and at full speed crosses to Rooney for a header. It’s soccer built for YouTube and the evening sports reports, which rarely have the patience for one of those Barça thirty-pass build-ups. Ten-second chunks of absolute brilliance, but, in the words of T. S. Eliot (that architect of his own private catenaccio) “Ridiculous the waste sad time / Stretching before and after.”
I don’t want to push these generalizations too far, but hey, what’s the internet for? It seems to me that José Mourinho’s teams have something close to a style, though I’m not sure I could quite define it; so too do Guus Hiddink’s. Rafa Benítez doesn’t have a style so much as a method—a somewhat different thing, focused on what happens off the pitch. (I’ve always had the sense that Benítez hates actual matches and would be happier directing training all the time.)
I think it would be a great thing for world soccer if a distinctive new style arose that could provide an attractive alternative to Barça-ball—especially if, like catenaccio, it were one that could be employed by teams with something less than the very best talent. (You can’t play as Barcelona does without some extraordinary midfielders, not unless you enjoy watching opponents make unimpeded runs at your keeper.) But can this happen? It seems to me that as knowledge within a given sport increases, the range of approaches to that sport decreases: nobody is going to be bringing back the old 2-2-5 pyramid anytime soon, because it doesn’t work. This is encouraging in the sense that it suggests that people really can learn from experience, but discouraging in that styles make fights, and a lack of variation in styles can produce some pretty boring soccer. More style, please. Please.
Read More: Barcelona
by Alan Jacobs · April 8, 2010
To play Barca’s style your whole team needs composure…which not too many teams have. Really nice blog, even better writing. 🙂
Barca has style, yes, but they only have it since Cruyff began to manage them. Before they were like Real, buying the biggest names and waiting for magic to happen. Hungary in the early 1950s, Inter in the mid 1960s, Ajax in the early 1970s, Brazil in the 1980s, maybe these were the most stylish teams of all time along this Barca.
Very good remark by the way that the key to this Barca team is the midfield. I would even go as far as to say that the key is Xavi. He makes Barca and Spain tick, without him neither teams would be at this level. Messi is great but Xavi is a mastermind. The football-brain of Zidane, Maradona, Platini and Di Stefano rolled together. The most amazing midfielder I have ever seen.
One interesting about the “Barca Style” is its chameleon-like characteristics. The style easily blends in with its surroundings – the formation and the players. Over the past two seasons we’ve seen Pep roll out the “usual” 4-3-3, a 4-2-3-1 that is more like a modern 4-2-4, a straightforward 4-4-2, and countless other meaningless sequences of numbers. In addition, it’s not just the favored starting XI that can carry out the style. When the usuals like Messi, Xavi, Puyol, etc. aren’t out on the pitch, their replacements in players like Pedro, Thiago, Chygrynskiy, etc. still embody the Barca ideal. The ideology stays the same, though it’s appearance and operators (I hate using this word here because it makes me feel like I’m referring to a machine, but you get the idea) may vary.
Great stuff. Love the new site. Arsenal are no mere epigones though!
I’d throw Milan on the list of “teams that have or recently have had style,” too. It’s brittled at this point, but their dry, patient, narrow approach to goal during Pirlo’s heydey was as close to a supra-tactical identity as any recent team’s short of Arsenal and Barcelona. (I’d also agree that Mourinho’s Chelsea were a border case; didn’t last long enough, not quite well integrated enough, but close.)
This piece also gets at why I like international soccer so much more than club soccer, I think. For whatever reason (cultural uniformity within the team; higher average quality of players; ability to go all-in in a short, high-stakes competition rather than grinding out a 60-game club season) a greater number of national teams constantly seem to have distinct styles. Currently you could make a good style argument for at least Germany, Egypt, Holland, Spain, Italy (though it’s boring), Brazil (though it’s the opposite of its own reputation). Croatia, England, Turkey, a couple of South American teams and two or three West African teams are also close.
On a completely unrelated note, I really can’t wait for the World Cup.
As much as I love the Bundesliga, I have to say that no teams approach anything resembling a particular style, except perhaps Dortmund under Klopp or Felix Magath with both Wolfsburg and Schalke – not styles that are pleasing on the eye of course, but clear and particular styles which do nonetheless achieve extraordinary results.
I would give you that in football, quality is about having a plan and execute it. Be it playing a never-ending succession of delicate passes that move the ball from player to player with dizzying technical ability, be it a “Up-and-at-them” approach, of long balls.
Stoke City can have as much quality in the execution of their plan as Barcelona have in the execution of theirs. The plan may be to create something more or less attractive to the eye, but it is meant to be coherent and if so, will look cohesive to the fan and observer.
What i find discouraging is when clubs assemble a good group of superstar players and then leave them to play and try to win the game with no real plan behind it.
It’s that lack of plan that makes Man. Utd., Real Madrid, this year’s Liverpool and last season’s Inter Milan so disappointing.
Allardyce has been known to inflict a style on a team that takes years to shift – the most distinct ‘styles’ though tend to be tied to some geo-political identity. Or they become so distinct they form one.
Brilliant piece !
Hiddink I think, is a true chameleon. All his teams appear to have a distinctive but different approach. South Korea, Australia but most of all I remember the Madrid side he managed when he used to have 3 strikers in Raul, Suker and Mijatovic, a winger in Savio, a creative midfielder in Seerdorf and attacking fullbacks in Roberto Carlos and Panucci. The only committed defending was from the error prone Campo and Heirro and the immaculate Redondo. Madrid were actually fun to watch back then.
Among the national teams Argentina strikes me as the one with the most distinctive style, one of fluent flowing ball movement and patient possession although Maradona is doing his best to change that.
Another brilliant article.
I would have to argue that Arsenal under Arsene Wenger has a firmly-entrenched style. There is a genuine attempt and love of playing a possession game based on creativity and positivity but also something deeper, an understanding that the best way to win is to have a group of players who know and understand each other well and genuinely care about the club.
Whether this is the exact same sort of ‘style’ that you are referring to I’m unsure, perhaps this sits more in the ‘philosophy’ category, which of course would make Arsene Wenger quite happy.
This is so fantastic.
@Brian Phillips
Unfortunately, Brian, I feel that homogeneity has struck International football too. Not surprisingly, since most international class players of note play most of their careers in Europe and get coached to play the same way, and it usually boils down to a hard pressing, Italian style game.
The African Cup of Nations in the 90’s was a festival of stylish football. They played to a different rhythm than could be found anywhere else, languid and fun.
There are still pockets of resistance to the homogenizing influences of European club football, Argentina and Russia still play their traditional games, but the rest are lost.
It’s soccer built for YouTube and the evening sports reports, which rarely have the patience for one of those Barça thirty-pass build-ups.
This reminds me of That Goal scored by Argentina in the 2006 WC against Serbia-Montenegro, with 24 passes of short-to-middling distance leading up to it. It inspired a Guardian infograph, which made me very happy. Reminiscing about this makes me wonder if the concept of style can sometimes be described as an extension of nationality — Catenaccio and total football having very heavy Italian and Dutch connotations beyond etymology, for instance. Spain has never had much of a national style, in my opinion, perhaps because it has never been ideologically unified, and the Barcelona “style” is the first one I’ve seen that has evolved at a global-club level.
Oops, I should have read through all of the comments first, since Brian has already touched on this point. That’s what I get for staying silent for the better part of two years!
I much appreciate all this excellent feedback, folks.
@Barry Werder Bremen was very close to establishing a style, but lately too many player sales have left them unable to pull off the super aggressive 3-5-2 like before…
@Elliott Agreed re: Werder. They played some amazing attacking football and despite losing Micoud and then Diego, they still stick to unearthing a key playmaker that runs things. Ozil (sorry my Aussie keyboard doesn’t have dots) stepped in but as you said, too many transfers have seen that fall away.
Such a shame, looking forward to watching the green and whites when I head to Germany though.
@A. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that globalization has had a homogenizing effect. I just think the international game still showcases relatively distinct and articulated styles compared to the club game. They’re not always, or not obviously always, even a product of cultural inheritance, which is intriguing.
This is exactly the kind of writing that I hope can be attached to soccer as it expands in this country. Excellent work.
Totally agree with the premise, and Brian Phillips had a couple interesting points as well re: International Football. I’d also add that, as you eluded to, we see some identifiable styles emerge among the lesser-gifted. Though not always aesthetically pleasing, I’d suggest Greece and Stoke City as other sides with distinct styles as well.
Keep it up, gents… I’m sending all my thoughtful footy fan friends your way.
@kamikaze kontiki I think you could say that Spain definitely has this style of fluent movement and patient possession. similar (yet different) to barcelona
Did you hear Ray Hudson’s commentary last night at the Madrid – Barca game? His partner asked what should Messi do to be better than Pele or Maradona? And Ray answered: Who cares? I don’t. Just enjoy watching him, man .
So true 🙂
@Evan That was a great moment, but I don’t really see why thinking about how players compare to one another is supposed to diminish my enjoyment. I like thinking about that stuff.
My favorite Ray moment last night came when Phil suggested Messi had been “a little selfish” to try a tough shot rather than passing off to Pedro. Ray just snorted and said, “Yeah, why would he shoot at goal with the form he’s been in. Ridiculous.”
@Brian Phillips I think Ray was trying to suggest that there has been too much talk about this subject. Messi is Messi, not “the new Maradona” so just enjoy his “art” and leave the comparisons for when his career will be over. IMO, Messi at 22 is better than any other great player in history at that age. Let’s see how high he can take his level of play 🙂
The other stuff that Ray said was also brilliant, this man is a genius.
@Evan Sure, good point. There probably is a tendency to jump too quickly to historical comparisons and future what-ifs when we should be appreciating the moment. I just think it’s fun to jump there sometimes after we’ve taken the time to admire the Jedi magic of the little short-legged bull covered with eyes.
I don’t think its particularly fair to say that united practice a non tangible style of football. Its quite clear that this year we have a system whereby we use 3 centrally focused midfielders to strangle the short passing options of the opposition, forcing them to play long balls into our defence, and then with quick distribution to the wings, we stretch the play and hit teams with early crosses and utilising rooneys ability to penetrate defences with his runs.
Just because the play is more immediate does not make it any less compelling and magnificent. For examples of this, see the first half against bayern at OT, the game against arsenal with nanis goal and rooneys counter attack goal, the tottenham game etc.
Of course, the system falls apart without rooney…
Great point made about Allardyce in all this. I’m a Newcastle fan born and bred and have been going to games since the mid 80’s. When we employed Allardyce a few years ago he tried to force a tactical approach onto a team that was ill-prepared for it and worse still, on a fan-base that has always been opposed to it. We’ve always tried to play good football, and our fans for the most part have always been appreciative of the endeavour over achievement. Seems this season more than most, pragmatism has come into the mindset of our fans, but we hanker for a quick tempo of passing football. To do this, you need a team that is physically very fit – as they are continually looking for space, intelligent in possession and comfortable on the ball. Can someone tell me where we can get these players now please? Far too many athletes in football rather than footballers.