Champions League: If only Barcelona could count on a Pep talk

P61 Lionel Messi

23 April 2013

On May 5, 2012, during an emotionally charged night, Pep Guardiola bade farewell to his beloved Barcelona in a match against Espanyol. But as he left a tearful Nou Camp, citing exhaustion and the need for a total break from the game, Pep knew one thing for certain; the dream was dying, the Guardiola era was over.

Pep knew the time had come to let someone else try to get the best out of his players. In came Tito Vilanova, never the greatest player to compete at the highest level but a loyal and dedicated assistant who had the respect of the team. At first, it looked like business as usual and, now, Barcelona are poised to win yet another La Liga title and are in their sixth consecutive Champions League semi-final.

But things aren’t all they seem and this year could well be Barcelona’s swan song. Why? Firstly, Vilanova has looked to create a different, less predictable and more stretched game, making full use of Cesc Fabregas and Xavi. However, without the trademark pressure high up the pitch, far more gaps have appeared at the back.

Horrendous injury problems in central defence means Alex Song, Adriano and the talented but inexperienced Marc Bartra have been drafted in, out of position, to try to plug those gaps.

Full-backs Jordi Alba and Daniel Alves have frequently played more like wingers than defenders and the result has been potentially disastrous defensive shortcomings. In short, this team are playing differently to the way they did last season.

Carles Puyol probably won’t make it for tonight’s game, injuries suffered by Xavi mean the midfield great now picks and chooses when he plays, keeper Victor Valdes has said he is leaving and, up front, David Villa will probably also go at the end of the season. The times they are a-changing

Injuries are one thing, serious illness another. Eric Abidal has endured liver cancer, for which he had a transplant, and that he is back playing at all is nothing short of a miracle, although it is unlikely he will rejoin the elite. Meanwhile, a recurrence of Vilanova’s parotid gland tumour left the club managerless for two months as he underwent treatment in the United States.

Now he’s back, not yet 100 per cent fit but very much in the building. Despite the use of video conferences beforehand, the Whatsapp smartphone app during games, plus all manner of technology and the best efforts of everyone at the club, the truth is they have missed him.

Football notoriously throws up the most amazing coincidences, none more so than the pitting of Guardiola’s former club tonight against the one he will join in the summer. So just who will Pep be cheering for?

He is, above all, a Barcelona fan but would he like his old club to win as much with someone else as they did with him? Conversely, if Bayern win absolutely everything this year, what will be left for him to achieve when he gets there?

And finally, there is the small matter of Lionel Messi to take into account. Messi has always been a player who makes others better, as well as one made better by his team-mates. But things have changed and Messi’s role has been elevated from essential to quintessential. Not only are Barca ‘Messidependent’ they are also in need of his ‘Maradona factor’. With Barcelona looking down and out in the quarter-final against PSG, all it took was the arrival of the little wizard on one good leg to send the French into a panic.

With three men duly deployed to mark him, Villa and Pedro finally found the time and space to ease Barcelona into the semis. If Bayern surrender the ball against Barcelona as they did against Arsenal, then the Argentine phenomenon will make them pay.

Guillem Balagué is the author of Another Way Of Winning, a biography of Pep Guardiola

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