Usually when Gordon Strachan starts talking I tend to sit up and take notice, not for his tactical insight, but for the comedy value. Strachan is always good for a comedy quote, I'd almost go as far as to say he is the Sid Waddell of football; but as a pundit he is a little lacking. However, whilst doing some half-time musing on ITV during the break of the Barcelona v Internacional he said something that made an awful lot of sense...
As usual, everyone was gushing over how "great" Barca had been playing, the same old stuff that gets regurgitated every time they play (don't get me wrong they are obviously a great team, but they are by no means as perfect as everyone seems to think). The conversation turned to how teams (including Internacional) try to replicate the Barca style of play but always seem to fail and return to type...it was at this point yer man made his move. Strachan coolly reclined in his seat and made a simple statement that the reason Barca play the way they do is because it is in the culture of the city; and he's right they play the way that comes naturally to them from their surroundings, they play the way all kids in the streets of the city play, they simply play football. The thing with it is, it is genuinely a simple concept, yet it seems to me that it is so simple that it hasn't filtered through to the rest of the football world. There is no point trying to play them at their own game, because there is no other city in the world that is the same, what managers need to focus on is how to get their players to play how it comes naturally to them.
If you look at the Barca team, how many of those players have been in the squad from a young age and have come through the system whilst living the life in Barcelona and how many big money signings have come in at a later stage in their career and failed to fit into the team? Just as Ibrahimovic or Henry. There are other teams around the world who have great success by buying in big name players, but there does seem to lack some cohesion, a bit like square pegs in round holes. Even Barca themselves have fallen into the trap a few times over the years, and it was not that long ago that they went for over 5 seasons without winning the league, and it is only really the foresight of Pep Guardiola that has made them the force they are today.
Perhaps in recent years the focus has become far too much about marquee signings and not enough about bringing on youth through the ranks. Sure, we all do want to see the best players playing for our clubs, but are teams like Man City and Chelsea sustainable, neither one has been hugely successful over a long period of time (yet) but will they ever. The question is though...how do other teams find their identity? I'm by no means qualified to answer that, but maybe with teams showing a little more confidence in their youth team products with a sprinkling of experience in the spine to guide them through then they too could find themselves in the way they play. Fans will always be more patient with youngsters who have come through the club than big money signings, so maybe someone needs to take a chance, begin to think further ahead than the current season and put the building blocks in place for the future...if you ever needed vindication of the theory I direct you to one Jack Wilshere.
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