Before they met each other, Leo and his role in the team were discussed at the presentation of the new coach: ‘Leo has played in different positions in recent years, recently as a central striker, which suits his style. And he has exploited a role as a goalscorer, which he did not have in previous years. Given that, I would tell you that he will carry on playing in the same position. The ideal scenario would be to have a team that goes back to look after him. It’s a difficult situation because Barcelona have won it all and anybody who talks that way seems to be suggesting something new, which is not the case. I want him to find the same comforts, to feel at ease in the team and allow him to take care of the rest.’
Martino knew that he had taken over a squad with big stars and great footballers, but he wanted to make clear what their job was from day one. And he did it in a very intelligent way: by announcing in his inaugural talk that he would not change anything. ‘Don’t get tired of winning,’ he told them, and he announced that he wanted to bring back the high pressing from Guardiola’s best years.
Even the physical trainer Professor Elvio Paolorosso insisted on the idea that everything was going to continue in the same vein – Barcelona’s methodology had been studied and he would not be introducing many variations. ‘My only goal is to make you happy and for us to be a united group,’ concluded Paolorosso.
That day, el Tata followed Leo very closely. The Argentinian had a sensational training session, pressing, destabilising, scoring goals, stealing the ball. ‘Even the little one wants to press when we lose it,’ one of the veterans stated privately at the end of the session. ‘And at the end of the day that fires us all up.’ The team seemed very focused after Martino’s arrival.
Leo and el Tata spoke during training and Martino later had a meeting with captain Carles Puyol, to whom he emphasised the same key points: he told him not to worry as he did not plan to change the training sessions and would still allow the whole squad to get together on the day of a game, a favourite remnant of the Pep era.
He basically told them: ‘Guys, the status quo remains.’
The first league match, against Levante, marked the new pattern: el Tata substituted Leo in the seventy-first minute. Messi had not been replaced since May 2010 except for injuries. Neymar went on in the sixty-fourth minute; his integration into the team was going to be gradual. He played on the left wing.
Martino explained himself in a press conference: ‘You have to save minutes. Leo is very intelligent and we reached an agreement very quickly in this sense. I spoke to him a few weeks ago about the importance of understanding that it was good to rest. Various parts of various matches where you sit on the bench are like resting for a whole match. I will not replace him in a tight game. I won’t, nor will anyone. It would be crazy.’ Barcelona beat Levante 7–0.
Martino was thus making a necessary point about rotation the season after the team seemed exhausted in the last months. And, at the same time, he placed Neymar in the role which belonged to him: the Brazilian was going to play to benefit the star’s qualities.
He asked the full-backs to push forward less; the wingers to open play up instead of coming inside; the midfielders to get into the box more, not to come as deep to pick up the ball and to find the forwards quicker; the centre-backs to bring the ball out calmly and to launch diagonal passes to the wingers; the defenders to man-mark on long balls; and the goalkeeper to play it long sometimes. He also demanded a change in attitude to restore pressing high up the field.
Despite what Tata had said in his first press conference, he discussed with Leo the possibility of playing him in a different position, and even using a system similar to the one applied with Argentina, with Leo behind a striker like Higuaín. Leo agreed that in some games it was a good idea to surprise rivals playing him wide or deeper, as he ended up doing in the first Clásico of the La Liga season at the Camp Nou.
Thus did Martino change things. From day one.
What came out was a more direct game, just as with Vilanova, and that suited players such as Messi, Cesc and Neymar who started enjoying more space.
The concepts applied corresponded to those of a modern coach, who was tweaking the Barça model that had reached a sublime state under Pep Guardiola.
But Leo, who felt comfortable with the tactical changes, had already explained in March 2013 (in an interview with Martín Souto on TyC Sports) that he felt the team had to rethink and to look for alternatives:
Leo Messi: The matches we have found most difficult are those where our opponents sit back and let us attack down the wings. That is how Chelsea and Mourinho’s Inter beat us. Real Madrid set out like that against us …
Martín Souto: Yes, but if you stay back and they do the same, the ball remains in the middle, you can’t play football …
Leo Messi: We have to keep the ball, we don’t really know how to play any other way, and it sometimes costs us big time. We speak about it before important games. In the cup match the same thing happened, too. They had to go out to look for the result and the first goal came from our free-kick, which we had taken quickly, we lost the ball, and the counter comes with Ronaldo one on one with Piqué …
Martín Souto: Yes, and did you speak about it? Did you say, ‘Let’s take our foot off the accelerator, let’s give them the ball for a bit’?
Leo Messi: Yes, but I can tell you we aren’t used to that. We are used to looking to win matches in the same way and playing like that.
Martino’s proposal received general acceptance. ‘We have recovered automatism which was lost over time due to Tito’s absence,’ said Xavi, who added: ‘Last year we did very little on tactics in training.’ Alvés, Busquets, Piqué (who spoke about being slaves to the tiki taka), Valdés, strong presences in the dressing room, publicly backed the changes, although the press debated the merits of a style that was moving away from the one which had taken them to footballing heaven, especially when, for the first time in four years, an opponent (the modest Rayo Vallecano) had more possession than Barcelona in a match. Leo joined in with the praise: ‘The more variants we have, the better.’
El Tata found himself with another matter which he had to manage in the dressing room to guarantee progress along the right path that season, and in the ones to come: the change of leadership. The four captains were going through a transitory phase: Víctor Valdés was leaving the club, Carles Puyol made a titanic effort to recover from his latest knee injury, one that kept him away from the day to day, Xavi could no longer play as often as in previous years, and Iniesta now preferred to show his influence on the group on the pitch. Gerard Piqué, Javier Mascherano and Cesc Fàbregas were gradually gaining influence as a result of their personalities and output on the pitch.
Meanwhile, Leo experienced an irregular start to the campaign in terms of physical fitness: he suffered an injury on 22 August in the first leg of the Super Cup against Atlético de Madrid, a bruise to the femoral biceps in his left leg. Until that moment he had completed only one match out of 25, the 4–0 loss against Bayern Munich. He was injured once again on 29 September against Almería, a muscle injury to the right thigh, the same one he suffered against PSG; when there is scarring there is a 30 per cent chance that the injury will recur.
It was said at the club that he had not rested enough over the summer, but the medical team gave away as little as possible, not in order to hide information but to calm Leo’s mind, as he finds it difficult to bear being far from the ball.
In a World Cup year, in his year, Leo wanted to reach the end of the season in perfect condition: both physically and mentally.
So he reduced his levels of intensity in training, which he did à la carte as it were, following his body’s instructions and those of Juanjo Brau. He once again put himself in the hands of a nutritionist, this time one from outside the club, and lost two kilos and bulked up in September.
If his body answered him and got rid of the injuries, allowing him to make a comeback in a time of change, the season was look
ing good. Real Madrid lost points at the start of the league campaign and the team was working well in Europe, too.
In the first clásico of the Martino era, at the Camp Nou on 26 October, new variations were introduced: predicting rightly that Real Madrid, to avoid being outnumbered, were going to play with three midfielders, and one of them the centre-back Sergio Ramos who would try to stop the runs of Leo from the midfield, Martino decided to play Messi on the right-hand side of the attack, which attracted defenders and allowed Neymar on the other side and Cesc as a false nine to have more space.
A couple of things happened: Messi, in his second game in five days after being out for three weeks with his muscle injury, spent some of this energy tracking back and also applying pressure to Madrid defenders when they had the ball, and he chose his runs with the ball as he was not yet physically ready for an intense 90-minute game. So his influence in the game was reduced and the team looked more for Neymar as they felt he was sharper than ‘the Flea’.
But that match also sent worrying signals despite the 2–1 victory with Neymar and Alexis the goalscorers, and Real youngster Jesé finding the net in the ninety-second minute. Barcelona are a team that can only defend with the ball but the insistence of Neymar and Messi on finishing the attacks early, without slowly ‘cooking’ the moves with Xavi and Iniesta, forced the team to run up and down the pitch much more than usual, unable to find the right positioning with so much directness to try to apply pressure high up. That killed the energy of most of the players and in the second half Barcelona dropped very deep – Real could have got at least a point from the game. Martino had to balance the team to do damage in the big games.
Early results were suggesting, though, that the Tata effect was bearing fruit: squad rotation was becoming regular, the arrival of a new talent offered new solutions, Messi played new roles in the side, the coach’s authority had reappeared without trauma. The Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan story all over again.
In that first year of Neymar, Leo and el Tata together, everyone was there to combine efforts. The biggest challenge of his new era would take place after the World Cup.
Because its aftermath might just make the established hierarchy shake.
3
Alejandro Sabella
All routes lead to the World Cup in Brazil
It is the tournament that will see Leo, at the age of 27, at his peak. It will be played in South America and the Argentina national team has traditionally felt more comfortable when the competition is being played on its continent. They aim to win it. In their biggest rival’s backyard. The team revolves around the Rosario-born star and the necessary conditions have been created to maximise not only his characteristics, but also those of his team-mates in attack, Sergio Agüero, Gonzalo Higuaín, Ángel Di María. It is the Real Madrid of the national teams: they enjoy playing on the break, with pace, pressing high without the ball but keeping possession if required.
Leo is preparing both mentally and physically to arrive in perfect condition.
For Leo, this is his World Cup.
What will happen if he wins it? Coming just a month after playing in an extremely tough, exacting competition means that the psychological strain of preparing for the tournament will be enormous at all levels. All the baggage, everything he has learnt, and everything he has fought for so his national team understands him, will be brought to the table in June in Brazil. If he wins it, the sighs of relief and relaxation will be as necessary as they will be inevitable.
And he will return to Barcelona with the job done. Will it possibly be the time to see another Messi, to further his tactical evolution and become a creator, instead of the executioner he currently is? Would that not allow him to lengthen his sporting career? By taking a step back on the pitch he would be able to use other characteristics of his game that do not always require explosiveness and maximum muscular demands. Facing Xavi’s logical physical decline, Leo could become the team organiser and Neymar’s assistant. ‘Now I’m the one who makes others play,’ could be his post-World Cup motto.
And what if he doesn’t win it?
The psychological pressure would be increased and leave him feeling unfulfilled. He will tell himself, yes, he is a great player, but he has been unable to lead his country to World Cup victory, as Pelé, Maradona and even Zidane have done. How does one respond to that? His desire to perform, to be important, to carry on showing the world they are wrong, could multiply to the team’s benefit (he will want to continue scoring goals and winning more games), or make Tata Martino’s job to convert him into the Michael Jordan of the victorious Chicago Bulls team more arduous. Leo will want to keep proving that he is the best in the world and the coach will have to know how to handle that ambition.
In any case, absolutely everything has been done to ensure that Argentina, and Leo, arrive in Brazil as serious contenders for the title.
At last. But it needed the arrival of a new national coach.
Despite the convincing 4–1 victory in 2010 against recently crowned World Champions Spain, and despite the pleasure he experienced from hearing the fans sing his name for the first time, Sergio Batista, the manager at the time, did not manage to combine ‘the Flea’s’ footballing growth with a team that worked. He tried Barcelona’s 4-3-3 and distanced Carlos Tévez from the national team because he understood that he did not fit the group’s new dynamics, but the results were dismal: he failed in the Copa América held in Argentina, losing to Uruguay on penalties in the quarter-finals. The opposition goalkeeper Fernando Muslera was, without doubt, the man of the match, but that fact did not appease local supporters who showed their impatience with their team. They were Messi’s worst moments with the albiceleste.
It was Alejandro Sabella’s turn to get rid of the deadwood and initiate a new project which had to start with the talented front line at his disposal. At 56 he used his experience not only as a footballer but also as assistant to Daniel Passarella, the coach who led Argentina to the 1998 World Cup. His low profile helped lift spirits without making too much noise and his footballing rigorousness helped him make decisions, some of them painful ones: Tévez was not going to return, nor was Riquelme. The call-ups and style gradually became consistent and revolved around the same group.
The four forwards (Messi, Di María, Kun Agüero and Higuaín) had been developing an understanding and would be sure starters. And in midfield, a combination of Javier Mascherano’s tactical discipline and Fernando Gago’s touch, coupled with their experience and balance, made them leaders both on and off the pitch.
Messi had Gago behind him and Agüero as his partner up front in both his titles with Argentina (Under 20 World Cup and the Olympic Games). They were reunited under Sabella.
And Leo, alongside team-mates who were on the same wavelength as him, was playing with freedom. In and around the box, he started becoming Barcelona’s Messi.
‘The only thing I said as soon as I joined the national team was that he had to be left in peace,’ explains Alejandro Sabella in the book El distinto. ‘He once missed a penalty and it was as if an asteroid had struck the earth. Please! Then they started, what if he’s depressed, what’s happening to Messi … It turns out that he scored five goals in the following two matches. We have to understand that Messi is a human being.’
Sabella needed Pep Guardiola’s advice: ‘Protect him with players who make his job simpler.’ And make him feel loved, he added. With that in mind, the new coach flew to Barcelona to give Messi the captaincy.
Javier Mascherano: I was the captain and the one who gave it to him. I spoke to him here, at the Barcelona training ground. I told him that I would no longer be captain. Obviously I had not spoken to the coach yet, but I told him that it would no longer be me. I felt that he had to be the captain, because of everything he represented for us. I had already thought about it before. I wanted to do it before the Copa América. Well, it didn’t happen, and … a moment arrived when I said to him: ‘Look, Leo, you have to be the
captain for me. I think the best person who represents all of us here is you.’
Guillem Balague: When exactly was that?
Javier Mascherano: In 2011, after the Copa América. Obviously there is a new coach and he chooses. After that, Sabella also said: ‘I want Leo to be the captain …’ And he asked him and obviously he accepted.
Guillem Balague: And what did Leo say when you told him?
Javier Mascherano: He didn’t want to at the time. He was saying: ‘No! How? You are the captain! …’ And I was saying to him: ‘No, Leo, it has to be you. The one who represents us in the best way is you, and I don’t think anyone is giving you a gift here. It is right for it to be you.’
Captaincy suited Leo down to the ground, it filled him with serenity. Well, that is if you ignore his first talk – or, if the one off against Greece in the 2010 World Cup is counted, the second one, too. ‘He told me the other day,’ explains Gerard Piqué, ‘that in Argentina they have a tradition of captains giving speeches before each match. When he was given the armband and it was his turn to give one, he arrived and said: “there is no speech today. Come on, let’s get on the pitch!” That in his first match as captain!’
But he gradually adapted to the responsibilities of the role, including what were for him the least attractive ones. ‘At the beginning he would speak to us on a more individual basis,’ recounts Pablo Zabaleta. ‘But now he says: “This is Argentina, let’s go for it from the start, remember the importance to the country” … General and group things, with some individual instructions. He has taken on the role.’ And Pablo stopped giving him tips as he had as a youngster: this Messi was in another dimension.
‘They aren’t tactical things, that’s what the coach’s talks in the hotel are for,’ explains Oscar Ustari. ‘When we come back in from the warm-up, we get changed, we all shout, we call out a few things (come on lads, we are Argentina, we are going to win!). Then Leo rounds us up in a circle just before we go back out. And he calms us down, or he speaks about the team, the fans who have come to see us. He might say something else in the tunnel. And at half-time, he is doing his boots up, you can hear him going round saying: “we’re going to continue in the same way, we are doing well …”’
Messi Page 70
