Incredible Barca
Credit where it is due for Barcelona’s terrific trio
by Gabriele Marcotti
Something unusual happened at the Nou Camp when Recreativo Huelva visited on Saturday. For only the fourth time this season, Barcelona played there with Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry or Samuel Eto’o and none of them scored. (Though, to be fair, it was close: Messi missed a penalty).
One of those three has scored in 83 per cent of Barcelona’s home matches this season. Amazing as that may sound, their performance away from home has been even more impressive: they’ve scored in 91 per cent of the matches when at least one of them has played.
The three have notched a combined 85 goals in Barcelona’s 49 matches in all competitions. Henry has 22 goals in 32 appearances, Eto’o 31 in 39 and Messi 32 in 42. Those are the kind of numbers you ordinarily get on the PlayStation, not in real life.
Just compare them with the front threes of other top European sides. Real Madrid’s trio of Gonzalo Higuain (17), Raúl (20) and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (8) has 45; Inter Milan’s - Zlatan Ibrahimovic (23), Adriano (7) and Mario Balotelli (6) - has 36; while Juventus’s - Alessandro Del Piero (17), Amauri (14) and Vincenzo Iaquinta (11) - has 42. Bayern’s three-some of Miroslav Klose (20), Luca Toni (15) and Franck Ribéry (11) are at 46. As for the English clubs, Liverpool - Steven Gerrard (21), Fernando Torres (14) and Dirk Kuyt (10) - has 45 and Chelsea’s - Nicolas Anelka (21), Frank Lampard (17) and Didier Drogba (10) - has 48.
The closest you get is - perhaps unsurprisingly - Manchester United, where Cristiano Ronaldo has 20, Wayne Rooney 17 and Dimitar Berbatov 13, for a total of 50. But that is way behind Barcelona.
Messi has pulverised his previous best tally for a season, which stood at 17. Eto’o needs two to match his personal best of 33 from the 2005-06 season. Barring a miracle, Henry won’t set a new personal best - he’d need to score 39, like he did for Arsenal in 2003-04 - but odds are that he’ll score more this season than he has in the past three campaigns.
Credit has to go to the three individuals of course, particularly Eto’o and Henry. Because while Messi was universally hailed as a superstar who would only get better, the other two were written off in many quarters last summer. When Arsenal sold Henry to Barcelona for £16 million in 2007, many believed that the Catalan club had been robbed blind. He was soon to turn 30, he was coming off a lacklustre season, his pace was supposedly on the wane and many saw him as a disruptive influence.
Eto’o had been slowed by injuries the previous two seasons (to the point that some suggested he would never again be fully fit), like many African footballers he was plagued by the usual unfounded (and somewhat racist) murmurings about his “real age” (he is 28), and even Josep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach, suggested that he could be “surplus to requirements”. What is more, both were accused of being egomaniacs who could destabilise any dressing-room. So much for conventional wisdom.
The trio are helped tremendously by Barcelona’s attacking ethos and supporting cast: with Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Daniel Alves providing service, you are bound to get plenty of chances. But all three forwards have shown themselves to be incredibly unselfish as well, disregarding their own numbers and working hard to create opportunities for each other.
It’s also curious to note that, while they are all prolific, none of them is a traditional centre forward. They’re not particularly threatening in the air, nor are they particularly powerful (Eto’o is probably the strongest of the three and he’s hardly a giant). In fact, what defines them most, apart from their technical ability, is their continuous and intelligent movement. They drop back, they go wide, they switch positions, they befuddle opponents with an almost telepathic knowledge of where the other two are. Barcelona may go on to complete a La Liga and Champions League double. But even if they don’t, the achievements of these three men - who, between them, will likely go on to score more than 100 goals this year - deserve to take their place in history.
And while with Messi we know that the best is yet to come, as a neutral, when it comes to Eto’o and Henry you can’t help but cheer them on while admiring the guts and professionalism that, once again, has confounded the critics. They deserve this.
And another thing... Was Zidane correct about Gerrard, or misguided?
Zinédine Zidane received lots of attention a few weeks ago when he suggested that Steven Gerrard “just might be” the best player in the world. It’s an entirely legitimate viewpoint. What is curious, however, was the second part of his statement, which went largely unreported. “If you don’t have a player like Steven Gerrard, who is the engine room, it can affect the whole team,” he said. “When we were winning league titles and European Cups at Real [Madrid], I always said Claude Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself, [LuÍs] Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard. When Claude left us for Chelsea I campaigned for us to buy Patrick Vieira and Gerrard is now in the same mould as him.”
As I read this - and heck, I could be wrong - Zidane compares Gerrard with Makelele and Vieira. It’s not an insult, both are outstanding, but surely Gerrard plays in an entirely different position (and has done for the past few seasons). If you were to compare a Liverpool player with Makelele, surely it would be Javier Mascherano or Xabi Alonso, no? You can’t help but come away thinking that Zidane has seen very little of Gerrard recently and possibly is unaware that the Liverpool captain now plays as a second striker in a virtual free role, something that Vieira and Makelele never did. Which begs the question: does the fact that you were one of the greatest players in the history of the game automatically mean that your opinion should make headlines when determining who is the best in the world right now?
by Gabriele Marcotti
Something unusual happened at the Nou Camp when Recreativo Huelva visited on Saturday. For only the fourth time this season, Barcelona played there with Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry or Samuel Eto’o and none of them scored. (Though, to be fair, it was close: Messi missed a penalty).
One of those three has scored in 83 per cent of Barcelona’s home matches this season. Amazing as that may sound, their performance away from home has been even more impressive: they’ve scored in 91 per cent of the matches when at least one of them has played.
The three have notched a combined 85 goals in Barcelona’s 49 matches in all competitions. Henry has 22 goals in 32 appearances, Eto’o 31 in 39 and Messi 32 in 42. Those are the kind of numbers you ordinarily get on the PlayStation, not in real life.
Just compare them with the front threes of other top European sides. Real Madrid’s trio of Gonzalo Higuain (17), Raúl (20) and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (8) has 45; Inter Milan’s - Zlatan Ibrahimovic (23), Adriano (7) and Mario Balotelli (6) - has 36; while Juventus’s - Alessandro Del Piero (17), Amauri (14) and Vincenzo Iaquinta (11) - has 42. Bayern’s three-some of Miroslav Klose (20), Luca Toni (15) and Franck Ribéry (11) are at 46. As for the English clubs, Liverpool - Steven Gerrard (21), Fernando Torres (14) and Dirk Kuyt (10) - has 45 and Chelsea’s - Nicolas Anelka (21), Frank Lampard (17) and Didier Drogba (10) - has 48.
The closest you get is - perhaps unsurprisingly - Manchester United, where Cristiano Ronaldo has 20, Wayne Rooney 17 and Dimitar Berbatov 13, for a total of 50. But that is way behind Barcelona.
Messi has pulverised his previous best tally for a season, which stood at 17. Eto’o needs two to match his personal best of 33 from the 2005-06 season. Barring a miracle, Henry won’t set a new personal best - he’d need to score 39, like he did for Arsenal in 2003-04 - but odds are that he’ll score more this season than he has in the past three campaigns.
Credit has to go to the three individuals of course, particularly Eto’o and Henry. Because while Messi was universally hailed as a superstar who would only get better, the other two were written off in many quarters last summer. When Arsenal sold Henry to Barcelona for £16 million in 2007, many believed that the Catalan club had been robbed blind. He was soon to turn 30, he was coming off a lacklustre season, his pace was supposedly on the wane and many saw him as a disruptive influence.
Eto’o had been slowed by injuries the previous two seasons (to the point that some suggested he would never again be fully fit), like many African footballers he was plagued by the usual unfounded (and somewhat racist) murmurings about his “real age” (he is 28), and even Josep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach, suggested that he could be “surplus to requirements”. What is more, both were accused of being egomaniacs who could destabilise any dressing-room. So much for conventional wisdom.
The trio are helped tremendously by Barcelona’s attacking ethos and supporting cast: with Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Daniel Alves providing service, you are bound to get plenty of chances. But all three forwards have shown themselves to be incredibly unselfish as well, disregarding their own numbers and working hard to create opportunities for each other.
It’s also curious to note that, while they are all prolific, none of them is a traditional centre forward. They’re not particularly threatening in the air, nor are they particularly powerful (Eto’o is probably the strongest of the three and he’s hardly a giant). In fact, what defines them most, apart from their technical ability, is their continuous and intelligent movement. They drop back, they go wide, they switch positions, they befuddle opponents with an almost telepathic knowledge of where the other two are. Barcelona may go on to complete a La Liga and Champions League double. But even if they don’t, the achievements of these three men - who, between them, will likely go on to score more than 100 goals this year - deserve to take their place in history.
And while with Messi we know that the best is yet to come, as a neutral, when it comes to Eto’o and Henry you can’t help but cheer them on while admiring the guts and professionalism that, once again, has confounded the critics. They deserve this.
And another thing... Was Zidane correct about Gerrard, or misguided?
Zinédine Zidane received lots of attention a few weeks ago when he suggested that Steven Gerrard “just might be” the best player in the world. It’s an entirely legitimate viewpoint. What is curious, however, was the second part of his statement, which went largely unreported. “If you don’t have a player like Steven Gerrard, who is the engine room, it can affect the whole team,” he said. “When we were winning league titles and European Cups at Real [Madrid], I always said Claude Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself, [LuÍs] Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard. When Claude left us for Chelsea I campaigned for us to buy Patrick Vieira and Gerrard is now in the same mould as him.”
As I read this - and heck, I could be wrong - Zidane compares Gerrard with Makelele and Vieira. It’s not an insult, both are outstanding, but surely Gerrard plays in an entirely different position (and has done for the past few seasons). If you were to compare a Liverpool player with Makelele, surely it would be Javier Mascherano or Xabi Alonso, no? You can’t help but come away thinking that Zidane has seen very little of Gerrard recently and possibly is unaware that the Liverpool captain now plays as a second striker in a virtual free role, something that Vieira and Makelele never did. Which begs the question: does the fact that you were one of the greatest players in the history of the game automatically mean that your opinion should make headlines when determining who is the best in the world right now?