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Liverpool Football Club: England’s answer to Barcelona?.....RAFAS WISDOM!
By Raffael Fernandes twitter: @IAmRaffael
Okay - before you stop doing whatever it was you were doing to fall off your chair in fits of laughter at the title of this article, I have a confession to make:
As a passionate Liverpool fan I have in the past been accused by friends of being outrageously biased towards my beloved team – overhyping our chances, exaggerating our achievements, and basically defending any action of any manager and player wearing the famous red shirt – something I vehemently deny!
So when comparing today’s Liverpool team to that of the modern-day Barcelona, who are still fresh from their Champions League final mauling of Manchester United – I instantly knew I’d be setting myself up for extreme derision and abuse. Surely this is just another outlandish claim from a typically blinkered Liverpool fan.
How can Liverpool, who finished 6th and 7th in the last two premiership seasons, were on the brink of administration and aren’t even close to be being the best team in England, be compared to a Barcelona team who have just won La Liga, the Champions League and arguably elevated themselves to the mantle of best club team ever?
Well, the answer is they can’t. Even the most deluded fan would feel silly making such a comparison… but is there even a tiny grain of truth in that opening statement after all?
The similarities may surprise you…
Barcelona’s success is undoubtedly based on three key factors:
Footballing philosophy/playing style - quick, attractive, (and most importantly: Arsenal fans) effective passing and possession-based football (the term coined in Spain as “Tiki-Taka”)
Continual Academy to 1st team player development - from Under 8’s entry into the academy through to graduation into the 1st team - players are always coached along same playing style and principles at every level of their development
Strong local/Spanish core - Prioritization of players who know the style and culture of the domestic league and have played there since they were kids
When you look at these factors combined, it’s quite easy to see how the model facilitates success on the pitch. It doesn’t guarantee it – but certainly goes a long way towards facilitating it. Apparently an astounding 21 of Barcelona’s 32 man 1st team squad are academy products – and 9 out of their 11 regular 1st team starters are. In world football this is unrivalled.
Players like Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Busquets, Puyol, Pique and Valdez etc… have been playing with each other since they were 11 years old, with the same style of play they do today. When they graduated from the Under 11’s they went into the Under 12’s, again with the same playing style and team mates around them, and so their development continued. Over the next eight years, they’d progress together through the youth teams, reserves and eventually into the first team – continuing to develop their game, constantly applying the same principles they have for their entire footballing lives. And as a result their understanding of each others’ games and their camaraderie also grew stronger and stronger.
In an era when all too many leading professional football clubs favor the “quick fix” approach to squad-building – buying in established players at sometimes huge expense from rival teams – the philosophy of Barcelona can sometimes seems like the rationale of a bygone age. While other sides spend their cash in an effort to secure the best players, Barcelona continue to place heavy emphasis on a development program which has succeeded in carrying a remarkable number of boyhood talents all the way to the Barcelona first team and beyond.
It’s a no brainer that the “telepathy” and “understanding” that commentators drool over when witnessing Barcelona in full flow is simply a product of the players having played together for a longer period than any of their opponents have played with each other. Yes – they are all selected as technically gifted players at the outset, but the resulting teamwork and understanding that is borne out of that continual development from a young age is something that can never be substituted by big money transfers.
Of course, in recent seasons Barcelona have gone out and spent huge money on players too – but since their academy project came to fruition, this has been the exception rather than the norm. Most teams are made up of 90% transferred players and maybe 10% academy, whereas Barcelona’s team is 90% academy and only 10% transfer.
That means they also have the luxury of spending their entire transfer budgets on 1 or 2 top quality signings (like David Villa) rather than across multiple lesser signings, and having to build a team mostly through transfer activity.
Is there a single club in the world that has seen through an academy project this effectively? NO
Is it a coincidence that the club that has done so is dominating it’s domestic league and the Champions League? In my opinion, No Way!
If you look at some of the greatest club teams ever to have played the game, teams which created “football dynasties” and dominated for a generation, you’ll see there is an obvious common trend: Barcelona 00’s, Manchester United 90’s & 00’s, AC Milan 90’s, Liverpool 70’s & 80’s, Ajax 60’s & 70’s, Bayern Munich 70’s, Real Madrid 50’s & 60’s.
Did you spot it? They were all built on a core of local players who progressed through the academy and reserve ranks into the 1st team and went on to form the nucleus of an all-beating team for almost the entirety of their playing careers with those clubs – the Maldini’s and Baresi’s, the Giggs’ and Scholes’, the Xavi’s and Messi’s, the Dalglish’s and Hansen’s etc…
So what does this tell us?
It clearly shows the benefits of the academy model over those of the transfer market model in achieving long term, sustained success. It seems that teams borne out of the academy model reach heights that transfer market model teams never truly can - at least not for a sustained period – and they do so for the basic reasons that they have played together, longer in the same way. Although it may not occur to us immediately, when you actually break it down it’s not rocket science!
A band of 10 musicians that have played together for 20 years are more likely to be “on song” than a mish-mash of musicians who have only played together for 2 years, aren’t they? Why are these “artists” we call footballers any different then?
Instant gratification has become a curse of the modern age. A sudden influx of vast amounts of cash into football in the early 90’s from SKY TV allowed clubs to spend their new-earned wealth on expensive foreign exports. In the early stages clubs could combine the best of home grown with the best of foreign imports. But very soon shopping abroad became the norm – often at the expense of young, home grown talent. Why spend precious time developing a young English player from the reserves when you can buy a ready-made top foreign player who can slot straight in to the 1st team? Worryingly it wasn’t just first teams filled with foreign players, but often full squads and reserve teams too.
Increased competition and ever increasing pressure on managers to deliver results in the short term meant that the focus shifted from long-term planning (academy) to short term planning (transfer market). The fact that foreign players could be picked up at half the price of their British equivalents didn’t help either.
The “Cash is king” culture spearheaded by teams like Chelsea, Man City and Real Madrid are examples of the transfer market model in its full force. Football became less a competition of sporting development, and more a competition of cheque books.
So whilst these clubs were eating out at expensive restaurants every night, Barcelona were making a tastier, cheaper and more satisfying home-cooked meal from the ingredients they already had in their larder… I know which one I prefer.
The New Boot Room
In 2007, Liverpool’s then manager, Rafa Benitez, made perhaps 2 of the most important signings of his career. No – not Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina, but Pep Segura and Rodolpho Borrell. Who?!
Yes, these are the two men who have been heading up Liverpool’s Academy and technical development program for the past 4 years – and were poached from none other than… Barcelona. Yes, these are the men who recruited and coached Iniesta, Messi, Xavi, Pique, Busquets, Pedro, Valdez, Fabregas etc… through the Barcelona youth ranks. But they didn’t just coach them, they were integral directors in Barcelona’s whole academy project that we see coming to fruition so beautifully today.
Messi even went so far as calling these guys “second fathers” to him, when he was a young boy living thousands of miles away from his native Argentina, and credits them with turning him into the player he is today. To say that these two men are world-leaders in football academy and player development is an understatement.
This season, under Dalglish’s stewardship, we have seen academy graduates like Martin Kelly (20), Jay Spearing (22), Jack Robinson (17) and John Flanagan (18) turn in some remarkably assured performances against top drawer teams like Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea – but there’s more to follow…
Liverpool’s academy is now brimming with more young players, who are representing England at Under 15 to Under 19 level, than any other club in the country, and recent 1st team squad additions such as Andy Carroll (21), Jonjo Shelvey (19) and Jordan Henderson (20) are supplementing academy talent with the “best of home grown” talent very nicely. In addition to that, another 4-5 academy players are already being primed to break into the full Liverpool squad in the next 2 seasons (Raheem Sterling, Conor Coady, Andre Wisdom, Suso and Adam Morgan)
And with the majority of Liverpool’s 2011 summer transfer targets being British players (Connor Wickham, Scott Dann, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing) – it’s clear to see the change in recruitment philosophy under the new owners and Dalglish. The emphasis is now on producing a conveyor belt of academy talent, supplemented with the best young British players and a sprinkling of world-class foreigners (e.g. Luis Suarez).
Slowly Liverpool is going back to becoming an “English” team – but not just an English team, but a team full of some of England’s most promising young players. If these players can grow and develop together for the next decade, we could see a similar phenomenon to “Fergie’s fledglings” back in the early 90’s – and we all know what they went on to achieve!
Sound familiar? To call it a carbon copy of the Barcelona model would be true to an extent – but slightly unfair, given that Liverpool themselves had implemented this model with enormous success themselves in the past – so it’s equally fair to call it a return to the old boot room values that served the club so well for so many years.
Of course it’s very easy to get excited about young players (and as you can see I am) but for the most part I have to hold my hands up and say they are all still relatively unproven.
It’s unlikely they will all go on to become top international players, but one thing is for certain – in the next 10 years Liverpool will be producing a lot of very good young players for the English national team (just as Barcelona have for Spain) – and that can only be a good thing.
Still not convinced? As if on cue, a certain Pep Guardiola was only last week quoted on a Catalan radio station as saying:
“The academy of Liverpool is the only one that can compare to La Masia of Barcelona FC...If they can manage those lads, then maybe 20 star players can arrive from that academy”
As a product of La Masia himself, and now manager of the greatest team of La Masia graduates – I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt!
By Raffael Fernandes twitter: @IAmRaffael
Okay - before you stop doing whatever it was you were doing to fall off your chair in fits of laughter at the title of this article, I have a confession to make:
As a passionate Liverpool fan I have in the past been accused by friends of being outrageously biased towards my beloved team – overhyping our chances, exaggerating our achievements, and basically defending any action of any manager and player wearing the famous red shirt – something I vehemently deny!
So when comparing today’s Liverpool team to that of the modern-day Barcelona, who are still fresh from their Champions League final mauling of Manchester United – I instantly knew I’d be setting myself up for extreme derision and abuse. Surely this is just another outlandish claim from a typically blinkered Liverpool fan.
How can Liverpool, who finished 6th and 7th in the last two premiership seasons, were on the brink of administration and aren’t even close to be being the best team in England, be compared to a Barcelona team who have just won La Liga, the Champions League and arguably elevated themselves to the mantle of best club team ever?
Well, the answer is they can’t. Even the most deluded fan would feel silly making such a comparison… but is there even a tiny grain of truth in that opening statement after all?
The similarities may surprise you…
Barcelona’s success is undoubtedly based on three key factors:
Footballing philosophy/playing style - quick, attractive, (and most importantly: Arsenal fans) effective passing and possession-based football (the term coined in Spain as “Tiki-Taka”)
Continual Academy to 1st team player development - from Under 8’s entry into the academy through to graduation into the 1st team - players are always coached along same playing style and principles at every level of their development
Strong local/Spanish core - Prioritization of players who know the style and culture of the domestic league and have played there since they were kids
When you look at these factors combined, it’s quite easy to see how the model facilitates success on the pitch. It doesn’t guarantee it – but certainly goes a long way towards facilitating it. Apparently an astounding 21 of Barcelona’s 32 man 1st team squad are academy products – and 9 out of their 11 regular 1st team starters are. In world football this is unrivalled.
Players like Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Busquets, Puyol, Pique and Valdez etc… have been playing with each other since they were 11 years old, with the same style of play they do today. When they graduated from the Under 11’s they went into the Under 12’s, again with the same playing style and team mates around them, and so their development continued. Over the next eight years, they’d progress together through the youth teams, reserves and eventually into the first team – continuing to develop their game, constantly applying the same principles they have for their entire footballing lives. And as a result their understanding of each others’ games and their camaraderie also grew stronger and stronger.
In an era when all too many leading professional football clubs favor the “quick fix” approach to squad-building – buying in established players at sometimes huge expense from rival teams – the philosophy of Barcelona can sometimes seems like the rationale of a bygone age. While other sides spend their cash in an effort to secure the best players, Barcelona continue to place heavy emphasis on a development program which has succeeded in carrying a remarkable number of boyhood talents all the way to the Barcelona first team and beyond.
It’s a no brainer that the “telepathy” and “understanding” that commentators drool over when witnessing Barcelona in full flow is simply a product of the players having played together for a longer period than any of their opponents have played with each other. Yes – they are all selected as technically gifted players at the outset, but the resulting teamwork and understanding that is borne out of that continual development from a young age is something that can never be substituted by big money transfers.
Of course, in recent seasons Barcelona have gone out and spent huge money on players too – but since their academy project came to fruition, this has been the exception rather than the norm. Most teams are made up of 90% transferred players and maybe 10% academy, whereas Barcelona’s team is 90% academy and only 10% transfer.
That means they also have the luxury of spending their entire transfer budgets on 1 or 2 top quality signings (like David Villa) rather than across multiple lesser signings, and having to build a team mostly through transfer activity.
Is there a single club in the world that has seen through an academy project this effectively? NO
Is it a coincidence that the club that has done so is dominating it’s domestic league and the Champions League? In my opinion, No Way!
If you look at some of the greatest club teams ever to have played the game, teams which created “football dynasties” and dominated for a generation, you’ll see there is an obvious common trend: Barcelona 00’s, Manchester United 90’s & 00’s, AC Milan 90’s, Liverpool 70’s & 80’s, Ajax 60’s & 70’s, Bayern Munich 70’s, Real Madrid 50’s & 60’s.
Did you spot it? They were all built on a core of local players who progressed through the academy and reserve ranks into the 1st team and went on to form the nucleus of an all-beating team for almost the entirety of their playing careers with those clubs – the Maldini’s and Baresi’s, the Giggs’ and Scholes’, the Xavi’s and Messi’s, the Dalglish’s and Hansen’s etc…
So what does this tell us?
It clearly shows the benefits of the academy model over those of the transfer market model in achieving long term, sustained success. It seems that teams borne out of the academy model reach heights that transfer market model teams never truly can - at least not for a sustained period – and they do so for the basic reasons that they have played together, longer in the same way. Although it may not occur to us immediately, when you actually break it down it’s not rocket science!
A band of 10 musicians that have played together for 20 years are more likely to be “on song” than a mish-mash of musicians who have only played together for 2 years, aren’t they? Why are these “artists” we call footballers any different then?
Instant gratification has become a curse of the modern age. A sudden influx of vast amounts of cash into football in the early 90’s from SKY TV allowed clubs to spend their new-earned wealth on expensive foreign exports. In the early stages clubs could combine the best of home grown with the best of foreign imports. But very soon shopping abroad became the norm – often at the expense of young, home grown talent. Why spend precious time developing a young English player from the reserves when you can buy a ready-made top foreign player who can slot straight in to the 1st team? Worryingly it wasn’t just first teams filled with foreign players, but often full squads and reserve teams too.
Increased competition and ever increasing pressure on managers to deliver results in the short term meant that the focus shifted from long-term planning (academy) to short term planning (transfer market). The fact that foreign players could be picked up at half the price of their British equivalents didn’t help either.
The “Cash is king” culture spearheaded by teams like Chelsea, Man City and Real Madrid are examples of the transfer market model in its full force. Football became less a competition of sporting development, and more a competition of cheque books.
So whilst these clubs were eating out at expensive restaurants every night, Barcelona were making a tastier, cheaper and more satisfying home-cooked meal from the ingredients they already had in their larder… I know which one I prefer.
The New Boot Room
In 2007, Liverpool’s then manager, Rafa Benitez, made perhaps 2 of the most important signings of his career. No – not Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina, but Pep Segura and Rodolpho Borrell. Who?!
Yes, these are the two men who have been heading up Liverpool’s Academy and technical development program for the past 4 years – and were poached from none other than… Barcelona. Yes, these are the men who recruited and coached Iniesta, Messi, Xavi, Pique, Busquets, Pedro, Valdez, Fabregas etc… through the Barcelona youth ranks. But they didn’t just coach them, they were integral directors in Barcelona’s whole academy project that we see coming to fruition so beautifully today.
Messi even went so far as calling these guys “second fathers” to him, when he was a young boy living thousands of miles away from his native Argentina, and credits them with turning him into the player he is today. To say that these two men are world-leaders in football academy and player development is an understatement.
This season, under Dalglish’s stewardship, we have seen academy graduates like Martin Kelly (20), Jay Spearing (22), Jack Robinson (17) and John Flanagan (18) turn in some remarkably assured performances against top drawer teams like Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea – but there’s more to follow…
Liverpool’s academy is now brimming with more young players, who are representing England at Under 15 to Under 19 level, than any other club in the country, and recent 1st team squad additions such as Andy Carroll (21), Jonjo Shelvey (19) and Jordan Henderson (20) are supplementing academy talent with the “best of home grown” talent very nicely. In addition to that, another 4-5 academy players are already being primed to break into the full Liverpool squad in the next 2 seasons (Raheem Sterling, Conor Coady, Andre Wisdom, Suso and Adam Morgan)
And with the majority of Liverpool’s 2011 summer transfer targets being British players (Connor Wickham, Scott Dann, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing) – it’s clear to see the change in recruitment philosophy under the new owners and Dalglish. The emphasis is now on producing a conveyor belt of academy talent, supplemented with the best young British players and a sprinkling of world-class foreigners (e.g. Luis Suarez).
Slowly Liverpool is going back to becoming an “English” team – but not just an English team, but a team full of some of England’s most promising young players. If these players can grow and develop together for the next decade, we could see a similar phenomenon to “Fergie’s fledglings” back in the early 90’s – and we all know what they went on to achieve!
Sound familiar? To call it a carbon copy of the Barcelona model would be true to an extent – but slightly unfair, given that Liverpool themselves had implemented this model with enormous success themselves in the past – so it’s equally fair to call it a return to the old boot room values that served the club so well for so many years.
Of course it’s very easy to get excited about young players (and as you can see I am) but for the most part I have to hold my hands up and say they are all still relatively unproven.
It’s unlikely they will all go on to become top international players, but one thing is for certain – in the next 10 years Liverpool will be producing a lot of very good young players for the English national team (just as Barcelona have for Spain) – and that can only be a good thing.
Still not convinced? As if on cue, a certain Pep Guardiola was only last week quoted on a Catalan radio station as saying:
“The academy of Liverpool is the only one that can compare to La Masia of Barcelona FC...If they can manage those lads, then maybe 20 star players can arrive from that academy”
As a product of La Masia himself, and now manager of the greatest team of La Masia graduates – I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt!
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