The greatest team of all time. There are several candidates. Several teams that did crazy, crazy things and rightfully deserve to be up there.
As you guys know, I don’t like making sweeping statements like X is definitively the greatest player of all time or Y is outright the greatest team of all time. Football in its modern form is more than 150 years old and there are far too many factors to consider. So, there’s no way you or I could ever legitimately make that kind of statement.
But what I do know is that, for me, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona is probably the greatest team I have personally ever seen. And I know I’m not alone in thinking this.
They won 14 major trophies in the space of just 4 years. They were the first team to ever win 6 major trophies in a single calendar year, which included a treble. They are the only team to house a man that scored 91 goals in a calendar year (It’s literally been 10 years and I still can’t believe that one).
And I don’t have the stats for this one, but I’m fairly certain they are perhaps the only team to overwhelmingly bully big burly men with a group of star players mostly under 5ft7.
Today we’re going to talk about them. The lead up, the glory and the mind games that broke the cycle.
With that being said, how good was Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona?
To build a little bit of context, let’s go ahead and kick this one off in the 90s.
Table of Contents
Cruyff, Dreams and More
Throughout the 90s, Barcelona was transformed from a good team that had won a very respectable number of trophies in their near 100-year history, to a team that frequently gave very many of their opponents nightmares.
Which is ironic, seeing as they were famously named the Dream Team. An ode to the USA national basketball team that dominated the 1992 Summer Olympics, which happened to be held in the city of Barcelona.
Johan Cruyff created an absolute machine with the likes of Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário and perhaps most significantly, La Masia graduate- Pep Guardiola.
But fast forward a decade later and Blaugrana were a shell of what they used to be. Key players left. Most notably, the likes of Ronaldo Nazario, who only spent one year in Catalonia, scoring 47 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions, as a 20-year-old. What?
And Luis figo, who committed the ultimate betrayal, and left the club while he was actively the best player in the world. The club he joined? Real Madrid. Yikes- that is cold. Worse yet, he received his Ballon d’or, which he earned mostly for his time with Barca, while being a Real Madrid player. That is tough.
Coaches left in Sir Bobby Robson, Luis Van Gaal, and of course Johan Cruyff. Club presidents came and left.
Joan Gaspart, who took over in 2000, spent a very forgettable 3 years at the helm before eventually being axed. Even the man himself admits that he was dreadful. A level of self-awareness we rarely see at that level. Good on him.
And much like many of the coaches, players and presidents, silverware also took a leave of absence.
Barca went from winning La Liga 6 times between 1991 to 1999, coupled with their first ever European Cup in 1992, among other accolades, to finishing no higher than 4th between 2001 and 2003.
Further to that, by 2003, the club’s debt levels were fast approaching the region of €200 million, mostly due to fat player wages. And there was no silverware to show for it.
Times were tough and something needed to be done.
Joan Laporta: Change on the Horizon
In 2003, everything drastically changed. Both on and off the pitch. Joan Laporta was put in office as the club president and my man got straight to work. Dutch Legend, Frank Rijkaard came in as manager and over the next two years the team received a massive facelift.
Guys, listen. I can’t understate how insane this makeover was. This was the incoming cast at the onset of the 2003/04 season. Ronaldinho, Quaresma, Rafa Marquez as well as Andres Iniesta and Victor Valdes from La Masia. Sheesh.
One year later, the likes of Deco, Samuel Eto’o and a literal alien from their youth academy. How’ve they managed an intergalactic transfer to get him in La Masia in the first place? Whoever was involved in this is elite.
The result? The glory days came right back.
Back-to-back La Liga titles in 2005 and 2006. And a champions league in the latter year to top it all off. Ronaldinho became the world’s greatest, and even got the Bernabeau to stand up and clap for him after humiliating the Real Madrid defence. This man alone is also responsible for making millions fall in love with the game. Salute, my guy.
Barcelona were back.
For two seasons.
Almost overnight, Barcelona’s fortunes took a sharp left turn.
- Several players were injured during a preseason tour of the USA.
- There was infighting, as Samuel Eto’o publicly criticized Rijkaard and Ronaldinho for claiming he wasn’t fully committed to the cause.
- Ronaldinho was frequently caught showing up to training drunk, presumably from the night before.
- And Real Madrid reclaimed the league’s top spot in 2007 and 2008, leaving their Catalan rivals in the dust. First time around winning on goal difference. Second time, by leaving Barca 18 points adrift. Damn.
Once again, times were tough. And once again, something needed to be done. And quick.
Pep Guardiola: The Chosen One
Which brings us to, in many ways, the subject on this entire story. Pep Guardiola. After injuries and the natural progress of the game lead to his Barcelona exit in 2001, Pep went on a bit of world tour.
From Italy, with Brescia and Roma, to Qatar with Al-Ahli, and then Mexico with Dorados de Sinaloa. Basically, the man was well travelled.
In the time it took Barcelona to go from bad to good to bad again, he had travelled the world and came right back them- this time, as a coach in 2007. The Coach of Barcelona B.
One year later, and It should come as no surprise that Rijkaard’s reign was just about over by 2008, kicking off the search for a new coach.
There were several candidates. Michael Laudrup, another former player. Johan Cruyff, a man familiar with the job. Pep Guardiola himself. And the special one, José Mourinho.
Out of all these candidates, bar Cruyff, who’s wife had vetoed his return in any case, on paper, the choice is obvious, right?
Let’s go over the checklist:
- Won a Champions league with Porto, of all teams? Yep.
- Disrupted Manchester United and Arsenal’s stronghold on the English Premier League? sounds right.
- Is a former Barcelona employee, meaning he was already familiar with the inner workings of the club off pitch?
Ding ding ding, we have a winner, right? (Jose Mourinho)
Not quite.
Laporta and Johan Cruyff were of the opinion that the candidate who only had one year of coaching experience under his belt was the right choice. One year of experience with a reserve team.
Without the privilege of knowing what would happen in the years to come, from the outside looking in, this was a very odd choice. But for some reason, they were adamant.
“If you appoint me as the coach I’ll win everything for you.”- Guardiola reportedly said this to Laporta prior to the final decision being made. And Laporta is clearly a pretty trusting guy, because he believed him.
A decision that would arguably turn out to be the best choice of his presidential tenure.
The Treble Winning Tactics
The 2008/09 season. The treble winning season and the start of greatness.
But, as many people would tell you, greatness often comes at a cost. Sacrifices have to be made.
In this case, Ronaldinho and Deco, among others represented the cost of success. Guardiola had a very specific idea of what his team was and how they would operate. And, in a nutshell, what he required was 100% commitment, with an extremely low tolerance for insubordinate behaviour.
Something which also put Samuel Eto’o in his crosshairs. However, unlike, Deco and Ronaldinho, who were also caught partaking in questionable behaviour, Eto’o was still very much performing. 94 goals in 147 appearances up to then paints a telling picture. Realistically, the man was undroppable. But we’ll circle back to Eto’o in a bit.
Before we go any further, seeing as this was the most successful season in Guardiola’s tenure, trophy wise, it’s only right that we take a brief look at the tactics that were employed by the man to make his team so devastating.
2008/09 Tactics
You already know that regardless of the club, team tactics are generally quite dynamic. That is to say that there is never one tactic that team adopts throughout the season or even within a single isolated match up.
Here, I’ll try to present the setup that was used most often by this incredible team.
First things first, Guardiola’s boys set up in a holding 433.
Now and again, but most notable by 2011, he would also dabble in an attacking 343 to deal with low blocks.
Notably, both of these formations are synonymous with Cruyffian total football. High intensity, high mobility. Take the ball, pass the ball.
“Cruyff built the cathedral; our job is to maintain it.”- I don’t know about you guys, but I think Guardiola was a fan.
Onto personnel, much like Barcelona’s play, which we’ll briefly get into in a bit, let’s start from the back.
Goalkeeper
Victor Valdés was the trusted number one for this entire period in Barca’s history. And for good reason too. Although prone to a mistake here or there and only standing at 6ft (short for a keeper), the man was agile, composed, and most importantly, extremely good on the ball. A characteristic which made him stand out over numerous taller, more agile keepers.
Defence
In central defence, we had the master and the apprentice. Gerard Pique, who graduated from La Masia, left for Manchester United and had only just returned. And the captain, Carles Puyol, who was by this point a grizzled veteran. A passionate, no nonsense, hardworking defender that was ready to do anything for his team.
In Pique, they had not only a 6 ft 4 centre back, but also a makeshift defensive midfielder and striker, in all honesty. The dude went up a lot.
On the left, Eric Abidal was the usual choice. A very versatile Frenchman capable of starting on the left or in the centre if need be.
Dani Alves could be found on the right. Another player in his debut season for Barca. An extremely attacking right back, that has a very strong claim to the title of best right back of his generation. Which is a very fair assessment. The guy absolutely dominated Barca’s right flank for almost a decade. Although, he did have a bit of help on the right. But more on that in a bit.
Central midfield
Now onto the midfield. Yaya Touré and Sergio Busquets shared the central defensive midfielder duties almost equally this season. Touré was a powerful player, who in all honesty was an attack minded player that had been placed in a defensive role. He was incredible in this role and could absolutely do a job there, which is a testament to his versatility, don’t get me wrong. But the holding role didn’t seem to come naturally to him.
Not as much as it did for Sergio Busquets, at least. Believe it or not, he was only 20 years old at the time and this was his first ever season in the Barcelona first team. Due to how important the DM role is, this is a position that is overwhelmingly dominated by players with composure, and experience. He only really had the one, but judging, by how the man played this year and beyond, you’d be pressed to say he wasn’t the full package.
On either side of the DM, were typically Xavi and Iniesta. Both with a strong claim for the title of greatest central midfielder ever. At this point, you guys are probably sensing a bit of a trend with this team. Press resistance, agile, accurate and composed ballers, the both of them. Neither were the strongest of players, nor possessed blistering pace, but when you have the technique and footballing brains they did, does that really matter? The answer is no.
Forwards
On the left was a man that watched Barcelona deprive him of a Champions league medal three years prior and quite literally thought, “screw it. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Thierry Henry.
A silky smooth Frenchman, who was already thought of by many as the greatest Premier League player of all time. This was his second year at Barca, and he didn’t disappoint. 26 in 42 across all competitions shouldn’t surprise you, as he was a natural striker. But he was outputting that while playing on the wing. Not bad.
The guy on the right wasn’t too bad either. Lionel Messi. 21 years old and already the best player in the world. In this season he was a pure inverted winger, sticking to the flank, only drifting infield in the final third, to devastating effect. There really isn’t much else I can say about this guy that would add anything to this break down. 38 goals in 51 games. Pretty good. But rookie numbers compared to what was to come.
And finally, the tip of the spear, Samuel Eto’o. The Cameroonian was proving to those who doubted him (*cough cough Guardiola couch couch*) that he was essentially an untouchable. Despite the controversies, his performances never skipped a beat, as he enjoyed the best year of his career. 36 in 52.
With all the goals in this front three and the aid of the supporting cast, it really is no wonder they were steam rolling the opposition.
General tactics
In possession, the play would routinely start at the feet of Valdés, from which any of the defenders or the DM would receive the ball and take it from there. From then on the option were endless. Off to the fullbacks, who would push forward or more commonly to the CMs, who would create triangles, play their own passing minigames and find space and angles for the attackers.
Guardiola teams are mostly quite similar in that a common feature is that players must always stick to their position in all areas of the pitch, with the only exception being the opposition’s final third.
In defence, they would urgently hassle the opposition and defend very narrow refusing a route through the middle.
Energy was a very important concept. For the most part, this team was not the biggest or strongest. To make up for that, they needed to be extremely deft and energetic in every area of the pitch. And that they were.
Blaugrana: The Greatest Team Ever
Moving onto the treble winning season itself, things didn’t start off too swimmingly. A loss and a draw in the first two matches. But after that, it was full steam ahead. And by matchweek 9, after taking pole position, the season was pretty much a wrap as far as the rest of the league was concerned.
Everyone was getting a pounding, pause. You get a 6-1. You get a 5-0, you get a 4-0. Everybody gets it.
And if you thought Real Madrid were safe in this whole affair: not quite. Barcelona put 8 goals past them in the league this season, with 6 of them being scored at the Bernabeau. Real Madrid only scored 2 in reply. The word humiliation is nowhere near strong enough to describe this sitaution. That one there is a violation. And personally, I wouldn’t allow it.
By the end of it all, the league title was theirs, with a 9-point gap proving the difference. The Copa Del Rey also made it’s way to Camp Nou. And despite what some refer to as uh, a helping hand. The champions league didn’t prove to be much of an issue either.
Manchester United, the reigning champions, realistically never stood a chance. The treble was complete. The first and only Spanish club to ever do it.
The UEFA Super Cup, The Supercopa Despana and the Club World Cup followed suite and for the first time ever, 6 major trophies were won by a single club in a calendar year.
Pep Guardiola’s first year ever as a first team manager. The man was 38!
2009-2011
With the tactics and teams mostly unchanged, the team pushed on. 2 more La Liga titles back-to-back-to-back, and another Champions League in 2011. By the end of the 2010-11 season, Barcelona had won 13 trophies in 3 years. To put this into perspective, up to that point, Guardiola had taken charge of 183 games. This meant that the madman was roughly averaging a trophy every 14 games.
Nah, this guy was actually just playing FIFA career mode in real life.
In addition to that, Spain went ahead and won the World Cup with 7 active Barcelona players starting in the final. And a Barcelona player scored the winner. Spain also won the 2008 Euros and the 2012 Euros.
Oh also, the top 3 players in the 2010 Ballon d’or. Guess who they played for…Talk about domination…
However, back in Catalonia, despite a largely unaltered team between 2009 and 2011, there were a few changes. Most notably the departure of Samuel Eto’o following a heavy falling out with Guardiola. The arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and subsequent departure, following a heavy falling out with Guardiola. And the arrival of David Villa, finally breaking the curse of strikers that do not like this man.
Oh, also- Yaya Toure departed the club… After a heavy falling out with Guardiola. The man is clearly Brilliant, but he sure knows how to make enemies.
Speaking of which, things were going well for Pep and his boys. But if you know absolutely anything about good things, you’re probably well aware that all of them inevitable come to an end. Which brings us to 2012.
José Mourinho: Over the edge
Taking things back a step to 2010, and although life was good, there was a storm brewing in the usually picturesque Catalonia. The wind had a bit more of a bite to it. Slowly, but surely the mood was shifting. Some had their doubts, but there was no mistaking it- hurricane Mourinho was in town.
Having been rejected by Barca initially, he went over Inter, won the 2010 Champions league and now found himself in Madrid. And even, though he had already gotten the better of Guardiola’s Barcelona, in the semi finals of the 2010 CL, the man was out for blood.
However, early on, the execution of this pursuit missed the mark a tad. I say this because in Mourinho’s 3-year tenure, the scoreboard between the two clubs read 7 trophies for Guardiola, vs 3 for Mourinho. The head-to-head between them over the 11 times they faced one another read 5 wins for Barca, 2 wins for Real Madrid and 4 Draws.
Now, I’m not going to go into too much detail over this feud, as I already have done so in the previous video, I’ve done on Mourinho’s Madrid.
But for the sake of this video, all you really need to know about this period of clasicos had arguably the best teams in the world at the time. They had arguably the two greatest player of all time both in their prime. They had two of the best mangers of all time. They were playing in the same league and they did NOT like each other.
The toxicity surrounding all of this, from both sides, could be felt the world over.
It was beautiful.
Anyway, by the end of the 2011/12 season, despite Messi having the greatest singular season of all time (73 in 60 what the fu-), Madrid finally got the best of Barca and pipped them to the league by setting a La Liga points record. 100.
By this point, Guardiola had had enough.
As you can imagine, this entire feud, compounded with all the stresses that come with the Barca hot seat, including constantly adapting to the times was a draining experience. Adding onto that, reports were coming out that Guardiola had fallen out with Club president Sandro Rosell, who had replaced Joan Laporta in 2010.
After 4 years in charge, Guardiola decided he had seen and done all he could.
“ Four years on the Barcelona bench is an eternity. I’m drained and I need to fill up. The demand has been very high, and a manager must be strong. The new coach will give things I’m not able to anymore.”
And just like that- he was gone.
The Aftermath
In the following years, now under Tito Villanova, Barca went on as if nothing had changed. In fact, the year after he left, they equalled Real Madrid’s record-breaking points tally.
Guardiola, on the other hand, took a well-deserved sabbatical, moving over to New York to reset.
A somewhat positive outcome to this story, as almost everyone involved went on to continue their success.
But going back to his time with Blaugrana- this Barcelona team defied logic. They inspired a new generation of budding football enthusiast. They mesmerized the crowd and the opposition with their intricate interplay. They ran themselves into the ground and achieved unprecedented levels of success. And it wouldn’t have been possible without the man of the hour.
“If Pep told me to throw myself off the second tier at the Camp Nou, I’d think: ‘There must be something good down there.” The words of Dani Alves.
This mentality. This trust. This is what made it all possible. A group of players all with otherworldly footballing abilities, all committed to the cause.
I don’t know about you- but I’ll definitely be telling my grandkids about Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.