As good as it gets?

Barcelona are at the top of their game, but Miguel Delaney finds out why demands on Pep Guardiola will ultimately lead to their downfall

IT’S difficult to appreciate now just how depressing the atmosphere around Barcelona was in the summer of 2008.The side had just finished 18 points behind Real Madrid and ended the season in third without a trophy.

Far from a fearsome team, they were a flabby one. Focal point Ronaldinho endured a miserable last season and there were concerns about whether he would ever recover his fitness. There were similar doubts, however, over whether his successor, Leo Messi, would ever even rise to that level of fitness in the first place, having been injured in each of his previous three seasons.

Most of all though, there were an awful lot of criticisms that the new manager — in his first ever senior job — didn’t have enough experience to coach a club of that size.

What Pep Guardiola did have, however, was hunger and an innate understanding of that club. The effect of that was instant. Barca immediately won Spain’s first treble. After the club sealed a third successive league title and another Champions League final this month to emulate the 1990-94 dream team, Guardiola said they could “never compete” with Johan Cruyff’s side.

But, when looking at the stats, it’s the dream team that don’t compare. Whereas Cruyff’s side won three of their four early ‘90s titles on the last day and in hugely lucky circumstances — missed last-minute penalties and unlikely defeats elsewhere — the current side have positively strode to glory. Repeatedly. The 2010 and 2011 title wins have been secured with the highest points-per-game records in the history of the Spanish league.

It’s also worth noting their Champions League record. They’ve scored almost three goals a game in the knockout stages. They’ve also beaten every single team they’ve faced, other than Chelsea, by two goals or more over 90 minutes — so that’s Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Inter, Real Madrid and, of course, Manchester United. It’s not just Spanish teams they’re dismantling.

But, as much as Guardiola has put into the club in the time since, it has also taken an awful lot out of him. When he let slip to an Italian broadcaster in March that he may move soon, there was widespread criticism he was squandering the chance at creating history. Yet it’s also difficult to appreciate just how much pressure Guardiola puts himself under.

Staff complain he’s often too busy to remember to eat from the tupperware lunches he brings in. And such extremes have led to an unlikely amount of health problems.

The all-or-nothing commitment is just one of many reasons the team have reached so high a level. But it’s also why Barca will struggle to find an effective replacement.

The main reason is that Guardiola is a perfect fit. The La Masia youth system he came through has been showered with praise.

However, the key point is that, with Guardiola in charge, the whole Barcelona structure is almost a perfect footballing pyramid. At present, La Masia produces prototype players that perfectly fit the first team’s approach. The level of cohesion is unparalleled. Barca are almost organic rather than an organisation.

It’s also a circular, self-fulfilling process. The youth teams train to a certain style because of the way Guardiola plays. But Guardiola plays like that because he came through, and presided over, the youth team.

Indeed, it was the under-utilisation of the club’s huge resources that Guardiola realised needed rectifying. Having won a title in typically emphatic fashion with Barcelona’s B team, he noted that the club should never have to sign scores of outside stars again. One or two, yes. But never a glut.

The perfect example is Pedro. He was about to be let go by the club until Guardiola took over the second team. The new coach immediately saw that, although Pedro didn’t have the same talent of his peers, his application was better.

And that’s the second key point of his management: the application of the team as a whole. He has evolved their inherent passing philosophy with a vigorously implemented pressing game. In the rare periods of a match when Barcelona don’t have the ball, they work harder than any team to win it back. But, as natural as it all can look, it’s a consequence of obsessive hours in training. Guardiola’s coaching team divide the pitch into areas, so every player has instructions for specific situations on what do when they have the ball. It adds an under appreciated discipline to their dynamism.

The end result, of course, is a side that play virtually every game on their own terms. Although Guardiola may make minor tactical alterations, the team’s approach never changes. Indeed, for all the goals and glory, perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid is that they have forced every single opposition to adapt their style. Essentially, it’s suicide to go toe to toe with Barcelona.

Not that the team is perfect. A necessity of that pressing game is a high-defensive line that can often be exploited. And it can still take time for even the young players to adapt. But Guardiola has arguably taken them as close to perfection as possible.

Because of the club structure he personifies and the playing approach he has enhanced, this might just be as good as it gets for Barcelona.

It’s going to be hard to find someone who brings all the strands of the club together as startlingly. For that reason, the eventual summer Guardiola leaves might be even more depressing than 2008.