With Barcelona in disarray for various reasons ; From bad management in decision making of player purchase or sale to bad financials, FC Barcelona will most likely ride out this year without winning La Liga. There is still the matter of the Champions League with a second leg tie to be played with Napoli after 1-1 draw in Barcelona. However the pressing matter once again revolves around Lionel Messi.
What Messi wants, Messi gets, it has been well known that some players were brought to FC Barcelona at the request of Messi. We are not going to delve too much into the past, except that even the great Zlatan Ibramovic had only one season at FC Barcelona because Messi gave an ultimatum to then manager Pep Guardiola on the position and tactics that should be played which meant Zlatan getting the boot, Guardiola duly obliged with Zlatan still giving interviews about it.
Messi since that time has gone from strength to strength influencing decisions on and off the field, all is well when Messi is in tune with the manager. Looking back Ernesto Valverde should get a medal of honour for winning two La Ligas and one Spanish Super Cup, besides him only Luis Enrique managed to win all before him La Liga, Copa Del Rey, Champions League and the FIFA World Club Cup. After Pep Guardiola, Enrique is Barca royalty. Even Enrique stated that there were issues with Messi and him, but credit to Enriqe he managed to get the best out of Messi and proof is in the pudding with trophies Enrique won with Barcelona. It is now 4 years and 5 if Barcelona do not win the Champions League this year, the last win was in 2015 with Enrique.
Now Barcelona have Quique Setien and clearly Messi is not happy with this appointment, even Setien is not sure how to handle this, in the recent La Liga match between Celta De Vigo and Barcelona, Messi walked away from Assistant Manager Eder Sarabia, while he was still giving instructions, Luis Suarez was even calling out to Messi to come back. Why Setien was not giving the team talk in the first place is puzzling and maybe even he was scared of the wrath of Messi.
Things are not going well and Ronald Koeman might most likely end up managing at Barcelona. If he does, the Dutch man will not take Messi's attitude lying down, the Dutch are also opinionated, but we are getting ahead of ourselves, the question is how do we handle a super player in this digital age?
Is it time to take the cricket approach to football? This does not have to be a rule change in FIFA, but as managerial structures and hierarchy are up to clubs to decide, maybe clubs with super players like Messi need to look at this way of operation.
In Cricket the captain decides the team's batting order, who will bowl each over, and where each fielder
will be positioned. While the captain has the final say, decisions are
often collaborative. A captain's knowledge of the complexities of
cricket strategy and tactics, and shrewdness in the field, may
contribute significantly to the team's success.
The Coach? Gary Kirsten who coached India from 2007 till 2011when India won the World Cup in April of that year has this to say : "You’re looking after contracting, recruitment, the entire coaching
structure, man-management, creating the right environment, scheduling,
rotating players across formats, checking facilities, looking after
relationships with all stakeholders of the team… the list goes on! There
might be a player who calls you in the middle of the night to say: “I
need to get home. My wife hasn’t seen me for three months,” (As reported on Wisden.com).
While this might sound like a typical football managers' job, he is not directly involved in the game management, the game management is still done by the captain in cricket. If this was advocated for football how will it work? Kenny Dalglish did this magnificently for Liverpool when they won the league in 1990 as player-coach, which was popular in the 1980s and before that.
The game however has changed with the load of the manager becoming even more heavy, maybe in the Championship as with Derby County and Wayne Rooney, you ca get away with this, but the big step to Premier League is such a big gap.
In India the cricket management structure has changed with some teams opting with the head of Cricket Management, with Head of Cricket or operations who manages a team of coaches, but again the captain handles the game management and selection of players. Should Barcelona look at the situation this way with Messi? Should it have been done in the past with Messi?
With football it might be a challenge, the training and evolution of each game with each opponent is different and might require a tweak in formations and also interpretation of game plays or videos of opponents and their team itself.
It might require some investment of time for Messi to look at videos, will he be willing to do that? If he is not than if this model is to work, he will need to still work and trust the coaches and if he decides that the input is not viable he can change it and leave the training to the coaches and game plays to them.
This would mean ultimately relegating the role of the manager or coach, it is interesting because the role of coach or manager in cricket is evolving, but still the captain rules the roost in cricket.
Will this model work? It can and I think it should with a club like Barcelona, the fact that Messi has not won a Champions League for 4 years says a lot. During this period Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid notched up three Champions League in a row, Real are the opposite end of it, granted they did have managerial merry go round with managers, but Real Madrid somehow despite having disagreements with past managers like Mourinho, kept it professional and the players made their feelings known only after Mourinho left.
Zidane the current manager, is Real Madrid royalty, no cricket style manager here, but Sergio Ramos did mention to chairman Florentino Perez to bring back Zidane.
Getting back to Messi, though I did mention that the model would work, Messi leads by example, he is not the vocal type of leader in the Roy Keane sense, he needs to give input and articulate well, something he does not have in his tool box.
Messi cannot just sulk and choose a little aspect of the game that he is not satisfied with and decide to sulk, it is a difficult task for Setien and his coaching staff. So even if the cricket model works, Messi would still be a disaster, he needs to work with someone who can be an extension of him and can articulate well, because obviously no matter how great he is, things are not working out at Barcelona.
He should also think about his success at Barcelona, though divine with skill and technique it was done with Xavi, Iniesta and Dani Alves providing the ammunition, they are all now gone. Unlike the great Maradona who pulled a rabbit out of his hat in any club or team, Messi still has failed to deliver at Argentina, Ronaldo is still king in career goals and trophies for club and country.
You would think that Ronaldo would fair well in this cricket style of management, with his energy and drive you can see him at game room watching the video and game analysis and voraciously reading into the stats. Ronaldo has been great for the current model and will be great for the cricket model, Messi should probably learn to have some respect for people and their jobs and if he thinks he can do better, he should stake his claim for the job and ask for it, after all FC Barcelona board have listened to him in almost everything, so if they do believe in him why not give him this job as player coach?
Yes it is a hint of sarcasm there, but you do get my point, verdict ; shut-up and just play Messi and you still can learn a thing or two from Ronaldo.
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