Every few years Europe’s superclubs have to engage in a crapshoot. They will buy some superstars, put them into a biodome with their existing superstars, shake the tin, and let the contents fall.
They then hope and pray that these players all magically learn to gel with and understand each other’s game. Preferably immediately.
It often works because these superstars, after all, are the very top of their profession. Random names suddenly become the new X-combination. Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo became telepathic buds in 2007. Ronaldo and Mesut Özil were part of a completely new experiment with Jose Mourinho’s original Real Madrid in 2010 and immediately ‘got’ each other.
This year Barcelona have thrown three disparate South American forwards into the same team and hit the jackpot. In the manner described in the first paragraph, they fluked upon one of the greatest forward-line combinations of all time, which has immediately revived a stagnant club.
Neymar and Messi did not particularly work fantastically together last season. The answer seems to be this season’s addition of Luis Suarez, the oil to the axles. He often drops deeper into midfield than the other two despite the idea that he is Barca’s centre-forward. He often sets up tap-ins for Neymar, or finishes from Messi passes.
Due to Suarez, Messi has consequently ditched the centre-forward position in which he became a record breaker and gone back to his original right-wing.
The trio have changed Barcelona’s culture. From 2009-14 Barca had a Spanish, midfield-based axis. This year Xavi, Barcelona’s old soul, has been phased out and replaced in midfield by Croat Ivan Rakitic. Barcelona now more resemble Real Madrid, driven by foreigners and with greater focus on getting the ball to the forwards quickly and letting them do their thing, rather than the old classic Barcelona midfield ball circulation.
So who are these three who have turned themselves into the focus of Barcelona’s entire gameplay?
Neymar is a clichéd electric Brazilian forward that Brazil used to produce at will, until their production line unexpectedly ended and Neymar became the Last of the Mohicans.
Neymar is younger than the other two and this is only his second year in Europe. Consequently he lacks Suarez and Messi’s game smarts and sometimes can’t influence matches as much as he’d like, though when he is set through on goal he is infallible as a finisher. He dribbles and runs at defenders and is often the highest man forward for Barca while Suarez and Messi drop deeper.
He seems a very fun guy and the cliché about Neymar is that he is very commercial-oriented. He is not a difficult person but in many ways he is a parody of Gen Y-ness. He has floppy dyed blond hair and a semi-outlandish dress sense off the field. His old dancey goal celebrations gave him an air of football being one of many diversions and his many TV ads even more so.
The scandal about Neymar’s transfer to Barca from South America involving kickbacks to Neymar’s dad brought down the previous Barcelona president.
This is Luis Suarez’s first year at Barcelona. Although he has been an up-and coming star for at least six years, this is his first year competing in Europe for a superclub.
It’s primarily due to Suarez that the front three exists. His multifaceted positioning means he has worked out how to play with Neymar (dribble through and slip it to Neymar for a shot) and Messi (swap positions with him at times) and connects the two of them. Suarez is a surprisingly intricate dribbler, a prolific supplier of assists and also an excellent finisher.
He and Rakitic have made Barcelona a brand new team again. But it was Barca’s purchase of Suarez that showed they were no longer the special, intricate home-grown jewel and now just another team looking for the best purchase.
Internationally Suarez is responsible for the two most controversial moments of the last two World Cups. In 2010 for Uruguay he stopped a last-minute winning goal for Ghana with his hands, effectively allowing Uruguay to cheat to the semi-final.
Then in 2014 he bit future Juventus opponent Giorgio Chiellini and was banned for months afterward. He has provoked scandal after scandal and, with respect, probably has something of a screw loose.
Lionel Messi’s intelligence, positioning, passing, shooting, calmness and consistency make him the greatest player since fellow Argentine Diego Maradona in the 1980s.
Messi is so flexible that he has been a lynchpin of three classic Barcelona forward trios, arguably inventing the concept back when attacking tactics took a backseat to defensive structures. In 2009 he played on the right while Samuel Eto’o scored in the middle and Thierry Henry became the left-forward. By 2011 he was the master, in the middle and supported by Spanish wing-forwards David Villa and Pedro.
The main idea I can give about Messi’s greatness as a football player is that he can come up with plays you’ve never imagined happening, in the tightest, most important of circumstances.
His flicked goal against Arsenal in 2011 and Maradona dribble against Real Madrid the same year, his no-space shot from distance against Milan in 2013, and his two sudden dagger goals against Bayern Munich a month ago were all extraordinary moments in which he broke a crucial, taut 0-0 situation with a completely original way of playing the game.
People want him to win a World Cup for Argentina in the same transcendent way Diego Maradona did in 1986. But his main chance, 2014, happened when he was slightly injured, slightly tired, slightly out of form. He missed a shot in the 2014 final by about 50 centimetres, Germany won, and Messi will seemingly have to take the loss to his grave.
Unlike the others, Messi has no skeletons in the closet. There is nothing to remark on other than his goals, at all.
Marty Gleason has reviewed each football season from 1998 to 2014 at martygleason.wordpress.com
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