All Leagues, Europe, Features, Ian John, La Liga, Leagues, Regions POSTS

In The Shoes of … Pep Guardiola

Published by Ian John on February 16, 2010

The easiest job in football at the moment? Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola must surely lead the easiest life in football management currently. Or does he? While his Barcelona team may be current Spanish, European and World Champions, the relatively inexperienced manager does have a few decisions to make during the coming weeks and months, some of which are going to be very difficult to answer…

1. SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? – As ridiculous as it may sound, Guardiola has not yet put pen to paper on a contract extension. Of course, most people see this as an act of madness, but I think it is a shrewd move by Guardiola. How can he improve upon last season? In his first season at the helm at the Nou Camp he and his team won EVERY competition that they entered for, crowning themselves the best team in the world without question in the process. In addition to that, Barcelona did it playing some of the most attacking, inventive and brilliant football seen in a long time. This season Barcelona had been unbeaten in La Liga until the past weekend when a massively weakened Barcelona team went down to Atletico Madrid. Guardiola has set the bar at the highest level, he cannot achieve more at Barcelona than what he already has, only do it again and that becomes more and more difficult to do as each game passes. Of course, he will stay, for the time being, but how is he going to surpass last season?

2. THE BARCELONA DEFENCE : Like it or not, even with their full strength defence in place, Barcelona’s back line is still rather fragile. The signing of Pique from Manchester United now looks a master stroke, Puyol still buzzes around the place like an irritating fly and Daniel Alves is a wonderful attacking right back. However defensively Barcelona can be caught out and it is this weakness that is their achilles heel. A much better team than Atletico Madrid would have put Barcelona’s young defence to the sword last weekend and that lack of depth needs to be addressed.

3. THE REAL MADRID RESURGENCE : Florentino Perez’s Galactico Mark II policy will eventually start to bear greater fruit than it has this season and that is going to further add to the pressure on Barcelona and Juan Laporta in particular, to bring in a star name or two to match Madrid’s spending. Already there has been talk of a move for Fabregas (who Madrid also want) and Rooney (who Madrid also want) and if Barcelona lose out to Madrid in the race to sign a Galactico or two, then you can bet the Nou Camp faithful are not going to be pleased by that. Guardiola needs to spend wisely in the market, but unfortunately for him, the players he would consider spending on, are going to cost a staggering amount of money. Money that, in recent times, Barcelona have been loathe to spend.

4. AGEING SQUAD MEMBERS : Does Pep Guardiola cash in on the likes of Thierry Henry, Carlos Puyol, Rafael Marquez, Eric Abidal and even Xavi now, or keep hold of them for a couple more years and see their value plummet due to their age? All of the players listed above are now 30 or above, arguably in their prime. However their value will drastically fall as they reach, 31, 32, 33 and beyond. Are they worth more to the team by having them around for a few more years, or should Guardiola sell his older players while they can still command a considerable fee and replace them with younger players?

5. VICTOR VALDES : ASSET OR LIABILITY? : No doubt many Barcelona fans see Valdes as their version of Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas, a young keeper who broke into the first team when young and stayed at the club ever since. Unfortunately that is where the similarities end. Casillas is widely regarded as the best keeper in the world. Valdes is still prone to occasional mistakes and costly errors. On his day he is a fine keeper, but let us not kid ourselves, he is nowhere near the class of Casillas or indeed of many other keepers plying their trade across the world and his consistency at times is very suspect.

So it isn’t all plain sailing for Pep Guardiola, he has a few decisions to make in the summer and beyond, but it seems for the time being at least, that his Barcelona team will still be a major force in World and European football for many years to come.

Image Courtesy of *** Blog Gallery *** on Flickr.com

Readers Rating: