"Flick is much closer to Barça tradition than Xavi."

BarcelonaFootball never tires of demonstrating that it encompasses politics, economics, and social issues, and that it is capable of changing the mood of a given society. For better or for worse. However, there are still many individuals who tend to look down on the followers of this sport with moral superiority, reducing it to 22 men or women running after a ball and to the expression "bread and circuses." This other part is also true, but it is only one aspect of the complexity of a game that, for example, has strong ties to philosophy. Former Olympic athlete Martí Perarnau (Barcelona, 1955), a specialist in the analysis of football from all its aspects, argues this in the book Football and its philosophy (Roca Editorial).

The ARA conversation with Perarnau takes place with Barça's comeback against Madrid still fresh in my mind"Apart from the time difference, this match reminded me of Guardiola's 6-2 win over Barça at the Bernabéu," explains Perarnau. "There were moments when Barça dominated the ball, and other moments when it was clearly direct. The plays by Lamine Yamal and Raphinha in this Clásico reminded me of Henry's goal at the Bernabéu," he believes. "Flick's team is much closer to Barça's tradition than Xavi's. Last year's team didn't look much like the style of play we consider Barça's identity. Flick's style of play is very similar to Barça's traditional style, but it has two very different dynamics."

What are these dynamics? "There are periods of positional play, when a lot of passes accumulate and the game is controlled from the ball, one of the very clear characteristic features of Barça's game, and then there is a dynamic within the same matches of vertical play, taking advantage of the spaces behind the opponent when they come out to press. Both ways of playing are very characteristic of Barça. With Johan, Rijkaard, Pep, Tito, and Luis Enrique. Xavi's Barça, on the other hand, did not master these two aspects well."

Flick's naturalness

Football and its philosophy It's divided into thirty chapters that begin with a philosophical quote from a football figure. One of them is "A coach who doesn't know how to excite or be moved doesn't know how to win," said Manuel Sérgio, a Portuguese philosopher who was vice president of Os Belenenses. "The emotional factor seems 100 times more important to me than the physical in elite sport. Regarding Flick, I would highlight above all that he has a very rarely seen emotion: naturalness. I have the feeling that one of the things he has contributed most, putting aside his own game, is his naturalness in decision-making of any kind. It's an emotion that is the foundation of this team's success." This, according to Perarnau, has led the players to see in Flick someone they can trust. "From there, a trust grows and a belief that what he tells me is not done with ulterior motives. Therefore, I place my immediate destiny in his hands."

Another phrase from Football and its philosophy It's from the Basque coach Xabier Azkargorta: "You play the way you live." Flick's Barça is a team made up of extremely young players who constantly play on the edge. "This Barça is an absolutely daring team that has no fear. For me, it's the team without fear because nothing has happened to it yet that would have scared it. The character and personality of the youngsters overcome any fear that the older players might have," he analyzes. Against Madrid, with a 4-2 scoreline, Barça still had their defensive line in the middle of the field, which led to the 4-3. "The age of the players is generating this way of playing. When they get older, it will happen to them like it does to everyone when we get older. I've achieved a certain amount of wealth, I'll see how to protect it. But they still don't have enough. The way they play is influenced by their personality," he affirms. And he gives some advice: "You have to really enjoy the present and the coming years because it's a very historic moment in which very young, very good, very daring people come together, without fear and eager to build their own lives as footballers."

Madrid's problem

One of the most pointed out in Sunday's classic was Carlo Ancelotti, who has already signed with the Brazilian national team and will leave Madrid when the League ends. In Football and its philosophy There's also a quote from the Italian, whom Perarnau considers a textbook Taoist: "There are two types of coaches: those who do nothing and those who do a lot of damage." Perarnau believes that Ancelotti at Madrid "has done a good job doing what he knows how to do, letting talent emerge spontaneously and without forcing it." But he clarifies: "Probably, he did it because if he had wanted to intervene too much, he would have caused quite a few conflicts in a dressing room with a lot of egos. And this year the structural deficiencies of the game have been more important than ego management."

Is Mbappé to blame for these structural deficiencies? "More than Mbappé's arrival, it's Kroos's departure that definitively breaks the team," Perarnau responds. "My theory is that every great team needs three types of players: the star, the structural player, and the lifeline. Barça has Lamine Yamal as its star player, Pedri as its structural player, and the center-backs as its lifeline. Madrid, on the other hand, is currently lacking the structural player who gives the team its personality. If you're missing him, the team loses its identity. The team no longer has the ability to change from one way of playing to another." And this beardless Barça ends up running you over four times in one season.