Santos vs Barcelona, Ganso, Slow Death Of The 10s
If you think about it, it was kind of naive of Santos to have Ganso’s talent as one of their secrets weapons against Barcelona. Not that Barça reached a level where they’re immune to the potential sweet through balls of Ganso, amongst other things. Or that Ganso is not that good. He’s great, one of the best Brazilian youngsters in the last decade, but, as sad as that may sound, he’s just a “classic” #10. You see, the number 10s have become so outdated of modern football that people are already referring to them as “classical”, which in some social circles may sound like “old”.
Sócrates, who unfortunately passed away a couple of weeks ago, once said something like this, “Top level footballers used to run around 5 km during a match two or three decades ago. That’s half of what modern footballers run. Other sports noticed that kind of change and adapted, but football is still trying to do the same nowadays. Football is getting increasingly based on the physical – and tactical – side, and that is killing the technical side.” Sócrates was one of the greatest examples of what you would call a Brazilian number 10, and also a great football philosopher, let’s say, even in his last years. Sócrates was – mostly, at least – right. Football is certainly changing, and the number 10s are the ones suffering the most.
The increasing speed and physicality that Sócrates feared so much may be making football less based on technique and creativity in general, but this Barça team defies that logic. Sócrates believed the higher pace gave less time for the players to think, but Barça combines absurd amounts of runs and speed, both with and without possession, with magical levels of creativity. And that’s why Ganso’s task of facing Barça is a herculean one. On an emblematic moment, Ganso controlled the ball gracefully with his chest around the 80[SUP]th[/SUP] minute. He had already seen his other teammates around him, of course, and was preparing a quick touch to Neymar, probably. Before Ganso could even see the ball touching the floor, Busquets had already sneaked behind him and recovered possession, passing to a teammate with a quick touch. Ganso looked at Neymar without even knowing what to complain about. Barça would never allow Ganso the time and space to do his usual game. Never. The idea of having Busquets on the other side is particularly scary. Since turning into one of the most useful midfielders in the world around 2009, Busquets has become a vital piece in Barça’s formation and, in the meantime, made guys like Özil and Sneijder, who you could say that are amongst the best number 10s in recent football, disappear. And not only that! He’s instrumental in keeping possession, which I’ll get to later.
At their best, guys like Ganso and Riquelme are the closest that a football player will ever get to being a poet. The elegance and grace displayed by guys like them when they control the ball raise their heads for a moment and send a precise pass for a teammate that you couldn’t even see running on TV is something undeniably beautiful. But that is the problem. They need the ball to do all of this pretentiously poetic stuff. If they don’t have the ball, they are, to put it simply, useless. In a sense, Barça exposed serious flaws with the usual number 10. Number 10s generally look lazy when their teams are not in possession. Blessed with the gift of talent, they’re allowed not to mark. In South American football, teams don’t give that much value to ball possession and matches are generally 52%-48% in that department. Against Barça, you’re on a lucky day if you get 35%. So, a usual number 10 playing against Barça not only disappears. He gets tired and starts to lack motivation and concentration. Xavi and Iniesta, the ultimate Barça versions of the number 10s, are comfortable in doing what guys like Ganso can’t. They work during 100% of the game, controlling the midfield and possession when they have the ball and running non-stop to recover it when they finally lose it. By sticking to their comfort zone and just waiting for their teams to recover possession, the classic number 10s, former commanders of the midfield zone, are just giving the midfield to Xaviesta on a plate.
Of course, you can’t justify Santos’ loss based on the performance of one single player. Bad luck played a part – Adriano injured, Léo, Elano and Ganso just returning from injury – but also fitness – Barça is at the middle of their season, Santos’ players are exhausted after nearly 80 matches played during a period of 10 months, mostly playing twice a week – lack of organized planning – they should have prepared better on the Brasileiro, where they got 10[SUP]th[/SUP] position, and signed some decent defenders – and excessive respect for Barça. It’s just that I saw and heard some unjustified critics against Ganso and, you know, had to write it.
I could also talk for hours about the decadence of Brazilian football, but that’s something for another text. I’ll shortly say that it’s embarrassing to witness a Spanish team, as almighty as it is, defeating a Brazilian team with a style that brings back not only good memories of the “classic” Dutch teams of the 1970’s (not talking about Holland’s 1978 team, that one was ugly to watch), but also of the Argentinian and Brazilian schools of passing the ball around with joy and giving the opportunity of gifted frontmen to show their talent. How is Brazilian football represented in this Barça? Of course, you have Thiago, but he was raised in La Masia and is more Catalan than Brazilian, footballistically speaking. What’s left is three offensive wing-backs, something Brazilian football became specialized in. No midfielder. You could say Deco, but Barça changed a lot since then. An extremely limited number of Brazilian midfielders has what it takes to play for this Barça, maybe Ganso – if he improves a lot in certain areas – and Hernanes, but it would take them some time to adapt. Since the 1990′s, the Brazilian NT organizes team after team based on strenght and speed in the back – strong DMs, fast SBs, mostly – and a few talented players upfront to try to make something happen. Barça is throwing a big party, a bit like the Brazilians used to do, but they’re not invited to it anymore, mostly because of their own faults.
