Gerard Piqué: Manchester City shouldn't get too hung up on Lionel Messi, Neymar and Pedro can do the damage
Exclusive: Former Manchester United defender gives Paul Hayward unique insight into the Barcelona philosophy ahead of Champions League return to Manchester to face City
Gerard Piqué is the one who got away. But he is heading back to Manchester, with
Barcelona, to face opponents he remembers from reserve team football in his United days. “The Pointings Cup?” he asks. He means the old Pontins League Cup for reserves. He has touched the stars since then.
City’s horizon is darkening. Manuel Pellegrini’s men face Chelsea in the FA Cup fifth-round this weekend before Barcelona roll into the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday. Reclining behind the desk at his office in Catalonia’s capital, Piqué advises Manuel Pellegrini’s team not to get too hung up about Lionel Messi.
We were talking about Neymar when Barca’s most graceful defender said: “He’s really young, he’s got a lot of hunger to show to the world that he is right for Barcelona and that he’s one of the best players in the word. His quality, his skills, his goals, have added a lot to the team and at the same time maybe he takes a little bit of the focus.
“Everything was on Messi, with everyone trying to stop him. Now we have another way. Ok, if it’s not Messi’s day, we have Neymar, we have Pedro, we have Alexis [Sanchez], we have a lot of quality in the striker area, and I think that’s really good for the team.”
Piqué, who left
United in 2008 after four years in Sir Alex Ferguson’s care, has a broad mind and a sharp eye for the battles ahead in England and Europe. He is an expert in Jose Mourinho’s psychological ploys and Pellegrini’s penchant for all-out attack. Piqué was on the front-line of many Clásico dust-ups between Real Madrid (where Mourinho managed) and Barcelona, where he has matured into a pass-spraying centre-back reminiscent of Franz Beckenbauer.
A smile spreads across Piqué’s face when Mourinho enters the conversation. He says: “When you don’t have to suffer Jose Mourinho as your opponent, it’s funny to hear how he talks, how he works after the game. His press conference after the City game [Chelsea’s recent 1-0 victory] was funny. He’s like this. We know that. And now Pellegrini is the one who has to suffer this.”
Piqué is a renaissance man. Tipped as a future Barcelona president, he is the tall, imperturbable embodiment of tiki-taka’s sacred principle that forward moves should start from the back, via skilful goalkeepers and defenders. This week he was elected vice-president of the Spanish Footballers’ Association, the AFE (Asociación de Futbolistas Españoles), joining Iker Casillas, David Villa and Carlos Marchena.
He took an Economics post graduate course at the IESE Business School and founded a firm to promote his Golden Manager online game, which has nearly a million users. His relationship with the mega-star Shakira (they have a child together) is another layer of sheen.
But Piqué the footballer is the one City will have to deal with on Tuesday, and here too he is well briefed. City’s future is being shaped by the ex-Barcelona brains trust of Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano and Piqué thinks it significant that Pellegrini was hired to steer the team. “Pellegrini always liked to play like this. I remember when he was here in Spain with Malaga and Real before he always liked to play,” he says. “I knew when he signed for City he would try to play like this. I think he has good quality players with David Silva, Kun Aguero – you know, they can have the ball, have the possession. They’re having a good season.”
Until six years ago he was on the red side of town. And he remembers vividly his formative years at United. They began with a debut in a League Cup tie at Crewe Alexandra on October 26, 2004. “Yeah, 3-0,” he says. “I remember that I entered at minute 67, I think.” He did – in place of John O’Shea, in a United side that included Eric Djemba Djemba, Kleberson, Liam Miller and David Bellion.
“It was like a dream come true because it’s your first game as a professional player and it’s all you want when you’re a kid, no? I remember the crowd, I remember everything about that stadium. And it was a good win. My second game was in the Champions League and we lost 3-0. Three-nil in Turkey against Fenerbache. Then we drew a game in the Cup against Exeter. It was a poor game too. I remember Sir Alex was really angry.”
He is laughing again. But how did he wind up at United, prior to winning four La Liga and two Champions League titles with Barcelona, as well as the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 with Spain? “My dream was to play in Barcelona, but at that time, with Barcelona and La Masia [the youth academy], it was not like it is now with the young kids. It was really difficult to break through to the first team and I think the best option was to leave Barcelona and go to England.
“I remember that first of all Arsenal were interested in me and I had a meeting with Arsène Wenger. I was close to going to Arsenal but the year before Cesc Fabregas went there and Arsenal and Barcelona were in a little fight and they didn’t want to do the same with me. Manchester United came in and finally I went there.
“Before I signed we had a dinner with Sir Alex Ferguson and my family and I was surprised, because he was the coach of Man Utd for 20 years and he had the time to come and speak with my family and with me. I was just a young kid who had never played for a professional team but he had the time for me. We were grateful to have him in that dinner. It shows a lot about him and how he worked at United.”
Piqué appeared three times in 2004-05 and played seven more games in 2005-06 before spending a year on loan at Zaragoza. The barrier at United was Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic: “In those years they were one of the best pairs of centre-backs in the world. We are talking about top quality players in that position and it was really difficult for me to get in and get games. I remember the year I went to Zaragoza on loan. I had a great season and played really well. When I came back he [Ferguson] said to me – definitely you will play a minimum of 25 games, but it wasn’t like that at the end of the season, so I spoke with him, and Barcelona came in. It was the best option for both of us.”
United’s loss was Barcelona’s gain as Pep Guradiola, now in charge of Bayern Munich, built the rear of his team around Piqué’s height and passing ability. He says: “At that point of my career it’s true that Guardiola was the best coach for a young kid like me. I arrived at Barcelona and Puyol was there, Marquez, Martin Caceres, who was a good centre-back they had signed from Villarreal. So I was the fourth centre-back in the squad and it could have been really difficult for me to get minutes in the first team, like it was at Man Utd.
“But Guardiola, from the first minute, said: ‘You will have the chance to play for me, and if you play I give you confidence, no problem with that.’ And I think my style of play is what he wanted. He wants the two centre-backs really open – try to play the ball from the very beginning, from the keeper, and that helped me a lot. That’s what I want, what I understand about football, and he is one of the best coaches in the world, definitely.”
A poster boy for tiki-taka, Piqué nevertheless says the style has evolved to keep Barcelona one step ahead: “Tiki-taka is a style Barcelona have played since a long time ago. The problem was that Barcelona always played this way and historically didn’t win a lot of trophies. But since Cruyff, Rijkaard and Guardiola, we started to win titles and now tiki-taka seems like the solution to everything, and everyone has to play like this.
“I don’t think so. I think you have to play the way your players can play. With Xavi and Andres Iniesta and definitely Messi you have to play like this, because it’s the best way to win titles. It’s true that maybe we play a little more direct now, but you have to try to improve. All the other teams – all our opponents – they know how we play and how to defend against it. Finally you have to find ways to be different, or try to find other options and solutions to try to score goals.”
Part of Guardiola’s secret – now applied at Bayern Munich – is a hounding, swarming eagerness to regain possession. Piqué glows at the thought of it. “It was one of the keys with Guardiola. We can take the ball from other teams in 2-5 seconds,” he says. “Maybe we try to score, then lose the ball – but we have it back in 5 seconds, and have a chance to score again. So finally the opponent was in a situation where he was defending all the time. And for us, maybe for our style of play, we didn’t need to defend a lot, because in five seconds we can take the ball back.
“It’s difficult for us to be like Atletico Madrid now, who are playing very defensively, or Chelsea. We don’t know how to play like this, because in the air we are weak, from corner kicks or free kicks. If the other team has people who are 6ft 3inch or 6ft 4inch we are dead, because we are really small. We don’t know how to defend inside the box. We defend with the ball, by having the ball, with our possession.”
A chink of hope there, perhaps, for City on Tuesday night, though one suspects Piqué is playing up to the stereotype of Barcelona’s vulnerability to set-piece play. The zenith for this style of play, many feel, was the Champions league victory over Manchester United at Wembley three years ago, which Barcelona won 3-1 with an imperious performance. Piqué agrees: “I’ve never seen one team controlling the final of the Champions League like this. After the game I was talking with Sir Alex Ferguson and he accepted there was no chance. They had no chance to even try to score a second goal. The final in Rome against Man Utd [in 2009] was a really good game as well.”
Despite the obvious similarities with Guardiola, Piqué is not putting himself up as a future Barcelona manager quite yet, but he seems destined to be at Camp Nou forever: “To be fair, yeah. Barcelona is my life. My grandfather was vice-president of the club. But you never know. I can’t see myself being a manager right now, maybe because I’m 27 and I’m really young. It’s true that if I can chose I would like to be in the club forever, but you cannot chose this. It depends on your performance and then when you retire it depends on so many things.”
So intense is his club career that you could almost forget his international involvement with Spain, who aim to extend their sequence of victories in Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012. Here, he is on uncharted ground: “It’s possible but it’s really, really difficult,” he says. “South America is not the best place to be favourites. I think Spain are not the favourites. It’s true Brazil have a lot of pressure and I don’t know whether it works well to have this kind of pressure to play at home. I think we have a great team and we still have the hunger and motivation to win again – but it’s tough.
“If we win it maybe we can be the best national team in history? To win two European Championships and two World Cups in a row. But I don’t think we should think past the group stage. We have a really difficult group stage with Holland and Chile. Historically for us it’s very difficult to play the South American teams. They run a lot, they fight, while we like to control the game. So Chile will be tough.”
With the City game looming, though, his thoughts return to Manchester, where, he thinks, United will recover from their poor start under David Moyes: “They will. It’s a new coach, after nearly 30 years. Sir Alex Ferguson had some players with him for 10 years and now they have to adapt. Then next season will be another year.
“Now it’s very different, it’s true [from when he was there]. The situation has changed. United are having a difficult time, and City, because of all the money they have, have a great, great team and are fighting for the league.” If he sees a power shift from red to blue, it is one he aims to disrupt on Tuesday, 10 years on from his first-team debut, at Gresty Road, Crewe.
