JohnN
Senior Member
I see that a lot of guys here now talk about our training regimes, but Malvolio for example, gets the problem.
The thing is, better training regimes won't be enough.
I'll try to dumb it down and use a language from random football manager and football games.
Let's say that a player can have pace from 1 to 100.
And stamina from 1 to 100.
Now, the problem is that pace is consisted of two things:
1. natural skill
2. training
For the sake of an argument, let's make it simple and say that 70% of your physical skill will be from your natural genes and 30% will come from training.
Now, that means that you can only get +30 in pace or stamina, even if you are coached by the best coach in the world.
A few examples:
If Mbappe has a natural pace 65, then even with average training he will get +15 skills in pace and his total pace will be = 65 (natural skill) + 15 (trainings) = 80.
On the other hand, someone who is slow like Busi, who have a natural pace let's say 20: no matter how he trains, he won't be able to improve his pace too much.
So, Busi would have 20 (natural pace) plus 30 from the best training regimes in the world = total pace = 50.
So, my point is = training regimes don't matter AS MUCH as a natural fitness skill.
Busi or Nico will never be able to compete with guys who are naturally fast.
So, if you want to have physically good players = you need to buy/sign kids who naturally have good pace, stamina, height or strength.
We can hire Pep and Klopp, but Busi, Demir, Nico, Eric won't get faster. They are just players with low natural pace.
On the other hand, guys like Dembele have a natural pace. Frenkie and Gavi have a natural stamina etc.
But here is the problem = I have a feeling that big clubs like Bayern are making these tests when they are scouting kids.
And they will never buy a kid unless he has a natural pace, stamina and some level of strength.
Can you imagine Bayern signing a snail like Demir?
Can you imagine Bayern signing short and weak players like Denis or Puig?
I posted numbers yesterday, half of our team is slow and with height around 175.
While the shortest starter for Bayern yesterday was 180cm.
So, my point is, I have a feeling that when we are signing players, all we look for is = technique.
But when Bayern is signing players, they look at:
1. is he at least 178cm tall
2. does he have at least average natural pace?
3. does he have at least average to good natural stamina?
4. does he have at least average to good body mass (unlike Puig, Pedri, Busi, Denis)
5. does he possess technique?
So, Bayern is scouting for TECHNIQUE and 4 other skills, while we scout ONLY for TECHNIQUE.
Imo, that problem comes from winning too much.
You know that case (Halilovic for example), when a player has a talent, but then people start to hype him, he buys his own hype and stops trying and ruins his career? (Like when Halil said when coming to Bundesliga: I didn't come here to defend, I came here to score goals, lol).
Imo, the same happened to Barca.
On a collective level from: newspapers, social media, fans, forums, players, sponsors, neutral fans, Messi's Ballon D ors, too many titles under Pep
= we fell into a trap and started to believe that Barca and our football is the best thing since sliced bread.
While our football was awesome, but we created a bubble after 2011 with skewed views on football.
Everyone fell into a parallel universe and started to believe in ideas like:
1. we are more than a club
2. we are different
3. we are unique
4. we don't play only to win, we play to entartain
5. we don't buy superstars, we create them
6. La Masia is magical
7. if executed properly, nothing can stop our type of football
8. technique always triumphs over physique
And today we are like some 50 year old woman, who was a top model 30 years ago and everyone loved her.
Her time has passed 20 years ago but she acts as if she is still on top of the world and can't understand why nobody calls her for covers of the magazines anymore.
I have a feeling that a timeline goes like this:
1. pre Pep, under Rijkaard, we played an attacking possession football, with a mix of technique and physique
2. then Pep traded some physique and pushed us more towards Iniestas, David Silvas, Puigs and similar. But it worked for him because he had the best team and his ideas worked
3. but after Pep, imo, it seems as if we moved even further from physique and went full retard with midfielders turned into wingers, false 9s, short and technical players, goalkeepers who are good with the ball etc.
We took one idea from Pep which was already highly questionable and moved even more into a full retard zone relying only on technique and nothing else in the world.
All in all, I think that we will sink even more.
Not only that:
1. we are broke
2. we have shit players
3. La Masia is meh
4. La Liga is dying
5. good players don't want to come
6. oil clubs emerged
7. EPL is filthy rich
8. opponents took the best parts of our football and upgraded it with physique
9. we don't have leaders or any mental strength
10. our presidents are criminals or clueless
11. our sporting directors are all former players
On top of that, I would add this new theory where the whole media, fans and players around Barca have built this bubble where we are the best thing since sliced bread and where technique and TikiTaka will solve any problem and will always beat physique.
If we want to get out of this hole, we will need to break that bubble.
But then, I don't think that our granny socios can understand this.
And also, our whole club is built around technique and those ideas.
I mean, we have Jordi Cruijff and former players who are all about technique.
Then we hired Xavi, who comes from Pep's era and who is all about grass height and technique.
So, yeah, things look extremely grey and we are in the infinite loophole.
Too many people still believe in = there is nothing wrong with our DNA and if executed properly, nothing can beat our system.
I can't even explain in words on how many levels everything is broken and fucked up around this club.
I can't think of any top team who has a worse future than us.
EPL teams are rich.
Bayern is rich and smart.
Milan and Juve are recovering.
Psg is oil rich.
Real is richer and smarter than us.
Atletico is in a better position than us.
I mean, even Arsenal and Tottenham have a brighter future than us. They don't live in a bubble and they are rich. And they know a thing or two about pace, stamina and physique.
So, Bayern would never sign Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, villa, Alves.. joking,
Of course they would because those players overcompensate for any lack of height or strength. But that was also all the players of that specific build. We surrounded them with stronger and taller guys.
Our current players are not strong, not fast and not technical on top of it all.
No matter the training, these players will always remain below average.
Let's not compare our team with Bayern though, because 1. It's depressing, 2. we are in a rebuilding period with no money and no prospects. Adjusting our expectations, we should aim for a top 5 spot currently. My prediction for 4th night have been too optimistic.
