Inside the 30ft-high walls that encircle Barcelona’s vast training compound in the suburb of Sant Joan Despí, the mood is far from fatalistic.
Received wisdom holds that their lustre has faded, that a record 7-0 aggregate defeat by Bayern Munich in last season’s Champions League semi-final dealt a mortal wound to Catalan self-regard. And yet their response this summer has been one of quiet reassertion, seeking to scotch premature verdicts upon their ebbing power by assembling potentially the most lethal strike force in club history, in the form of Neymar and Lionel Messi.
Neymar, pitched this month against former side Santos in a friendly that formed part of his transfer from São Paulo to the Nou Camp, carries a cumbersome weight upon those slender shoulders. For it is the Brazilian’s task to succeed where David Villa and Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed, in providing a legitimate foil to Messi so that Barcelona can ally some potency to all their pretty triangulations. “My relationship with Messi is marvellous,” the 21-year-old says, shyly, still speaking via a translator. “I talk to him every day and can assure you there will be no problem. He is the best player in the world – I am here to help.”
While Neymar, at 5ft 9in just two inches taller than Messi, encapsulates the small-is-beautiful Barça fashion, the medical staff have already demanded that he puts on an extra half a stone in readiness for the greater physical rigours of the European game.
“It’s coming on well, and I’m training harder and harder every day,” he says. “I lost weight after a tonsil operation but I am putting it back on.”
His enhanced resilience has been tested throughout the club’s pre-season tour of Asia, ahead of the first La Liga confrontation with Levante on Sunday, and he confesses to few worries about becoming a target for brutish defenders. “In Brazil it is even worse,” he shrugs. “I am used to it.”Neymar’s positioning at the spearhead of a starting XI conservatively valued at £400 million reflects significant change at Barcelona. Famed for his dribbling ability, a quality all too evident at this summer’s Confederations Cup, he ought to give the team greater purpose and penetration in the final third.
Club president Sandro Rossell, at least, harbours no doubt the striker’s ability to embrace the Barça philosophy. “We believe that Neymar can help us with our style of play,” he explains.
Given the departure of Villa to Atlético Madrid, the left wing looks the increasingly likely domain for Neymar’s foraging. The 4-3-3 formation so beloved of Barcelona should, with his addition, make better use of the flanks and afford Messi greater space in the middle. In the understated Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, recently recruited to replace Tito Vilanova, Neymar has a manager wedded to an attacking mindset, given the Argentinian’s record of producing slick football with Paraguay and Newell’s Old Boys in Messi’s hometown of Rosario.
Martino must be the most obscure figure ever to be entrusted with a club of Barcelona’s kudos and ambition – his sole experience of La Liga was a fleeting stint at Tenerife in 1991 – but he could yet prove a constructive mentor for the impressionable Neymar. Already he has had a persuasive effect upon the club’s ravenous beat reporters, as one gushing editorial in Marca made clear: “What our grandmothers called common sense, we now call emotional intelligence. And it something ‘Tata’ has plenty of. He has been at Barça only a matter of weeks, but he has won Vilanova’s squad over with his talent.”
The priority for Martino in fostering Neymar’s abilities is to resolve Barcelona’s over-dependency on Messi. Such reliance is growing, too: Messi scored 22 per cent of the team’s league goals in the 2008-09 season, rising to a staggering 40 per cent in 2012-13. It is telling that in the abject loss to Bayern their diminutive totem was hobbled by injury, leaving them no secondary option. Here, then, is where Neymar fits in, required to justify his £50-million price tag by adhering immediately to the precise passing patterns while providing an abundance of goals from wide positions.
His goal record in Brazil offers a happy portent, with three straight golden boot accolades and a return of almost a goal a game since the start of 2012. One concern might be the Latin pop-star image that Neymar tends to project, with the less-than-subtle diamond earrings and the sprawling property already purchased in the exclusive Barcelona neighbourhood of Pedralbes.
But compatriot Dani Alves claims he does not anticipate any preening behaviour. “He is humble enough to take advice when things do not work out for him,” the veteran right back says.
Besides the worry of club staff that Neymar arrived underweight, he suffered another health concern when he had to be treated for anaemia ahead of this month’s match in Thailand. Evidently, stumbling blocks lie ahead if he is ever to acquire a mantle comparable to Messi’s, especially in a crucible as unforgiving as Camp Nou. Even Muricy Ramalho, his former coach at Santos, is convinced he is still not in the same bracket as his celebrated sidekick. “Neymar will improve at Barcelona but he has a long way to get to where Messi is,” he argues. So while their partnership might plausibly be billed as the greatest in Europe, capable of striking mortal dread in to defences across the continent, we ought not to expect any instant miracle.
No comments:
Post a Comment