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Barca influences Spain but faces new challenges

Watching Spain in the World Cup is almost like watching Barca, not just because of the number of their players in the squad.  As the Financial Times pointed out in an interesting analysis, the playing philosophy (possession football) that can be traced back to Johann Cruyff subtly influences the way in which Spain play.

Simon Kuper writes in the Pink 'Un: 'The story starts with Cruyff. The Dutchman played for Barcelona in the 1970s, and when he returned in 1988 as manager, he made every side from the under-10s to the first team play the same style. 

They defended on the halfway line and pressed the instant they lost the ball. He introduced a training exercise that remains the staple of almost every Barcelona practice today: the rondo, essentially, a piggy-in-the-middle game in which players inter pass in a confined space, while opponents try to intercept.

That helps explain why Barcelona, the most Cruyffian club, produced about half the national team’s current starters, while the tactically sophisticated Basques supplied the coach Luis de la Fuente and several more players. There is only one Real Madrid player in the squad.'

However, further delays in the work on Camp Nou has placed the club under new financial pressures: https://footballgroundguide.com/news/barcelona-suffer-new-financial-downgrade-due-to-camp-nou-delays.html

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