G.O.A.T Soccer Teams: Barcelona 2008–2012

A look at one of the most dominant club sides in football history

The Greatest: With Lionel Messi at his absolute peak, Josep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona perfected an overwhelming form of total football in a fearsome four-year spell.

Manager

In the summer of 2008 Pep Guardiola beat off competition from Jose Mourinho to become Barcelona’s first-team coach. Guardiola was only 37-years-old and his only experience was a year in charge of Barcelona B. Mourinho, meanwhile was a franchise name, a superstar manager, who had won Premier League titles with Chelsea.

Pep was a player in Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona dream team of 1992, a 5-foot 11 midfielder with a slender frame, he was an extremely technically gifted player, Cruyff trusted him because of his passing and his brain. Cruyff plucked Guardiola from the third division and made him the first-team starter for his Barca side. Guardiola’s ascension — becoming the heartbeat of a European winning midfield, paved the way for the next generation of technical, diminutive, skilful midfield players — the likes of Xavi and Sergio Busquets.

Star Players

Lionel Messi

• Messi won four consecutive Ballon d’Or in a row (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012) during Barcelona’s historic stretch. He becomes the second player in history to win three consecutive Ballon’d’Or after France legend Michel Platini and the first-ever to win four.

• A pass-first player who is one of the greatest scorers to ever play the game. The intelligence of a deep-lying midfielder, the creativity of an attacking midfielder, the finishing of a refined number nine, and the dribbling of a number ten. Messi is the ultimate football player.

Andreas Iniesta

• Nicknamed “The Illusionist” — Iniesta was a player that mastered the art of making the impossible, look easy, his control, passing, and dribbling was world-class. His unassuming nature made him the perfect student, Guardiola’s summed him up: ‘Iniesta doesn’t dye his hair, he doesn’t wear earrings and he hasn’t got any tattoos. Maybe that makes him unattractive to the media, but he is the best’.

Xavi Hernandez

• The midfield maestro was as close to perfect as a passer as anyone ever, to the extent that one miss-placed pass, would cause you to quite literally gasp in shock, such as the rarity of the occasion. The heartbeat of the greatest international and club team of the century. The grandmaster of midfield players.

Teams and Seasons

In his four years in charge of Barcelona, Pep Guardiola’s men won 14 of the 19 competitions they entered, including six trophies in his first season, 2008/09: the Spanish Super Cup, La Liga, and Copa del Rey, plus the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. Helping to revolutionize the game of football and re-popularise possession play at a time when football had shifted and become very defensive.

The 2010– 11 season made its two champions league titles and three La Liga championships in three years. Collectively the 2010–11 side, despite not winning the treble (losing to Jose Mourinho Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey final) was the superior side. They had by this point a clear footballing identity. Messi was now predominantly a false-nine, Villa and Pedro would press from the front and make runs inside the centre-backs, allowing Messi to drop deep to form a world-beating midfield diamond with Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets.

Defensively, Barcelona was a great side too, conceding only 21 goals in 38 league games, thanks to their philosophy being the best way to defend was to keep the ball and attack.

In 2011–12 Barcelona reached their fourth consecutive Champions League semi-final, won the Copa Del Rey beating Athletic Bilbao 3–0 in the final, finished runners-up in the league to Real Madrid — Pep Guardiola stood down as manager at the end of the 2011–12 season, having created something truly special.

Key games

La Liga: Barcelona 6–2 Real Madrid, May 2nd 2009

• This match felt like a proper title decider. With five games to go, Barcelona was four points clear, this was the victory that decided the league title and offered a defining display. Messi debuted as a False nine and scored two goals. Xavi running riot from midfield — finishing with four assists, in perhaps his finest ever performance in a Blaugrana shirt.

UEFA Champions League: Chelsea 1–1 Barcelona, May 6th, 2009

• Drama, controversy, chaos, mayhem, Chelsea were denied at least two definite penalties and possibly four. Iniesta’s stunning goal in the 92-minute sent Barcelona through to the final, one of the defining images of his career, alongside the small matter of a World Cup final goal.

2009 UEFA Champions League Final: Barcelona 2–0 Manchester United, May 27th, 2009

• Barcelona took on defending champions Manchester United, who had somewhat dominated their way to the final with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney leading the way. However, within ten minutes, Barcelona took the lead through Samuel Eto’s strike underneath Edwin van der Sar. An hour later, it was Lionel Messi putting the match out of reach with a fantastic header.

La Liga: Barcelona 5–0 Real Madrid, November 29th, 2010

• The peak performance, the perfect picturesque football, and the purest distillation of an entire era. Real was dismantled by perhaps the most dynamic football of Guardiola’s time at Barcelona. Five goals, a five-star performance. Guardiola undid his greatest individual opponent, Jose Mourinho, who was then in charge of Barcelona’s greatest rivals.

It was a Monday night game and it felt as if the whole world was watching. Wayne Rooney’s reaction summed it up perfectly — “I was watching in my living room and I stood up and applauded what I was seeing,” said Rooney in an article in The Mirror. “Coleen walked in and asked what I was doing! But it was the best performance I’ve ever seen. It was unbelievable.

2011 UEFA Champions League Final: Barcelona 3–1 Manchester United, May 28th, 2011

Barcelona dominated with 63 per cent of possession and took almost five times as many shots as their opponents, Manchester United. Despite a beautiful goal by Wayne Rooney allowing United to draw level at 1–1 at half-time, Barca was able to thoroughly dominate the second half. After three brilliant goals, Barca was able to conquer Europe with a 3–1 victory. Such was Barcelona’s dominance; Rooney’s goal was United’s only shot on target for the entire match.

La Masia — Catalan for ‘the Farmhouse’

Is the name that is generally used to describe the Barcelona youth academy, or cantera (meaning ‘quarry’) to give its Spanish name.

A residence in which young players receive a football and academic education, it has become synonymous with inculcating the philosophy of Barcelona (Mes que un club), with its graduates invariably leaving branded by what club officials have described as “the stamp of La Masia”.

It just so happened that the youth system had a generational crop of players coming through the ranks at the time this side was peaking. In 2010, La Masia became the first youth academy to have trained all three finalists for the Ballon d’Or in a single year — Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Xavi.

The academy teaches players from a young age a certain style of play. Defenders have to be able to dribble the ball and make the right pass, midfielders must be technically sound, masters of the fundamentals — passing and moving and forwards can not just be goal scores, they have to be able to link up the play, stay wide to make space for the midfielders and defend from the front.

Tactics “Total Football” — Johan Cruyff

“Cruyff is the most important player in the history of FC Barcelona” — Xavi Hernandez (Take the Ball, Pass the Ball — Documentary)

In 1992 Barcelona won their first-ever European Cup with Johan Cruyff as manager. His arrival transformed the club, changing its identity and mentality of the club.

For Cruyff winning football matches was important, however winning with confidence, controlling the ball, and being creative was just as important, if not more so than the result, for Cruyff would rather see his win 5–4 than win 1–0. It was his ideas that Guardiola followed religiously — In an interview with the Guardian in 2016 Pep said; I thought I knew about football but when I started to work with him a new world appeared in front of me. Not just me — but a whole generation of players. Johan helped us understand the game. Football is the most difficult game in the world because it is open and every situation is completely different and you have to make decisions minute by minute. But I was a lucky guy. I am sitting here now because I met him. If not for him it would not have been possible.

Here are some of the fundamental aspects of Johan Cruyff’s footballing ideology Pep Guardiola inherited:

• Holding onto Possession and passing in triangles.

• Pressing the opposition, the moment they lose the ball.

• Staying close together to recover possession and keep the ball.

• Using a Sweeper-Keeper and high defensive line

• Building possession from the back

• Speed of the ball is more important than the speed of the legs.

• Play attractive football, and entertain the fans.

Tactical exercise: El Rondo

A pivotal part of the training at Barcelona was centred around a training ground exercise called the rondo — invented by Laureano Ruiz it is a fundamental part of training at FC Barcelona. Ruiz joined Barcelona in 1972 and was a prominent figure throughout the decade, working with the Cantera (youth team). Ruiz experimented and delivered Rondo exercises to the first team players, and seemingly this had a lasting effect on Johan Cruyff.

• The rondo is four against two, you need to move constantly to find space, the player with the ball must have the option to pass to his right, another to his left, and another through the middle, in a match it teaches players to make effective, short, snappy sideway passes to the feet or a through ball. It was training in tight spaces with exercises like the rondo that allowed Barcelona to have such control of the ball on the pitch.

In popular culture

Culturally Barcelona or a modern phenomenon. Responsible for hundreds, thousands, millions of kids, adults, and players around the world proudly declaring FC Barcelona as their favourite side.

Below I have listed some essential reading and watching if you want to relive those four glorious years.

• “Take the Ball, Pass the Ball” — (Guardian Documentary)

• “The Making of the World’s Greatest Team” — Graeme Hunter (Book)

• “The Barcelona Legacy” — Jonathan Wilson (Book)

“Fear and Loathing in La Liga”- Sid Lowe (Book)

They won’t remember the trophies we won, they will remember the way we played — Pep Guardiola