There is no one way to play football
“It’s not important how we play. If you have a Ferrari and I have a small car - to beat you in a race, I have to break your wheel or put sugar in your tank.”
— Jose Mourinho
There is always something to argue about in football. It is comical and tragic in its composition, yet it is what makes football the most popular sport in the world. Fans and supporters pitch their loyalties behind different badges and rise to their defence. The madness includes players and philosophies, with ridiculous takes coming off outrageous comparisons.
You take these away from football, and its very essence is lost. It yanks out its soul and leaves an empty shell.
Humongous sums have found their way into football and muddied the pool, exaggerating the powers of the superheroes football has created. Gaps have emerged between the prowess of super managers and the ordinary bloke working his way up the ladder.
No matter how great a club is, no matter how phenomenal a player is, there is always kryptonite, and like Superman, they will fall under the inquisition of its weakness. It is football. When it brings down the high, it is without mercy. It sometimes favours the weak and takes them to places they can only reach in their dreams.
Manchester City and Barcelona have bewitched the world and turned many into zombies, parroting the mantra of how they should play football. It is utter nonsense, yet the advent of data has got the media gushing on the idea of playing football the proper way. They romanticized the concept that the Pep way is the only way.
The proper way to play
Is there a proper way to play football? If there is, what is it? Many will tell you that it has to be beautiful. They argue that football is entertainment and art but forget that art has different artistic expressions.
Wrestling is entertainment, but I find it gory watching two adults pummeling themselves. For me, it is the basest form of artistic expression, yet many find it entertaining.
Followers of Pep Guardiola believe a million passes to a goal is beautiful. They argue teams ought to play football with the grace of a ballet dancer. The argument falls flat on its face, but the so-called purists will tell you that attacking football is the way.
Football is about scoring goals. The team that scores the most goals wins the game. The measure of a winner is not by how many shots taken or how many forward or backward passes. Goals determine a winner, and condemnation of the strategy should never be a thing.
The proper way to play football is to win. Wins come by negating the strength of the opponents and preying on their weaknesses.
The shame of a prophet
Pep Guardiola has spread his football evangelism to the world — a strain of ‘Tiki-Taka’ and has won many converts to his congregation. They lap up every action of their messiah and see every opposing philosophy as blasphemy.
For every yin, there is a yang. Jose Mourinho is the antithesis of everything Pep stands for. He also has his disciples, and Diego Simeone is one of them. They share the same ideologies and structure their teams alike.
On April 13, 2022, Manchester City painted a picture of a side out of ideas. Pep Guardiola condemned Simeone for the way his team played. They accused Atletico of parking the bus. Kevin De Bruyne took sides with his manager as they struggled to break down the Spaniards.
Despite their mastery of the game and playing football the ‘proper way’, they were limited to one shot on target. On Wednesday, it was a different ball game. The messiah of football saw his veil removed as Atletico showed the underbelly of Manchester City.
The Spanish champions played with heart, pride and passion. They showed for the umpteenth time that there are other ways to play the game. Pep had to employ some of the ‘dark arts’ Jose Mourinho has been vilified for as his Manchester City players fell and rolled on the floor like babies. They wasted time and packed their team with defenders as they held on for the victory.
It was a pyrrhic victory. It was a win that shamed the prophet. A triumph that left the proper way to play evangelist with eggs on his face. It showed him up for who many see him — a hypocrite. It was a show akin to Saul conferring with the witch of Endor after banning witchcraft in the city. Despite his heavily financially doped squad, Pep needed the witch of Endor to bail him out.
The purists vs the pragmatists
The purists can die on the hill of the idea that goalkeepers must be able to play from the back. They can hold on to the belief of a ball-playing defender, a false nine, technical and nimble-footed midfielders. At the end of it all, it pales to nothing if the team does not win the game.
The pragmatists understand that football is like chess, and the strategy and effort will win if executed well. They know a goalkeeper’s first job is to keep the ball out f his net. A defender should know first how to defend, while the art of scoring goals should not be alien to strikers.
Purists see the Barcelona squad with Xavi, Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi as the epitome of perfect football. Jose Mourinho, however, on the other hand, created a monster out of Chelsea. They still hold the record for the lowest number of goals conceded in the Premier League. Real Madrid with Kaka, Angel Di Maria, Mesut Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema was the epitome of counter-attacking football. Under Mourinho, they hold the top two positions for most goals scored in a season.
There is no one way to play football as there is no one type of art form. The essence of the game is to win.
