Comments on: Zidane: Patriot & Barca Fan.

By: Jose Eduardo

Jose Eduardo — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:35:07 +0000

Zidane is a god! Football is philosophy in a nutshell and a way to express yourself. The way a team plays on the field is often a reflection of how one feels about themselves and the level of confidence and understanding that they have towards there teammates. Madrid need to recapture that identity that they once had. They are a club who cant dwell in obscurity anymore. They are too big for that. We already have amazing players that are playing for other clubs who came from our youth setup. The path is there, but we must start walking.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:03:31 +0000

It is a bit of an over reaction from everybody. To be honest Real just need to bring in a few role players to sure up the back. The team is really coming together towards the end of the season. Linking together and creating great chances up front. I think the loose, open attacking football is fun to watch but if Real would play more defensively they could have won a few more games. Barcelona just killed them on the counter attack.

By: alessio

alessio — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:42:01 +0000

Couple good kids in the Real pipeline too, Torres, De la Red, etc.

By: Madridista

Madridista — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:10:07 +0000

I love the Playstation comment.

The problem is that at Madrid, the bar is set at a certain height – too high. Miss that bar, and everyone gets kicked out, from the president to the manager to the players. Youth development takes time.

It’s not the “bringing foreign players in” that is the issue. Foreign players aren’t the problem – it’s that too often, they are seen as the solution to the problem.

“Madrid have to recover their past identity. Down there they do not know what every youth team plays for, whereas they have a common philosophy at Barca.”

This is true. But Barca is unusual in the sense that they have a very particular *playing* philosophy that transcends this team or even every manager – not all clubs have this. You can point to Arsenal, but that’s due to the influence of Wenger. You can point to Man Utd’s “philosophy”, but for Man Utd that philosophy is underpinned by a commitment to winning which is, if you ask me, more essential than a commitment to playing a particular way.

The irony of it is that not so long ago, one of the key features of Madrid was its youth players – think La Quinta del Buitre in the 80s and early 90s, and before that the all-Spanish team that won the 1966 European Cup. To some extent it carried on to the Raul/Guti/Iker generation, and has more or less stopped there. Guess why?

… yep.

I don’t think he’s wrong to point to Barca – I think right now everyone is seeing the fruits of Barca’s faith in their own system pay off, and they quite rightly want to copy the model. But you also have to distill the reasons why the model works for Barca and whether it can be transferred elsewhere. The focus on talent development is something that’s easy to pick up on. The philosophy and identity isn’t – that’s Barca’s and Barca’s alone. You cannot instill pride in the youth teams at other clubs by asking them to play like Barca, and that’s what he’s talking about when he says Madrid have to find their identity.

By: MW

MW — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:23:40 +0000

And the truth shall set you free….

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:52:37 +0000

To be fair, Real do have Guti, Iker and Raul, last time I looked.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:45:58 +0000

every time this man speaks, i take time out of my busy schedule to listen….because he speaks truth Ladies and Gentleman.

he’s been right about most things….including what he said about Steven Gerrard.

By: Jose147

Jose147 — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:33:57 +0000

“You cannot block them, not even on the Playstation.”
-Zidane

That alone made my day.