Persuassive Essay on FC Barcelona
Before the 2008-09 campaign, FC Barcelona seemed like they didn’t have a chance to be anything. But they ended that season with being debated as one of the greatest teams of all time. And they should be. I’m here to end the debate Upon the departure of Frank Rijkaard, whom had a successful tenure as manager, there were questions about who would take over. Barça B manager Pep Guardiola ended up taking over as manager. And as soon as he came in he made some dramatic changes. He released best in the world, at the time, Ronaldinho and Deco. Guardiola had already offloaded full back Gianluca Zambrotta to AC Milan, attacking midfielder Giovani dos Santos to Tottenham Hotspur, and midfielder Edmílson to Villarreal CF. He was going to release forward Samuel Eto’o but his performance in pre-season kept him on the team. He also went out and signed Dani Alves and Seydou Keita from Sevilla FC, Martín Cáceres from Villarreal CF by way of Recreativo de Huelva; Gerard Piqué returned from Manchester United; and Alexander Hleb was signed from Arsenal. Along with the new signings, Guardiola promoted canteranos Sergio Busquets, Pedro Rodríguez and Jeffrén Suárez to the first team squad. With all the players Guardiola had to manage he needed to know how to use them well. He took the Tiki Taka style of play and used to such a high level no other team could compete with the Barcelona squad. The style of play is used to keep the ball on the move at all times. Passes, quick passes, quality passes. And they had to players, Andres Iniesta and Xavi, who distribute the ball better than anyone else. Tiki-taka is associated with flair, creativity, and touch, but can also be taken to a "slow, directionless extreme" that sacrifices effectiveness for aesthetics, and Barça did this better than anyone else with only 5 loses on the entire season. Guardiola's first competitive game as coach was in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, in which Barça comfortably beat Polish club