Anti-football or Intelligent Tactics?

Former Barcelona player Bernd Schuster has lashed out at Celtic for their style of play at the Nou Camp, branding it ‘anti-football’.

The comments come three days after Celtic lost out narrowly on taking home a point from Spain in the Champions League.

Schuster, according to the Scottish Sun, stated that Celtic “do not merit their place [in the Champions League] if they are going to play in this style” and “You see Celtic defending with 10 ten men and almost snatching a point- that is not fair.”

In 2007 Rangers held Barcelona to a 0-0 draw at Ibrox, and it wasn’t long before the performance was branded ‘anti-football’- by none other than Lionel Messi.

If Celtic had indeed taken away a point from a scored draw, or if Rangers had snatched a 1-0 win in 2007, would these remarks about ‘anti-football’ still be voiced? Or would it be hailed as tactical genius?

Rubin Kazan successfully overcame the Catalan Giants

Rubin Kazan are also one of few relatively average teams in the past few years to successfully deploy the defensive and counter-attacking styles of play against Barcelona in the Champions League, however they managed to defeat Barcelona 1-0 at the Nou Camp and draw 0-0 at home.

I can’t seem to remember the ‘anti-football’ argument being used on this occasion, although it wouldn’t surprise me if it was.

Bernd Schuster blamed Chelsea for generating a “school for teams like Celtic to study”, after putting Barcelona out of the Champions League semi-final last year with an incredibly defensive display.

There is no doubt that watching a match in which one team has 10 men behind the ball at most times isn’t what we like to see when watching football. Neutrals like to see high scoring games that are end-to-end.

However, with Chelsea aside, I fail to understand why people like Bernd Schuster cannot see the need for these tactics, which he brands ‘anti-football’, to be used when playing against teams such as Barcelona.

Chelsea FC have a seemingly unlimited amount of money at their disposal, which they use to attract top quality players- Rangers, Rubin Kazan and Celtic do not.

The cost of the Celtic team to take on Barcelona is as follows:

6.7 million pounds worth of players in this photo

Frazer Forster: £2 million; Mikael Lustig: Free; Kelvin Wilson: Free; Efe Ambrose: £400K; Emilio Izaguirre: £700K; Georgios Samaras: £2.2 million; Scott Brown: £4 million; Victor Wanyama: £900K; Joe Ledley: Free; Charlie Mulgrew: Free; Gary Hooper: £2.5 million; Lukasz Zaluska: Free; Adam Matthews: £200K; Miku: Loan; Kris Commons: £300K; Thomas Rogne: £300K; Beram Kayal: £1.5 Million; James Forrest: Free.

The total cost of the squad Celtic brought to Spain is approximately £14,920,000.

This figure is somewhat shy of what Barcelona’s squad to face the Hoops cost. Excluding players from their youth system the Barcelona team is as follows:

Adriano: £8.3 million; Javier Mascherano: £17.6 million; Jordi Alba: £12 million; Alex Song:  £16.7 million; Alexis Sanchez: £22 million; Cesc Fabregas: £30 million; Jose Manuel Pinto: £500,000; David Villa: £35 million.

Apart from highlighting just how successful Barcelona’s youth academy is, this shows the total cost of Barcelona’s squad to be approximately £142,120,000, for just 8 players.

Over 54 million pounds worth of players in this photo

We all know that money doesn’t always buy success in football, but it does buy the best players.

With this in mind, how can anyone expect a team like Celtic, costing just under ten times that of Barca, to go out and try to play attractive, attacking football against the best in the world?

If you attempt to play attacking football against Barcelona or any team that can afford such talent, with a relatively cheap squad in comparison, there can only be one outcome- defeat.

Neil Lennon has all the resources and financial backing to easily handle the SPL, but when it comes to Europe these resources appear incredibly limited.

As a result Lennon, much like Walter Smith with Rangers in 2007-08, has to use any means possible to win in Europe against teams that eclipse Celtic’s spending capabilities.

Thankfully it was a past player from Barcelona who made these comments, as it is often a current one. Tito Vilanova and his players were fair in their comments after the match, stating they deserved victory and crediting Celtic for their efforts.

Lennon has since dismissed Bernd Schuster’s comments, saying he wouldn't listen to the ramblings of a failed coach.


http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/4610480/Kick-Celts-bores-out-of-Champs-League.html