How Camp Nou will receive the ‘Justin Bieber of football’

The La Liga 2012-2013 season isn’t over yet and Barcelona have already completed their first signing, and that too a big one – Neymar da Silva. Just the fact that Sandro Rosell and co swooped in as soon as the transfer period opened and completed this transfer so soon, tells us how highly he figures in Barca’s future plans. So what exactly does this transfer mean for Barca and its players? Who is leaving and who is staying? Is Neymar going to turn out like Robinho – the Brazilian sensation who flopped in Europe? These are the questions that are doing the rounds, so let’s try and add some answers to the chatter.

Firstly, Neymar is someone who had two of the biggest clubs in the world at his door ringing his doorbell every other week for over a year. It was reported that Barcelona had already laid a down-payment, but Neymar and his representatives chose to play ball and were always pretty coy about where “the next Pele” is heading. Anyway, the fact that both Real Madrid and Barcelona wanted his signature tells us that he is a special player.

Now, for all us European football watchers, the easiest way to watch Neymar is on Youtube. But the problem is that those videos most likely feature the awesome trickery and outstanding gameplay of the South American Footballer of the Year. In short, only glimpses of what he can offer during an entire game, not how consistent and focused he is during the entire game. This is something that will be put under the scanner when he faces more organized and tactically-aware European defenses that will frustrate him. In other words, he sure has many aces up his sleeve, but what matters is whether he can draw them at the right time – on those big European nights, the knockout matches, when defenses are water-tight, because that is what Barca needs right now.

With his skillful wingplay and ability to score from outside the box, Neymar should be able to help Barca in that aspect. Barca, over the years, have been playing through the middle of the park more and more. When a pass is played out wide, it results in either a pass back into midfield or a horrible Dani Alves cross. That is because players like Sanchez and Pedro are there to cater to the needs of Messi, rather than take a player on and go for goal. This is something that comes naturally to Neymar, so hopefully he will make Barca more potent in that way.

Brazil’s international games have seen the youngster playing on the left with the role to cut-in. It is the striker’s role that becomes crucial in such cases; as for Brazil, with the current choices of Fred and Danio, Scolari’s instruction to the forwards is for them to stay at the edge of the box when Neymar cuts in, and hence allowing him to get a good punt at goal. This allows Neymar to utilize one of his main strengths and thus makes the team pretty much centered about his abilities.

But in the case of Barca’s setup, after all the talks of the ‘Ibras’ and ‘Villas’ taking up the forward’s role, the last 2 seasons have firmly established Messi as the main man in the striker’s role. With Iniesta playing regularly on the left, Messi is often seen to continue his give-n-go with the Spaniard by making a run into the channels next to the centre back. So Iniesta is then allowed to play a reverse pass that finds Leo in behind the defence with the ball on his preferred left foot.

Now with Neymar on this flank instead of Iniesta, there will need to be a different strategy to be thought of as the Brazilian, just like Messi, will look for a dribble or 2 and then a shot, rather than finding the diagonal run of a teammate. The other option lies on the right with Neymar drifting towards the centre; but Dani Alves’ style of play on this flank doesn’t leave much scope for Neymar to flourish here. Mentioning Dani Alves brings me back to the point of the other fullback Jordi Alba; the Barca youth product makes similar adventurous runs on the left flank but rather than looking for a cross-in, his best passes have been the one where he finds a centrally placed Iniesta or Fabregas. Neymar’s skills will surely be better utilized when being overlapped by Alba on this flank.

Neymar’s arrival has made the attacking department a little overcrowded. The most likely departure will be that of David Villa. Alexis Sanchez is not much of a candidate given his relatively young age, his recently improved form and most of all, his hard-working nature and work rate. Cristian Tello is said to be reviewing his position at the club and his buyout clause of 10 million euros may put Barca out of the equation, should he consider a switch. Barca will do well to hold on to him, given the tremendous form he has shown in the games that he has played this season.

Apart from the football part of it all, Neymar is a huge financial asset to have – pardon the cold nature of the statement. He has been rated as the Most Marketable Athlete in the world at the moment by SportsPro. Because of this fact, surely Sandro Rosell needn’t have thought twice when he was signing Neymar. According to the contract, Barca will claim 50% of the total money he makes through advertising contracts during his stay at the Camp Nou. And of course, there are always the T-shirt sales. Add to that the 2014 World Cup, where he is being projected as the face of the Brazilian National Team around whom the team is being built, Barca should definitely benefit substantially as a result of this transfer.

So are there no cons at all to this, is it all going to be one wonderful marriage? Well, there is one problem that might crop up. Neymar is not exactly a boy scout, like Xavi or Iniesta. He has a record of clashing with his manager and to put it mildly, he is subject to mood changes. So if he develops any friction with any of the players at Barca of whom quite a few are heavy weights at the club, things can get sore and if not sorted out quickly, head towards the situation Real Madrid are in now.

Barca will be hoping that that doesn’t happen and there is no evidence in recent history either to suggest that it will.

After all the fanfare involved in this transfer with all the big names of Brazil giving the youngster their blessing, too much pressure on Neymar to perform might also engulf the club. A similar case was seen when Neymar was projected as the main man in Scolari’s Brazil at the start of this International Friendlies tour. The games against England and Russia would easily have been his worst ever, even in this young a career; and as these turned out to be kind of his ‘presentation’ to Europe, the likes of Joey Barton have seemed to form a different sort of opinion regarding Neymar.

Neymar is the Justin Bieber of football. Brilliant on the old You Tube. Cat piss in reality…

— Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) March 25, 2013