Gareth Bale - A square peg in a round Hole

Ever since that stunning night at the San Siro where Tottenham lost 4-3 to Inter Milan, despite fighting back from four goals down at the break after a Gareth Bale hat-trick, speculation about his impending future has been widely discussed. From Real Madrid to Chelsea to Juventus to Manchester City, the list keeps increasing everyday. Chelsea’s name can be struck off the list, as they already have an abundance of left wing-players, with Eden Hazard and Marko Marin having joined the team recently and Malouda still at the club. Even Manchester City look like a remote choice, as I don’t see any possibility of Bale being accommodated into the starting line-up. So this brings me to the next club which seems to be weirdly pursuing this guy.

Recently, I read this on SportsKeeda, in a daily transfer update:

“Tottenham star Gareth Bale has taken time off to decide about his future, subject to Harry Redknapp’s tenure at the club. Reports claim that Bale might not stay at Spurs next season, with Manchester City keeping a close tab on the winger. Rumours suggest Harry Redknapp might not be manager at the club next year and this coupled with the non-qualification to the Champions League could provide even more impetus for Bale to move. Barcelona are also said to be monitoring the situation.”

Now read the last line carefully. Let the incongruity of this statement hit you on the face. Let the implausibility of this latest rumour sink in. If it does, good. But if it doesn’t, read on.

Pep’s arrival at Camp Nou heralded the beginning of a new era, a completely new and refreshing style of football. Tiki-taka, where the ball should not stay at the feet for more than a few seconds (Messi exempted). It involves minimal dribbling, great vision, high levels of stamina and most importantly, no high crosses into the box, the rule being that the ball should be played into the goal. Notice where I am going with this? No? Read on.

Isaac Cuenca, Pedro Rodriguez and Alexis Sanchez are the wingers currently in the first-team roster of Barcelona. They are extremely good young talents, who have a knack of scoring goals and providing assists and they seamlessly fit into the Barcelona mould. But if you notice carefully, their crossing frequency into the box is low compared to the likes of Ashley Young, Gareth Bale and Angel Di Maria. The Barcelona wingers prefer to pump in low balls into the 6-yard area, which more often than not, find a Barca player. Or in extremely rare cases, they chip the ball over the defense to find a unmarked man. Read again: chip, not cross. There is a subtle difference between them. They also do not rely much on speed, with the availability of players around them to pass the ball to.

Now Bale is a completely different proposition altogether. His greatest asset is his speed and his venomous left foot. His marauding runs down the left flank pose a grave danger to the opposition, who have no answer to his uni-dimensional approach. Lately, he has taken a fancy to cut inside from the left and shoot from distance, or lay off the ball to Modric, or Van der Vaart. He seldom attempts any defense-splitting passes, instead preferring to cross balls into the box from the flanks, which usually find the head of Adebayor or Pavlyuchenko. Bale is also prone to be selfish at times, preferring to go for the ambitious shot rather than simply passing it to a team-mate.

Note that the above paragraph is not about criticizing Bale’s talents and skills. It is just emphasizing on the fact that Bale would be better suited to teams who like to counter-attack, or prefer to play down the wings. Now Barcelona don’t fit that bill. They like to maintain possession, work the ball slowly from their own half, rely on ground passes and through-balls to slip the ball through the defense. It would obviously be frustrating for an adrenaline-pumped fast-paced player like Bale, who would like to see some more vibrancy and pace in the game.

Barcelona have also incorporated Johan Cruyff’s legendary ‘Total Football’ into their play, a fact which is seen when Pique sometimes plays as the striker and Iniesta bombards in from the right. This requires complete mastery of playing in several positions, and requires adapting at various positions on the pitch. Redknapp had once deployed Bale down the right flank instead of his preferred left, and it ended in disappointment for Bale. The wily opposition left-back was able to smother Bale’s effectiveness in the game by forcing him to play on his right foot most of the time. He is clearly not comfortable with his right foot, a fact which would work in any team’s favour if they played their cards right.

Unless Tito Vilanova decides to disband the tiki-taka style and go for the pragmatic Rijkaard model which Barcelona were following before Pep took charge, I can’t see how Bale would fit into this side. If he joins, he would have to contend with a spot on the bench, which would be deemed cruel for a player of his calibre.

So let’s quash the myth, deflate the hype and introduce some logic and common sense into all these confounded rumours.