Neymar: Is he really who Barcelona need?

Barcelona fans have gone gaga over their club’s acquisition of Neymar, and so they should. For a club of Barcelona’s stature, last season was – to be fair – underwhelming. Although they did canter to the La Liga title, they were knocked out out the Copa del Rey and the Champions League in a somewhat tame manner, showing little bite against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

Adding to that was their off-field turbulence which saw both Eric Abidal and Tito Vilanova diagnosed with cancer. Potentially losing one individual to cancer is surely heart-rending, so having two people diagnosed with the same illness leaves little to the imagination in terms of emotional impact, and that surely had an effect on the way the Azulgrana went about their game. Last season, Barcelona’s players embodied that characteristics that played such a crucial role in the club’s formation 113 years ago.

“Managers are fond of talking about how their side overcame adversity. Normally, it’s meaningless; in Barcelona’s case, it’s actually true. Eric Abidal and Tito Vilanova have both undergone treatment for cancer. Abidal is now playing again: doctors say it is a miracle that he is healthy, let alone competing once more.”

- Sid Lowe, The Guardian

The unveiling of Neymar in a Barcelona shirt is therefore the perfect pick me up for fans of the Catalan club. For years now, speculation has been swirling over the mohawked striker’s next destination. Everyone who is anyone in the world of football was being linked to him and as that list was slowly distilled into a shorter and shorter roster of names, there was much musing over whether he would join one of the uber-rich trio of Chelsea, Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain.

In the end, though, it was always going to be Real Madrid and Barcelona – the clubs who have maintained their interest in him the longest – who were going to duke it out over who gets this Brazilian sensation. Indeed, the prospect of watching Neymar and Lionel Messi torment opposition defences is a treat so mouth-wateringly delectable that when these two take to the pitch, one can expect a full house at the Camp Nou and a morass of millions of eyes staring unwaveringly as the Brazil-Argentina axis creates what can only be described as poetry in motion.

But while waxing lyrical over what is essentially Barcelona’s Plan B – yes, that is exactly what it is – which means that they will no longer be over reliant on Messi’s talents, is that what is most important in Catalonia right now?

If there is one phrase I never get bored of repeating over and over again, it is this:

“It is laid down by law that the team who scores the most goals wins. To accomplish this, you must be sure that the defence is sound. All this, I know, is elementary but it is also the rock bottom of football.”

- Herbert Chapman, Arsenal manager, 1925-1934

Last season, what was glaringly obvious when Barcelona took to the pitch against their peers was the absence of a solid back four. While that may not be absolutely necessary while playing against teams that occupy the middle of La Liga, it is absolutely vital when taking on the likes of Manchester United, Juventus or AC Milan, they did come unstuck on more than one occasion in Madrid, Paris and Munich.

Because of the prodigious talent of Messi, Barcelona could continue to prove to the world that offence is the best form of defence. But as teams learned followed Charles Darwin’s percepts to adapt to Barcelona’s tiki-taka style of play, it meant that once they had learned how not to get prised open by Xavi’s and Iniesta’s passes, they could strategise their own plan of attack. And once they did attack, Barcelona did not have the manpower to deal with them.

The last time Barcelona had four centre-backs of international quality was when Rafael Marquez and Gabriel Milito were at the club along with current Blaugrana Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique. With these four players at the side, Barcelona lifted three Champions League titles in six years and swept the sextuple in 2009. Coincidentally, the last of those three triumphs came in the 2010-11 season, the year in which Milito exited the club.

Since the departures of those two players, there hasn’t been a single centre-back signed by Barcelona. The last proper centre-back to be signed by them was Dmytro Chygrynskiy in 2009 and he ended up going back to Shakhtar – who made a tidy profit re-signing him – at the end of that season despite having a moderately successful season in Spain.

Messi’s world-class abilities and the triumvirate he formed with Xavi and Iniesta meant that while they held forth on the pitch, they did not need to sign defensive players because other teams got the ball so rarely, and when you do not have the ball for extended periods of time, the know-how you possess in the moment when you do have it significantly reduced because having the ball at your feet becomes a somewhat alien concept.

That meant that players such as Seydou Keita, Yaya Toure, Javier Mascherano, Alex Song and even Sergio Busquets were converted into makeshift centre-backs when either Puyol or Pique (in some cases, both) were unavailable. The foundations of any team lie in it’s defence.

Let’s compare Barcelona to Bayern Munich, the team that brought them soundly back to earth from whichever planet they were supposedly on. Despite the presence of Franck Ribery, Thomas Muller, Xherdan Shaqiri, Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Arjen Robben, there is a full complement of centre-backs at the Allianz Arena. Dante, Jerome Boateng, Holger Badstuber and Daniel van Buyten are all excellent centre backs and that defensive solidity has given the team’s attacking players the confidence they need to find the back of the net.

During the game against Barcelona in Germany, they cruelly exposed Barcelona’s defensive frailties. Critics of Barcelona’s dependence on Messi say that without the presence of the Argentine, Barca look distinctly sub par and those who disagree were silenced on that night.

What was even more obvious was Barcelona’s vulnerability at set pieces and crosses. Two out of the four goals that day came from set pieces and the Barcelona defence looked all at sea. What they needed there was a leader marshalling that back four and he was not present: Carles Puyol had once again succumbed to his oft-recurring injuries that has seen him miss so much of the last two seasons and the 2012 European Championships for his country.

The stalwart of the Camp Nou is ageing quickly and there are no suitable replacements within the club to take his place. In the absence of Puyol, even the normally reliable Gerard Pique was shaky at best. It is because Puyol is the fulcrum of that back four and without him, Barcelona’s defence looks very, very vulnerable.

Much has been made of Marc Bartra and rightly so, because the La Masia graduate is a cultured player but he is nowhere near filling in for the legendary Puyol at centre-back. Several world-class centre backs such as Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany and Borussia Dortmund’s Mats Hummels and a few other capable ones including Kompany’s team mate Joleon Lescott and his countryman Thomas Vermaelen have been linked to Barcelona in the past and it is time they brought in someone capable of holding the line at the back.

“In the past Puyol has been the unshakable foundation of Barcelona’s defense. Imagine him as an incredibly strong pillar holding up a house, it doesn’t look stable, it probably shouldn’t work, but because of Puyol being able to do exactly the job he was needed to do, it did work.

Without Puyol in the lineup, or in most cases even with him in it, the pillar has eroded and cracked, becoming weakened and unable to properly support the house.”

- Zach Woosley, SB Nation

Even when Puyol does play, he only looks to be a shadow of his former self. There is little wonder surrounding that, though because a combination of age, injuries and the resultant lack of game time have surely taken its toll on the club captain.

The reason Neymar has come in is to make sure that what happened during the return leg in Catalonia against both Bayern and PSG does not happen again. Bereft of Messi, Barcelona looked clueless without him against Bayern and needed him to come off the bench to inspire a comeback against the Parisians.

Now that they have brought in world-class talent to sharpen their sword, it is time they reinforced their shield with someone as equally skilled at defending as Neymar is up front.

Because the reason Barcelona flopped on the biggest of stages last season (with or without Messi) was because their defensive foundation had cracked.

And only they can make sure it is rebuilt.