Martino's Barcelona is more than just Lionel Messi

Tata Martino

Carlo Ancelotti, armed with that famous left eyebrow that seems to have a life of its own, tried to downplay the significance of his Madrid side’s El Clasico loss, even insisting that his team “attacked more” than Barcelona managed on the night.

And while the raised eyebrow continues to compete admirably with The Rock Dwayne Johnson’s in its attempt to become the first human body part to fly unsupported by any mortal constraints, Ancelotti himself fell flat on his face in a much more nuanced battle with his Barcelona counterpart.

So much so that if he were to take his Rock impersonations further, and yell “Can you smelllllllll, what Carlo is cooking?” the first thing that pops into my mind would be the image of a cheeky Gerardo Martino sneaking into Carlo’s kitchen and making his own subtle additions to the broth, so to speak.

And remember, this is a broth that has already had far too many cooks on its case, what with Floreninto Perez and the fans themselves having prominent says in Ancelotti’s team.

But what Martino has done is completely ruin the meal, and Ancelotti has been stunned at just how easily it was all accomplished. And so he must begin again, from the depths of this humiliation, a man who first has to solve the issues rampant within his own team before he can even think of taking on this Barcelona side.

Curiously, it was a humiliation on a much larger scale that saw Martino arrive at Barcelona. The 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Bayern Munich viciously exposed that which Barcelona have so stubbornly refused to acknowledge, their vision clouded by years of success – the unshakable truth of Darwinian evolution.

Even winning teams have to change and evolve in the face of ever-growing opposition, because only the fittest survive. And it a right that has to be earned over and over again, this right to be called the “fittest” – this much has always been clear to those who are learned in the ways of nature.

And yet Barcelona meekly succumbed to that very entity that has been responsible for their ascent to the pinnacle of world football – their footballing philosophy. Protected in the bubble of domestic successes, the Catalans were lulled into a false sense of security, and were blind to the storm that was coming.

And when it hit, with a ferocity unlike anything they had seen unfold on the hallowed turf of the Camp Nou, it came as a wake-up call. They realized that they had become too enmeshed in the confines of their thinking, and that fresh perspective was the need of the hour.

Tito Vilanova’s continued battles with a monster of a different kind, one that far eclipses anything the Catalans would see on a football pitch, rendered him unsuitable for the job at hand. And so they turned to Martino, a man who is essentially a fellow brother in terms of his own attitude toward the game. And yet, tellingly, has the crucial advantage of being able to see things from the outside in.

Having played under Marco Biesla in his own career, the current Barcelona incumbent is no stranger to the high pressing and possession oriented game that Barcelona perfected under Pep Guardiola. Guardiola considers Biesla his mentor, and so to put faith in another student of the old master seemed logical.

But Martino has proved himself to be more than just a chip off the old block – and this came to the fore in the El Clasico. In addressing the unsolved issues that had crept in at Barcelona the manager has put Barcelona back on the track of challenging Bayern Munich, who sit atop the pile with an almost casual disregard for any potential challengers.

Crucial to the task has been the flag bearer, the man who every La Masia graduate hopes to one day emulate – Lionel Messi. For all his acheivements, Messi’s all-too-humane body cannot take on the entire burden of lifting Barcelona time and time again – something the Argentine’s indomitable spirit had never been able to accept previously.