07.10.2009 11:46
Cruyff: "The result’s not everything, only a part"
Edgar Fornós
This Thursday at 23.15, a new series begins on Barça TV, 'Recorda Míster' (Remember Boss). It starts with Johan Cruyff, a coach who changed the way we understand football: “I come from a mentality where good football rules, beyond the results".
Barça TV will start broadcasting a new programme tonight at 11.15 pm. 'Recuerda Míster' looks back
over the experiences of a number of Barça’s former football managers.
The inaugural programme is the first of a three-part series on Johan Cruyff, who
holds the record for consecutive seasons in charge of the first team. This first episode is
entitled “Put the pieces in their position and don’t let them leave it”. He
admits: “The result’s not everything, only a part" and while he recognises the
importance of the result, he focuses on “good football”.
Technique and possession
In Cruyff’s opinion, there are two key elements in football: “For me the basis of
football is technique and possession. I always want to have the ball, dominate and do what I want
on the pitch. I never adapt to others. This is the most difficult football to play”.
No football without the team
Johan Cruyff sees football as a team game: “There are no stars that shine more
than the others. They’re all stars and everyone has to carry out their obligations. Somebody
will be better on one day and somebody else the next, but it all has to come together in a single
team, never in a team of individuals. I’ve always put the team above the individual. If the
team works , the star is on top of all”.
Reading the match
"It’s true that football also has strategy. If I see that a team has a full
back with certain characteristics, I’ll play a winger who can beat him. But all the decisions
you can take before a match stay up in the air because you never know how the other team will play.
You can apply the strategy as you go, after seeing how the match is going after five minutes and
you make the changes you believe are appropriate. Reading the match as a player and then as a coach
has been one of my best virtues”. These are the words of the manager who has won the most
silverware with Barça.
First team + reserves = success
The treble-winning season was, with all due respect to many other factors, a triumph
for the home-grown players. The contribution of the players that have been through the Barça
academy was a pleasing bonus that consolidated as the season went on. Home-grown talent played a
similarly important role under Johan Cruyff
"I’ve always considered youth football as a fundamental aspect to take into account.
There are always cards, injuries and other setbacks and it’s important to know that you can
count on the reserves. This encourages the reserves since you make them see that if they make an
effort and, above all, take their opportunities, they have a good chance of breaking into the first
team. It’s the best way to manage a club”.
Guardiola took his chance
Current Barça manager, Josep Guardiola, got his opportunity to make the
leap from the reserves to the first team when Cruyff was the manager: “Then there were a lot
of players, I think Guardiola was one of the first, who trained with the first team but played for
the B team. He knew that he had to work hard and give 100% if he wanted to be part of the senior
squad. In the whole teaching process it’s important to go one step at a time and be patient
so that things work out well. Step by step and patience”.
Never say never
Although it’s hard to believe, Cruyff never saw himself as a coach giving orders to a
group of players: “I’d always thought that I would never become a trainer. Though,
logically, I was interested in a lot of things related to football, apart from being a player, I
didn’t want to be a trainer at all”.
A change of mind in the USA
Cruyff first felt the need to take on the challenge of management when he was
thousands of miles away from his native Amsterdam: “When I played in the United States during
my final years as a player, I discovered a whole new world, beyond the football on the pitch. There
I learned everything about organization. I already knew about football and I didn’t need to
know any more. But I did need to learn about other things. For example, how to manage a team, how
the organigram of a squad of footballers works, the day by day work of the offices with their
corresponding departments etc.”.
"I learned things there that still didn’t exist in Europe and it was then that the
interest in becoming a manager one day awoke in me. I don’t like office work so I thought
that if I wanted to change something my place was on the pitch”.