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Coaches of multiple nationalities have passed through the Barça bench throughout its history. In addition to the Spanish (28), the British (10) and the Dutch (5) schools have been the ones that have left a more marked mark. Both for the amount and for his football identification with the club. Tradition deserves special attention orange which maintains its legacy in force since 1971, when Marinus Michels landed at the Camp Nou from the European champion Ajax.
Five coaches: Michels, two stages, Cruyff, Van Gaal, two periods, Rijkaard and Koeman and a common denominator, the spirit of 'total football' that characterized Dutch football in the 70s. Each teacher adapted it to his particular method, but they all started from the same root. Among the first four they added 22 and a half seasons on the Barça bench and accumulated a total of 22 titles. Its direct influence on the track record can be measured by that standard. When Michels arrived, in 1971, Real Madrid had 14 leagues and six European Cups, for eight and no ‘orejona’ from Barcelona. When Rijkaard left in 2008, the balance was 20/18 in terms of Leagues and 7/5 in the continental competition par excellence.
Mister Marble, the pioneer. In 1971, after winning the first European Cup with Ajax, he surprisingly left the Dutch club. On the Camp Nou bench he replaced Englishman Vic Buckingham, whom he had already replaced at Ajax in 1965. He was not the only bond with his predecessor. The Briton made his debut for Johan Cruyff at Ajax and 'the skinny one' was, in October 1973, the great signing of Michels in his attempt to make Barcelona 'another' Ajax.
In Barcelona he spent two stages. In the first (1971-75) he won a League with the arrival of Cruyff (73-74) and in the second (1976-78) after being the Dutch coach in the World Cup 74 (runner-up) and another time at Ajax, he conquered a Cup (1977-78).
Michels was tough. Sometimes he went through the three daily workouts, but he taught us a lot
Martial
Marcial Pina played eight seasons for Barcelona (1969-77) and was one of the key men in that Michels team. His memories have the value of who was the protagonist live. “He was a tough guy. His method, then, caught our attention. He applied a good offensive system. He made us cause offside, press up on rejections and punts. We would always go two or three to the ball and if we stole it a fast counterattack was mounted. You caught the disorganized opponent. The pressure after loss that is so much talked about now, we were already doing it. “
His nickname of Mister Mármol, according to Marcial, was more than indicated. “The training sessions were very physical, with little ball. Due to my conditions, I would have liked more ball. Sometimes I was abusing. In the preseason we did three a day. One at seven in the morning. It was horrible to do jogging through the woods, then at 11 o'clock with the ball and in the afternoon another, a little more tactical. He took care of everything, even if he had assistants. He brought the Ajax system. When Cruyff came, even better. We were playing 1-4-3-3. I was the one in the center of the media line, but with a lot of arrival. I always liked it, it had the ability to step on the area. The year we won the League, I was the team's top scorer. The game system is essential in a team, without a system they make you dust. The midfield is super important. We played Juan Carlos, Asensi and I. We won 0-5 at the Bernabéu. We played very well and we were champions five days before finishing. A wonderful League, not even in dreams could you imagine “.
What he no longer liked so much was that the following season all the work he had achieved was destroyed. “Neeskens arrived and Sotil was condemned. They could not play more than two foreigners. There was a tremendous movement of players. Of the starters from the previous year we were five. It annoyed me a lot. They destroyed it. Having a compensated team, empathetic, well, they changed everything … I never understood. It was a disaster. With what it costs to find a team like that! “
His relationship with Michels in the second stage had its ups and downs. “It bothered me enormously that they blamed only me for that night out after a game. We were Rexach, who was from the house, Neeskens, who was Dutch … and it seemed that it was only me. We had our clashes. I was in front. I did not hide and I told him everything too. They blamed me for that departure to blame us for having lost the Championship earlier. That day we could no longer be champions. They wanted to carry me dead and nothing of that. “
Van Gaal, the misunderstood. After the eight years of Johan Cruyff and the parenthesis of Bobby Robson (1996-97) the Barça bench began to speak Dutch again with the arrival of Van Gaal. A posh signing. The coach had just won the Champions League with Ajax. His career, 26 years later, was very similar to that of Michels. He also served two terms at the club, with the Dutch national team in between. Between 1997 and 2000 he won two Leagues (98 and 99), a Cup (98) and a European Super Cup (97). His second stage was more fleeting. He signed in 2002 for three years but was fired at the end of January. He made his debut Xavi, Iniesta, Valdés, Puyol …
Van Gaal was competent and knew a lot, only the ways of transmitting it failed him
Gerard
Gerard López was a disciple of Van Gaal in his second stage and despite the few months he was under his mantle, he keeps a good memory of him. “He returned with the big band. His memory is that of a good coach on a conceptual level. Tough, competent, with a lot of character. Good training, good training, but how he transmitted it failed him. His way of being, his character influenced the forms. He was very hard on concepts, super hard-working. He didn't give much importance to physical appearance. It was more about having the ball. Super demanding. There was some out of tone with some player, some word higher than another. He got lost around there Otherwise he was a top coach. “
Tactically the system varied. “Then he came with 1-4-2-3-1. In his first stage he had played with the 1-4-3-3 Dutch classic, but in the second he protected himself a little more. He alternated the defense. to play with him even as a center-back, both with a line of four and with a line of three. The day I injured my ligaments in Malaga, the line of three was Gabri, me and Cocu. He always had an offensive mentality “.
Rijkaard, the gifted student. He made the rebounding bench in 2003. He wasn't the first choice. He had only coached the Netherlands (1998-2000), after being an assistant to Hiddink and Sparta Rotterdam, who descended to Second. Johan Cruyff, who had had him as a player, recommended him to Laporta. In five seasons he won a Champions League (2006), two Leagues and two Spanish Super Cups (2005 and 2006). He made Messi debut and gave confidence to the youth players
Rijkaard was a great, the origin of everything that was tactically after Barça
Gerard
Gerard López also shared a dressing room with him. “He was the opposite of Van Gaal. He came without experience. He did not have the same character, but instead he beat you by proximity. He was very close, almost one of us. He was not so experienced and tactically he was not so prepared but the Uncle knew how to win the locker room by proximity and ended up setting the path. He was the first that forced us to press up to recover in the opposite field. Then everyone, Pep, Tito, Luis Enrique … they threw what we did with Rijkaard. Everyone has inherited from him. I don't understand the Barça of the more recent past without the figure of Rijkaard. He was the first to hit us 1-4-3-3 with high pressure. It was the change of trend in Spanish football. From Madrid that it devastated the protagonist Barça. It changed the dynamics and the cycle “.
Gerard does not forget that he continued at Barça thanks to him. “I have a great memory. When he arrived I was about to leave the club and he stopped the start. I had a great preseason and I stayed. He liked the profile of the player that reminded him of himself. Cocu, Motta, or like I. Midfielders with physique and the ability to come and go. As he did at Milan. At the beginning the little ones did not play. Neither Xavi, nor Andrés (Iniesta). Tactically he started with 1-4-2-3-1. We started Badly and in December when Davids arrives we go to 1-4-3-3. It was done on the fly, he was coming up as coach. We began to press up and have more control in the center of the field. That change of drawing gave us it was extraordinary. “
Koeman, a little bit of everyone. If the five Dutch have had a direct relationship with each other both as footballers and coaches, the current, Ronald Koeman can boast of having shared a dressing room with his four predecessor compatriots. Namely: he was a disciple of Michels and therefore Rijkaard's partner in the Dutch national team, European champion in 1988 and also in Ajax (85-86). As a footballer, he played under Cruyff first for Ajax (1985-86) and then for Barcelona (1989-95). In 1998 he was part of Van Gaal's technical team at the Barça club for a season and a half. Then he was a coach ajacied with Van Gaal himself as sports director. In February 2005, he resigned due to incompatibilities with his boss.
The Johan Cruyff coach had even more weight and ancestry in Barcelona than the footballer Johan Cruyff. Eight seasons (1988-96) with eleven titles. Among them, the first European Cup in the club's history (1992). In addition, four Leagues (1991, 92, 93 and 94), 1 Cup (1990), 1 Recopa (1989), 1 European Super Cup (1992) and three Spanish Super Cups (1991, 92 and 94). A total of 430 games with 250 wins, 97 draws and 83 losses.
Eusebio Sacristán enjoyed Cruyff seven seasons. Now he is a coach due to the influence of his coach.
-If you had to choose one of the teachings that Cruyff left you, which one would you choose?
-There were so many… I came to Barça from Atlético and I met him. His proposal is surprising in itself. The drawing he made the first day with the 1-3-4-3. The four midfielders in rhombus and on the inside and the top three caught my attention. I've never seen it. I loved. My chances of playing were growing compared to 1-4-4-2. I, because of my physique, could only play inside, not in a band. He was an organizer and in that drawing he saw that he could play in more positions: pivot or both inside. It opened a world for me.
-In other words, his biggest surprise was tactics.
-Clear. With Cruyff it all made sense. He gave an explanation to all the things he did that could seem surprising to us. It explained why he did things. That for the player is great. It is as if I gave you a book for the lesson and you always had it at hand. With him I was happy as a footballer. I found someone ideal to play my game. I had the career that I had because Johan appeared in my life. It made sense of what I had best, technique and decision making. The equipment was positioned in such a way that I could bring out my game. With other systems the physical condition prevailed and I was not strong to do one against some, to crash, quite the opposite.
He explained the why of everything he sent you. It was like a book
– More details that will catch your attention …
-The situation proposal of the other cards. He placed them in such a way that technique and the opportunity to find the free player always prevailed. With that positioning the possibilities of playing and passing the ball were immense. From the first day in Holland he put that drawing on the board. In training, in positional games, it was very stopping and correcting. No, don't get here. Put here that you give the pass line. Don't stand still. He gave you all kinds of explanations about your placement in relation to your partner. He was always trying to explain why things had to be done.
-You in your number game was '8', Guardiola was '4', Bakero was '6'
– Right inside and had to be always positioned to be related in the pass with the pivot, with the midfielder and with the end of my side. Even with the furthest away. I couldn't get in the line of others. You had to maintain different heights. A large number of passing lanes were opened. I needed my teammates, I couldn't keep the ball, if I stayed with him they would take it away.
-He came to play central-back in the defense of three.
-Yes. When the opponent played with only one striker, Johan made sense of it and put three men behind and one of them could be me. His reasoning was why am I going to have four behind if they only have one or one and a half point at most. Then he put me in, who was just another midfielder and helped get the ball out. Defensively my reference was a means of the opposing team. I only remember having a bad time one day in that position, in Mallorca, when I had to face Álvaro Cervera. I played half time. At half-time he put me in midfield and put in a defense. He didn't have to score at a fast tip. But if the opponent played with two forwards, he would put the line of four and I played right inside.
When he played defense it was because the rival only had one forward