Equipment and other issues

Response from Ronald Koeman, current FC Barcelona coach, when asked about the progress, and consequent loss, of Leo Messi: "We are a team and we are prepared."

Team, that magic word, or rather, of magical meaning, in a sport like soccer. The team against the individuals, that has always been the leitmotif of those clubs that face the greats, those that have a plethora of stars to solve the game in one play, in one action, in a unique and unsuspected technical gesture, of those that create new trends. Do you want an example? Perhaps that box of players in Paris in which Messi, Neymar and Di María followed their team's game and in which, I suppose, Messi was updated on game situations, game actions, reactions and songs from his new team. public. Immersion in the culture of your new club. Everything is the same, but everything is different.

Team, I also suppose that Nuno Espirito Santo, Tottenham's new coach, must have thought when he left his scorer and franchise player Harry Kane out of the opening match against, neither more nor less, Manchester City, supposedly interested in signing the London striker. And the equation was expensive with that prestigious victory, three valuable points and someone could get the rash answer that Tottenham do not need Kane to be great. It is the risk of drawing conclusions immediately, but surely more than two Spurs fans dined more calmly with that victory achieved without their best player. And Mr Lévy, president of Tottenham, won a week of tranquility to continue pressing his negative response to any offer feeling that he has two winning tricks:if Kane stays he wins (and his followers will be delighted), if after the victory the bidding of those interested rises and sells it for a Potosí, he also wins (and the owner will be delighted). We will see the next move of this poker game.

If we go to Paris, surely they will have already seen an image of the complicity between Messi and Mbappé, the good guys are always and naturally. I don't tell them anything if Neymar joins the matter. Fantasy, creativity, definition, one on one, fouls, possible penalties ... uf ... of those nights in which goalkeepers do not usually sleep much when we imagine all the situations that the next day we will have in front of us and knowing that no matter how much we imagine, Those guys are going to make us face the unknown. But surely Pochettino will be thinking about how to balance his team that already suffered last season in rapid transitions after turnover.

Balance is the magic word that usually accompanies the analysis just before reaching the conclusion of whether we have a team.

Because the game is no longer attack and defense, now it is about defending by attacking and attacking by defending.

Returning to Koeman and his Barça in reconstruction ("his" because the team is always the coach, and sometimes the Sports Director, while doubts are clarified. Then ... then ... well it depends, if he wins it belongs to everyone, if he does not win then you You remain exclusively), it would seem that Barça is determined to divide up the tasks, from the recovery of the ball to the goals, it wants to look to the future so as not to think about the past, the individual will is to add for the group and even the leading role it is distributed even though Pique acts as the main master of ceremonies.

But remember that of the immediate conclusions to visualize the view of a San Mamés with an audience, we are almost a San Mamés, almost for real, and repeat the assessment after those new demanding 90 minutes against a club that that guy who had the 10 He martyred at each end, at each peak moment.

As Simeone, the king of team building, would say: "Match by match."

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