One of the most pernicious characteristics of modern football is that it hardly leaves us time to miss it: it is always there, it never goes away completely and, when it does, it quickly returns to present its credentials so that the general public does not feel the improbable temptation to fall in love, what do I know, with cycling.
With the end of last season still on the retina and eyelids raw —from rubbing so much— with the recurring miracles of Real Madrid, football gets under way again with that feverish impetus of someone who is known to be a fundamental part of our lives .
Xavi's Barça has been one of the first to get to work, what it lacks.
The azulgrana come from a difficult season, almost on the verge of institutional and also sporting eviction, weighed down by an improper start to the season for a club of its size and marked by a final stretch in which they took out the calculator and took second position for good in the absence of several days, forgetting the most elementary notions of pride and respect towards colors that would deserve much more than a vulgar qualifying conformism.
In both phases a common denominator factor was repeated: Pedri's absence due to injury.
Upon his return, and in the absence of new stimuli, the culé fan consecrates the renewal of his votes.
More information
Laporta: "Frenkie de Jong is not for sale"
The canary has come back strong, visibly more muscular, an image for which the last romantics of the horizontal pass were not fully prepared.
A beefy Pedri is like a Rolls Royce with skirts, a spoiler and a Penélope disco sticker next to the taillights: no one says it can't work but, at least on paper, it's the typical touch-up that didn't seem necessary at all.
His qualities, which are many, run along paths far removed from gyms and tight shirts but, as with almost everything in this life, there will always be those who defend his evolution from Canarian poet to voluminous Marvel superhero.
Every once in a while, like those absurd summer fashions, some doomsayer appears willing to decree the end of the small footballer, of the talented boy who, based on technique and pause, survives in a catastrophic scenario ravaged by cyclones, the destructive midfielders and those applications that measure how many kilometers per game each player is capable of covering.
In this line of quantifying everything that any inexperienced eye is capable of detecting, LaLiga has just announced its intention to make the Beyond Stars portal available to the general public, an advanced statistical
software
that until now only professionals had access to.
“What football was missing: the democratization of supposed knowledge,” says a good friend of mine.
And you are probably right.
Soccer players like Pedri, Modric, Bernardo Silva and many others are in charge of keeping this stream of action at bay that celebrates signings based on
big data
.
And he will have some reason, according to the investments made by the big clubs in these areas, all of them insufficient to contradict Cruyff in one of his most memorable analyzes: "Jose Mari Bakero is the fastest footballer in the world".
The algorithms of it, the rules of it.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on
and
, or sign up here to receive
our weekly newsletter
.
50% off
Exclusive content for subscribers
read without limits
subscribe
I'm already a subscriber