Flashscore recently interviewed former Barça player Ramón María Calderé and he analyzed Barça’s transformation from last season. Calderé stated “Intensity is key. Intensity, rhythm and the way the team puts pressure on the rival’s defensive line in order to recover the ball quickly”. And he elaborated on that last point “Lewandowski is not so involved in pressing the centre backs this season, the wingers are, and that’s mainly because he’s 36, so he is fresher when the team attacks, that’s why he’s performing so well and scoring so many goals”. The former Spanish international also explained that “the pace and the intensity of the team are superior this season, also in offense; the team attacks quickly. That doesn’t mean counterattacks, no, I mean that when the team has the ball they can get to the opponents goal in two or three quick passes”.
Ramón Calderé, who has been a manager for many teams the last few decades, also mentioned a few former Barça coaches as their references as a manager, “Laureano Ruiz, who is among those who started Barça’s celebrated style of play, Johan Cruyff, for whom I played a short time, but who was clearly a total innovation in the game, then we have Luis Aragonés, from whom I learned how to manage the dynamics of the dressing room, and of course Terry Venables, who gave a chance in the first team and with whom we worked on pressing the rival’s backline in a similar fashion to what the current Barça team does.
From his days at Barça he remembers fondly playing with Diego Armando Maradona, and Ramón Calderé had very kind words for the late genius “we all know Maradona, alongside, Pelé, Messi and of course Cruyff is one of the greatest of all times. But I’ll always remember the way he treated the youngsters, like myself, that came from the youth system; which was excellent. He was always caring about us, showing interested, making sure we were fine, and that’s something I will never forget”.
You can read the full interview here.
