Dani Alves believes that Xavi, his
Barcelona team-mate, does not need to run. Instead, he makes the run by ushering
other players into the areas he desires. “Xavi,” Alves said, “plays in the future.”
At one
time, though, the future wasn’t predefined. Barcelona took a while taking to
Xavi. Aged six, the midfielder certainly charmed but the then director of youth
football Oriol Tort was not convinced by his physical capabilities.
“He is very small, but you will
sign him,” insisted Xavi's father, also known as Joaquim, a former Sabadell
player in the first division. It took almost five years to convince Tort but in
July 1991, aged 11, Xavi scored three goals in a trial and signed a youth
contract.
There he found a space and two
decades on, he is still finding spaces, only on the pitch - having made more
than 600 appearances for a club that is more than just a club. As Xavi said: “That's what I do. All day. I'm always
looking.”
At 5ft 7”, size hasn’t held Xavi
back. An inch smaller, it won’t restrict Joe Allen, either.
“It might have been an issue for
other people but never for me,” Allen says from inside a Melwood anteroom on a
Monday morning. “It was something I
had to fight against. I wasn’t really bothered. I kept chasing the dream,
believing in myself. You have to be single-minded. You could ask anyone in this
[Liverpool] dressing room and I’m sure they’ll tell you that there were people that
doubted them. That’s why they’re here now, I guess; because they had the mental
strength to prove the doubters wrong. I think football is a game where there is
a style of play or position for anyone.”
Xavi’s ascension to the role of
arguably the greatest midfielder of a generation has changed perceptions. Not
so long ago, players like him – especially in England – were overlooked in
favour of more powerful beasts when time came to promote from academy to first
team. Now, though, those with technical qualities are catching up.
“I think talent is
essential in football,” Xavi said. “On a football pitch, it is the technique of
a player that always makes the difference, not his physical power.
“Physical fitness is an important
part too, but anyone can work on it. Technique and talent on the contrary are
innate. You either have them or not. If you don’t have the talent, you can’t
play football. Barca and Spain dismantle that kind of thinking with talent; not
only can we play well, but we often manage to win too.
“Personally, I suffered a period
in my career because of my small size. In 2002, 2003, it was said that I could
not play in midfield because you had to be physically strong to play there. I
proved that this theory does not hold water.
“For me, Luis Aragones has been a
pioneer in this field, an apostle of the beautiful game that has proven that,
with technique, you can also achieve things. And talent is the key.”
Like Aragones - Xavi’s former
national team coach - Brendan Rodgers is a disciple of this theory. On becoming
Liverpool manager, he outlined his vision for the future. “I like to be
responsible for our own destiny,” he said. “If you are better than your
opponent with the ball, you have a 79 per cent chance of winning the game. It
is quite logical. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are.”
Such beliefs helped propel Allen
to where he is today; a Liverpool midfielder and international player of
considerable value. Allen had already been given opportunities in Swansea’s
first team by the time Rodgers was appointed as their manager in the summer of
2010. Since then, however, he blossomed under the guidance of someone that understood
his attributes implicitly.
“It takes the success of one player to break
the stigma,” Allen says. “Thankfully in Barcelona, they have had a whole team
of them. I’m lucky, in some ways I guess that my progression has coincided with
that emergence. But I’m also fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to work
with a series of managers that have been willing to give me a chance. Football
is all about opportunities.”
Rodgers revealed that he would have spent a lot more money to bring Allen
to Liverpool. The 22-year-old, Rodgers said, had a Welsh heart but the mind of
a Spaniard in terms of his surgical football ability. Direct comparisons with Xavi,
or indeed, his midfield sidekick Andres Iniesta, are too soon according to the
player.
“It’s easy to forget that Xavi is
32, 33. When I watch him, he seems to get better with every season,” Allen
says. “It’s like he has no age. What Xavi does better than everyone else is his
movement all over the pitch. In the tightest of situations, he finds a solution
whether he’s helping out the defence, in the middle of the pitch or in attack.
I know I’ve got a way to go before I can be that influential.”
It’s
almost as if Xavi plays with wing mirrors. “Before I receive the
ball, I must systematically take a look at everything on the pitch, to know
what I should do with it,” Xavi says. “I have to see where my teammates are to
pass on the ball, make an orientated control or give the ball back to the
defenders to save time.
“In this context,
Zidane was the undisputed master, because in addition to having an
extraordinary vision of the game, he could use both of his feet. Every one of
his actions was a spectacle. I, on the other hand, find it difficult playing
with my left foot.
“I didn’t learn all of this with
the Barca first team. We were taught to think before we accept a pass, to
protect the ball, and raise our heads to see where our teammates are. All these
concepts are instilled in them while they are still young by continuously
repeating these exercises.”
Allen believes that midfielders have to play
the game with “eyes attached to the back of the head,” otherwise possession
will be surrendered. Essentially, it’s being streetwise and playing the game
with a common sense; observing the efforts of everything around including both
team-mates and opposition.
“To me, football is a game of
angles. You allow yourself some space, you offer for the ball, release it then
reposition yourself in an area to receive it again. You’re constantly repeating
yourself. Doing that consistently is the difficult part and you only get that
through practice.”
Unlike Xavi, Allen did not have
the fortune of emerging from a fabled youth system like Barcelona’s academy at
La Masia. Instead, Swansea scouts spotted him in his early teens playing for
Tenby Boys’ after growing up in nearby Narbeth.
Given Allen’s father, Steve, is a dentist and his
mother, Jane, is a nurse, he could have pursued an alternative career. He
speaks fluent Welsh and his articulation of the English language during this
interview suggests that university might have beckoned. Yet both parents pushed
him in the direction that inspired him most.
“Football wasn’t just a pastime for me, it was
a passion,” he says. “I was fortunate to have parents who supported my passion.
Narbeth is a quiet town, a long way from the Premier League. But now I’m here.
Obviously you have to be mentally tough to ride through some of the more
difficult periods but when you have parents that back you all the way, it makes
it easier to succeed. I know it sounds clichéd but being a footballer was all I
could see myself wanting to do.”
Allen was a part of the Swansea system from
the age of nine. At 16, Kenny Jackett gave him his debut in the Welsh Cup to
Port Talbot Town with Swansea eventually losing 2-1 after extra time. Later, he
made his league debut under Roberto Martinez during a 6-3 defeat at home to
Blackpool. “Not the greatest of starts,”
he remembers. There were further set-backs. A loan spell at Wrexham was
curtailed when he damaged his ankle ligaments. “Frustrating.” Fortune finally
came his way when upon his own return from injury, the influential Dutchman
Ferrie Bodde was ruled out for the rest of the 2008-09 season. In the April, he
scored his first goal professional goal during a 2-2 draw with fierce South
Wales rivals, Cardiff.
Allen played under three different managers in
less than three years in the first team at the Liberty Stadium before Rodgers’s
arrival. “I cannot thank Swansea enough for helping me progress. It is a great
club for young players to learn the proper values of what makes football a
special sport. They have an idea and stick to it.”
Jackett, Martinez, Paulo Sousa and Rodgers
followed a similar mantra. But it was Rodgers that took the club into the
Premier League for the first time.
“There
was a feeling that he was going to be a special manager and take us forward,”
Allen says, “He instilled a real sense of professionalism in the squad. Players
saw how hard he worked; all the hours, and realised how hard they needed to
work to match his ambitions. There was a genuine passion for football and that
rubbed off on everybody. Especially when you are a young player, you’re keen to
take everything in like a sponge. When you have someone guiding you like that,
it helps a lot.”
Allen became the player that the
Swansea defence looked towards immediately after they received possession. Few
his age have ever been given such a responsibility in their own individual as
well as a team’s debut Premier League season.
He
flourished. Aside from the general impression made, Allen’s pass completion rate of 91 per cent was better
than even Barcelona’s Iniesta. No Liverpool midfielder managed better than 86
per cent in the same period.
When Rodgers agreed to become Liverpool
manager in June, one of his immediate priorities was to recruit the diminutive
conductor of play. Now, Allen senses history repeating itself.
“Walking in here a few weeks ago,
the sprit is the same,” he says. “The dressing room has responded to the
manager’s methods. It will take a little while for the team to click properly
because nothing is instant in football. The word ‘team’ is key because he [Rodgers]
always emphasises that he wants individuals to perform but within the framework
of the ‘team.’ It has been highlighted already how much he wants to play the
right way in terms of passing the ball but just important is the team; pressing
high collectively and win the ball back as quickly as possible. When you play
like that as a team, it allows individuals to be at their best. That was the
message at Swansea and it’s the same here.”
Allen appreciates the pressure is
different at Liverpool compared to Swansea. He insists, though, that a greater
success can be achieved by virtue of following the same principles.
“Brendan believes and I
definitely believe that this is the best way to win matches. If there was
another way to win matches, I’m sure the philosophy would change. We’re in a
results business and we’re very aware of that.
“The key is to stick to the
approach and not waiver from it. There were flaws during certain games last
season. But after adversity, we didn’t change.
“In the long-term that has to be
the way forward.”
This interview originally appeared in last month's Liverpool FC Magazine. To subscribe, vist: http://tinyurl.com/d929dh6
