As Barcelona emerged from their autumn CRISIS and got down to the serious business of winning the treble, Dani Alves did two things. One, he returned to something approaching his best form. Though not back to the player he was under Pep Guardiola, when Alves basically played four positions at once and was at one point proclaimed the second-best player in the world, he was still a vital cog in the continent's best side. He was near ever-present as they chased down Real Madrid at home, and only missed one knockout game as they stomped their way through the Champions League.
Dani Alves isn’t perfect, but Barcelona needed him
Barcelona’s right back isn’t leaving after all. But we’ve looked back at his career in Catalonia anyway.
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Two, he started making noises about leaving:
I may have two feet in the team but I’ve also got one foot, my body and nearly my head out of the club. I would like to stay here but not at any price. Not only in terms of money but in terms of respect. If I’m not shown that respect, I’ll go to another club.
But today, in what might be the world’s first three-footed backtracking, the club announced that he would not be going anywhere: he has signed a new two-year deal with an option for a third, which will take him up to the age of 35 and presumably the end of his career. This is good news for Barcelona, assuming his form holds, but bad news for Manchester United, AC Milan and anybody who spent their morning writing a retrospective on his Barcelona career. Ahem.
Let's press on anyway: after all, Alves is old as footballers go, and Barcelona yesterday announced the signing of Aleix "oh man, I've spelled his name wrong again" Vidal from Sevilla, an heir apparent, who has also played up and down the right flank. The thought of a modern Barcelona side without Dani Alves is a peculiar one, and we're going to have to start getting used to it sometimes.
Alves is not the defining player of this current period in Barcelona's history: that, obviously, is Lionel Messi, who casts a long shadow for such a small man. Nor is he as emblematic of either Guardiola's or Luis Enrique's sides as, say, the Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets midfield in the former case, or the Neymar-Luis Suarez-Messi trident in the latter. And he even missed the first of Barca's three Champions League finals, suspended along with Eric Abidal. Yet, along with Messi, Iniesta, Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets, he's been crucial to each of the Champions League-winning sides and, to those watching from afar, just as ubiquitous as any of the rest.
Barcelona's Title
Perhaps that ubiquity has to do with his job, which, under Guardiola was essentially to do everything on half the pitch. If Barcelona attacked down the right, there he was: overlapping, crossing, giving and going. (Throwing himself on the floor, sometimes.) If Barcelona started circulating the ball in midfield, there he was: tucking in, doing his bit for the carousel, ticking and tacking. And if the opposition managed to muster an attack down the left, there he was, sticking a foot in and generally getting in the way. He did a lot, and he got on television a lot.
Even now, with his role slightly constrained and his legs presumably a little heavier, he still gets around a remarkable amount. At one point in the Champions League final he even came inside to harass Andrea Pirlo, and we can be fairly sure that the Italian wasn’t about to start sprinting down the wing. It’s going to interesting to see how the transition goes: we know that Vidal can play at right-wing or right back, but it’s an open question whether he’ll be asked or be able to both at the same time.
Maybe the Perfect Modern Fullback doesn’t and cannot exist. How can one player be solid enough to contain the best in defense, yet penetrative enough to unstitch the best in attack, and always in the right place to do each at the right moment? Sometimes, inevitably, the ball is going to find its way to the space where the fullback isn’t, or the tackling will have suffered for the sake of the crossing. And so perhaps a certain amount of tolerance is required when assessing fullbacks, a margin for error. A recognition that they are going to have to be a little bit dodgy at something, since to be good at everything would be simply unfeasible, or at the very least unfair.
That, in turn, makes it perhaps impossible to arrive at a reasonable answer as to the question of who’s been the best. You could certainly argue that Alves has been, but at the same time, you could note that he sometimes gets caught out at the back, that he hasn’t been anything like as consistent over the last couple of years, and that he’s been weirdly ineffective at times for Brazil. So, go on and choose somebody more defensively secure, or more consistent, or Maicon. (Don’t choose Maicon.) Like most of these questions, it’s ultimately a matter of taste.
But what we can perhaps say is this: “Over the time that he’s been at Barcelona, Barcelona could not have asked for a better fullback.” Whether it was Guardiola’s side -- for whom he was another outstanding spoke when passing and a dervish when pressing -- or whether it’s this current incarnation, where he spends slightly more time covering behind the front three but is still able to get up and down like a fresh-faced teenager, he’s slotted in perfectly. In style, that is, and as close to perfect in practice as anybody could ask for. No fullback ever got the praise of a Messi or the adulation of a Xavi, but such is life. No fullback could have been their fullback better.
That, more than anything, is why his extension is exceptional news for Barcelona, even if it comes with the knowledge that he negotiates contracts with his club in much the same way he negotiates free kicks with referees. Much wailing, much rolling around, much clutching of a seemingly serious injury ... and then -- suddenly! surprisingly! -- everything’s fine. In the end, nothing became his Barcelona career so much as his failure to depart from it.
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