Rigtig godt interview med Mascherano af Sid Lowe i The Guardian.
Her er Mascheranos udtalelser, hvis man ikke gider at læse det hele igennem, hvilket jeg dog vil anbefale da Sid Lowe også skriver et par gode ting om Mascherano:
Om
denne tackling på Bendtner i 2011:
“That tackle marked a before and after. Honestly, after five, six months I thought it was unlikely I’d be here long: my characteristics seemed to go against everything Barcelona stood for. That moment marked me. If Bendtner had controlled the ball and gone the other way, he’d have got away from me and … uffff! … I don’t know what would’ve happened. But it happened the way it happened and we ended up winning that Champions League. Things worked out well.”
Om at kæmpe for sin plads på holdet:
“I’ve always refused to give up. You think: ‘If I’m not playing at West Ham, how am I going to play for Liverpool when they already have Gerrard and Xabi Alonso?’ But I took that as a challenge and it was the same when I joined Barcelona. But it was hard and I knew I wouldn’t take Sergio Busquets’ place. Impossible, impossible. Think of another player anywhere who could do what Busquets does for this team … there isn’t one. It was hard to see myself having a long stay here.”
Om at skifte position:
“I actually played that game in midfield; it was Busquets who played at centre-back. But from then on, I played at centre-back: that tackle changed everything. I found my position and I’ve been there all these years, trying to keep my place and keep this level. Until when? I don’t know because Barcelona demand a lot and have the possibility to sign whoever they want.”
Om at omfavne den nye position og ikke at ville forlade klubben:
“Where do you go from here? It was worth it because I’m playing for one of the best teams in the world, with the chance to win titles. And I see football as a collective sport, not an individual one.”
Om fremtiden og eventuelt at blive træner:
“Playing at coach is very easy, actually doing it is another thing: put yourself in the coach’s position and you’ll see how complex everything is. But I’d like to try. If you’re going to do something, you need to prepare properly, and I will prepare myself. Then I’ll see if I can take the next step. Where? I’d start in Argentina, for sure. Then Europe? Well, I don’t know about that; I don’t know if I’d have what it takes.”
Om at spille centerback i Barcelona:
“Being a centre-back for Barça is not like being a centre-back for any other team. The areas you inhabit are very similar to those I’d inhabit playing in midfield. Often, in terms of where we press, Busquets and I are practically in the same line. If you make me defend in my area the whole time, then obviously I’m going to suffer because of my physical stature, but we don’t. The [biggest] thing that changes is that I receive the ball facing the pitch, not with my back to the play.”
Om stadig at betragte sig selv som midtbanespiller:
“Look, one day I won’t play for Barcelona. I’ll go and play somewhere else and I’m sure I’ll do so as a central midfielder. That’s what I’ll try to do, because it’s the position I like. Circumstance dictates and because of my desire to keep playing here I adapted. I like centre-back, but midfield is the position I chose to make my career.”
Om Alexis Sánchez:
“Alexis is a fighter who never gives up a ball for lost. Regardless of how well he plays, he always gives everything. That’s fundamental: he plays a huge role for [Arsenal], transcendental. His aggression and attitude is infectious. He transmits so much. And I think he did deliver here: he was very involved. Maybe he needed the challenge of a greater part elsewhere; you can understand that. But he gave us a lot.”
Om det tætpakkede program:
“Not even having three days off takes its toll. It’s not an excuse; it’s what we have to do, but we’re not machines. Maybe the freshness to get the ball back straight away has been lacking. It’s not the necessarily physical tiredness, often it’s mental tiredness, which provokes bad decisions; the pass you should have played there you put the other side and that has repercussions. It’s not so easy … Well, for Messi it is … not for us normal players.”
Om at bevare sulten selv efter tre titler og vigtigheden af kulturbærere:
“It’s not normal, and that’s why this team’s special. After winning so much, this team goes on trying to feed itself. There are 25 of us and we don’t all think the same, we have different characters, but when you walk together everything’s easier. It’s not just the front three, but players like Busquets, Iniesta, Piqué, who’ve been winning all there is to win for years but still have desire. Home-grown players who transmit the team’s identity. Like Jamie Carragher and Gerrard at Liverpool? Yes, and the first thing you did when you arrived [each day] was see if they were there, but there were only two of them; here there are five, six, seven, eight. Even the tiniest praise weakens you, making you relax, so imagine not just the praise but reality: medals on the table. Yet they’ve marked out the route that the rest follow; they pass on the culture of the club. The secret isn’t those on the inside adapting to the players who arrive here; it’s the players who arrive here from the outside adapting to those on the inside.”
El Jefecito er muligvis ikke en La Masia spiller, men der er efterhånden ikke nogen tvivl om at han er blevet en af de kulturbærere som han nævner. Hans attitude er fantastisk. Han er intelligent, god til at formulere sig og håndtere medierne og er i det store hele en ekstremt professionel fodboldspiller. Han elsker fodbold og det er tydeligvis en passion for ham, men det er også en karriere og et arbejde, så han er klar over at han er nødt til at tilpasse sig omstændighederne og at verden ikke drejer om ham. Jeg håber vi beholder Mascherano længe endnu.