La Real played like the Barça of old 

The draw against Real Sociedad has left Barça down right in El Clásico week. Their bad game, at the mercy of the well-conceived and developed style of La Real, was one in which they had to endure countless dangerous situations and seek life through isolated counter-attacks, was the antithesis of what Barça was and would like to remain. What Barça was and would like to remain is, precisely, La Real, whose play wasn’t served up by players of such high rank and price as Barcelona’s, but who are sufficiently good enough to apply the 'Made in La Masía’ football formula that produces a standard of football between good and stupendous every week.

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Old boy Eusebio 

At the head of all this is a man, Eusebio Sacristán, native of La Seca, Valladolid. With football, Eusebio is succinct. A player in Johan Cruyff’s famous Barcelona 'Dream Team', he was a perfect interpreter of the Cruyff model on the field. Then he was a coach in the lower ranks of Barça until he was fired after a bad spell. It didn’t go well in Segunda A: his players, boys with delusions of grandeur made little case for him. Barça let him go, but those players did not amend their bad habits and, a little later, they ended up going down to Segunda B. When Eusebio left, they were not in a downhill position. His departure emboldened the vain and everything lost order.

The Cruyff concept at La Real 

Now Eusebio has reappeared in the life of Barça with his excellent Real. More than just a few people have detected that behind his team is the 'Cruyff concept', the 'Guardiola concept', the secret of the Masia formula. These days Eusebio works with professionals, not stuck-up, stubborn young men with the sports cars and life of luxury though without even having played outside the 2nd Division. Now it’s evident what this coach is worth, whose natural simplicity maybe caused his career to go a little slower than he deserved. They took him away from Barça, but they could not take what he learned at Barça away from him. And now that’s for all to be seen.