In the fly-on-the-wall documentary I executive-produced during Luis Enrique’s first season in charge of Paris Saint-Germain, the Spanish coach shared his tactical preparation for what would become his side’s 4-1 demolition of Barcelona at Montjuic in last season’s Champions League quarterfinal. Luis Enrique told us: “There’s no doubt. ‘If we press them [Barça], they’ll kick it long. Down the right, we let Araújo come out with the ball. Whenever he does that we isolate him, and we press him.”
Then, in the prematch tactical video session, he told the PSG players: “This gentleman is Araújo. A top-level footballer, no question, but the Barça player with the most problems. Every time the ball goes towards him, we must already be closing off his passing line and then pressing him.”
Inevitably, as you’ve by now guessed, Paris follow their coach’s instructions, Bradley Barcola presses Araújo, the defender kicks possession away and as PSG erupt into an immediate counter-attack Barcola is fed the ball only for the Uruguayan to commit a “last-man” foul and get sent off. From leading 4-2 on aggregate, that was game over for Barcelona, and they’re duly knocked out of the competition, 4-1 on the night and 6-4 on aggregate.
What last week in Lisbon showed is that things have got even tougher for Araújo now that Flick is in charge. Their high-risk, occasionally high-reward, very advanced defensive line (on average their back four are 50 metres from their own goal-line) needs to be applied impeccably. None of the defenders nor the keeper can make a mistake, and split-second drop-offs in concentration can cost you a goal, a penalty, a red card or, indeed, calamitous defeat.
Some sympathy is owed to the big, wholehearted 25-year-old because the demands placed by Flick also scared the living daylights out of Araújo’s teammates (while he was injured) when the new German coach first announced them on the club’s U.S. tour last summer. But they all had time to learn, practice and assimilate the huge new challenges. Meanwhile, Araújo was undergoing a long rehab process and fighting back to fitness.
It turns out Araújo isn’t a guy who can watch, understand and then apply the hugely complicated system without lots of practical, “in-game” trial-and-error. His errors came against Benfica when the poor kid looked bewildered, overwhelmed and struggling to make sense of the mayhem around him.
The last time I interviewed Araújo, long before this offside-trap system was Barcelona’s modus operandi, he explained his general outlook.
“Barcelona has a very different philosophy from everyone else,” he said. “Even when I managed to understand, it was like the ball was coming at me at almost 200 km/h! “I tried to control it … I’d fail and I’d go home feeling frustrated and thinking ‘I don’t deserve to be here if I’m not able to control the ball!’ But I’d tell myself ‘What I need to do is learn!'”
Araújo did learn, the balance of his importance and worth tilted in his favour, and temporarily he even became a special weapon in El Clásico, man-marking Vinícius Júnior before, in due course, becoming part of Barcelona’s five-man captaincy group.
Right now, while Araújo is being drilled on the basics by the coaching staff and studies video tapes long into the night, he will have to accept that Flick will often choose the Pau Cubarsí-Martínez partnership ahead of him, he’ll occasionally have to accept deputising for Jules Koundé at right-back, and he’s got to get used to feeling like a novice again — something that might well be tested by Atalanta‘s terrifically clever, non-stop pass-and-move style in the Champions League on Wednesday.
And with Barcelona strongly committed to signing Bayer Leverkusen‘s towering, soon-to-be-out-of-contract, right-footed centre-half Jonathan Tah, I don’t think anyone can be sure that Araújo might not still be moved to Juventus or Bayern for a big fee at the end of this season. In the meantime, it’s back to the classroom for Araújo: high stakes, high concentration, high defensive line. Watch out for the stressed expression on his face every time he looks at the linesman, with his arm stuck hopefully up in the air yelling “offside,” from now until May.
