Imagining Johan Cruyff in the Current Barcelona Side

Johan Cruyff's legend remains forever embedded in Barcelona folklore.

His "Dream Team" were often noted as Barca's best until recently, but we need to loop back to the early 1970s and his arrival in Catalonia as a player.

It's not an exaggeration to suggest that he was, some might say perhaps still is, Barca's most influential and complete player. Certainly Cruyff completely changed the entire concept of what a modern footballer was.

The Dutchman had everything in his locker.

Vision, superlative technical skills and incredible acceleration were allied to a deep appreciation of tactical variations and space on the pitch.

All transferable to the modern era, which would makes his transition to today's Barcelona side a seamless one.

"Tiki taka" has often been misinterpreted. Pep Guardiola's signature is a modern variant of the Cruyff/Rinus Michels vision of "Total Football."

David Goldblatt of The Independent described it thus:

"

The Total Football of Ajax and then the Dutch national team was a style built on a particular conception of space. In defence, Ajax made the pitch as small as possible, compressing opponents into tight and awkward segments, vulnerable to aggressive pressing and offside traps. In attack, they made the pitch as large as possible to give players time and space, and always gave the ball to those players, irrespective of their position, with the most of it. Defenders would go on the attack, players would rotate their positions, everyone had to be aware of the entire geometry of the pitch. Cruyff was described as "Pythagoras in boots". Individual talent and technique were locked into a demanding system of collective play and readjustment.

"

Much of the concept of total football has been retained by Barcelona over the years, save for perhaps the constant interchanging of position.

Lionel Messi is the exception to that rule, adapting perfectly well to any role asked of him. False nine, winger or playmaker, La Pulga is equally adept at all three.

Where Cruyff is even head and shoulders above the player that many perceive as the best ever is that, in essence, the Dutchman created total football, for want of a better term.

Nothing like it had ever been seen before. He was the heartbeat of everything that the Barca of the early to mid '70s tried to achieve.

"

Picture: First training Johan Cruyff at Barcelona, in September 1973 pic.twitter.com/ImkwiG9Tki [via @respect3020396]

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) September 26, 2014"

Supplanting that into today's side, we would probably find Cruyff as starting centrally in the No. 10 role, given he was for all intents and purposes primarily a playmaker.

In reality he was so much more than that and indeed FIFA.com describe Cruyff as:

"

A fleet-footed, elegant and technically gifted footballer, who never evaded a tackle. Cruyff was a playmaker, ammunitions provider and marksman rolled into one, with an ability to time a pass that has hardly been equalled before or since.

"

This would mean of course that Messi would revert to a wider attacking position slightly further up the pitch, with Neymar symmetrically mirroring the Argentine's movement on the opposite side.

Sorry, no place for Luis Suarez here.

With excellent dribbling skills, the nous to know when to drift wide himself and drop deeper if required, Cruyff would quickly become the fulcrum of the side.

His extraordinary vision in being able to thread "eye of the needle" passes to team mates would be manna from heaven for the likes of Messi and Neymar as they venture in from the wide channels to receive inside the full-back.

In order for any system to work, of course, each player would need to be on Cruyff's wavelength, which is no mean feat in itself.

One step ahead at all times, keeping to a reasonably well-defined shape overall, but constantly moving.

Per UEFA A coach Jordi Pascual when talking to football journalist Lee Roden, movement is what characterised the whole total football ethic:

"

So what’s at the heart of this way of playing football? Mobility. Mobility is the key word. Mobility of players to cover the pitch. Mobility of players to appear and disappear from the “scene of the crime”.

"

Whilst the Catalans are full of exceptional ball players, there are bound to be casualties. Those players that are just not up to the mark, in terms of their understanding of that system.

For Cryuff to be able to function effectively in today's Barcelona, it's imperative that there remains a deep appreciation for the purpose of movement, and how those means define the end product.

In any event, the central striking role is perhaps the one that will be utilised the least. Cruyff scored goals, yes, but even he wasn't in the same bracket as Messi or indeed Neymar are in this regard.

Aside from an enviable skill set, in the dressing room or on the pitch you couldn't accuse Cruyff of being afraid to speak his mind.

And the Dutchman could at least back up his argument with acumen. He possessed an in-game intelligence that would serve him so well.

With that in mind, it's a fairly safe bet that Cruyff would also be captain in the current Barca setup.

There aren't too many players, if any other, that you could reasonably argue would complement any team from any era.

Johan Cruyff remains one.