Swansea City v Reading: Brendan Rodgers' Barcelona model is more than a passing phase

'Swanselona': there is more than a little presumption — and more than a little tongue in cheek — in the nickname, but it does express the audacity of the way Swansea City play football.

SUNTEL EMBARGO Swansea v Reading: Brendan Rodgers' Barcelona model is more than a passing phase: Brendan Rodgers
Independence day: Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers is keen to establish himself as his own man with his own style in the Premiership Credit: Photo: PA

Brendan Rodgers’ team have a fundamentalist belief in passing the ball to each other, something of a heresy in this frenetic division. Swansea's high-Spanish style has taken them to within a game of the Premier League: they face an in-form Reading at Wembley on Monday in the Championship play-off final, a match with its own hyperbolic billing: the £94 million game.

Rodgers, 38, winces a little at the comparison but in explaining what he calls his “ideology”, Barcelona are a key formative model. “I think it was the South Wales press that came up with that one,” Rodgers said of the ‘Swanselona’ tag.

“It was after a number of our games in which we’d made a lot of passes. Obviously you can’t even begin to make a comparison with them, but it does give our players confidence.

“We analyse passes that we make and that is one of our key performance indicators. Nine times out of 10, if we make a certain number of passes we will win the game. It means that we have control and our game is based around control and domination. We want to dominate with the ball.”

So how many passes does it take to win a game? “We average 526 passes per game and our average share of possession is 61 percent,” Rodgers said.

“The players have showed great courage. You have to be brave to play that way. That’s why I’ve been such an avid admirer of Barcelona for years. It is much more difficult to coach a team to win that way than it is to coach a team to win by hitting it long. Much more difficult.”

His commitment to an expansive playing style has deep roots, dating back to his youth. “I was brought up in a traditional British way, 4-4-2 and kick the ball up the pitch,” he said.

“Whenever I was playing as a youth international with Northern Ireland we would play Spain, France, Switzerland and the like. And we were always chasing the ball. In my mind, even at that young age, I remember thinking ‘I’d rather play in that team than this team’.”

He had had a trial at Manchester United as a boy but after a short spell as a professional at Reading realised, at 20, he was not good enough to make it as a player. So he started learning to coach.

“I wanted to be the best I possibly could,” he said. “I had a great education coming through the English FA, did courses with the Scottish FA but I also went out and travelled.

“I went to Spain, to Barcelona, Sevilla and Valencia. These are the best schools of football in the world, how they develop players. Then I spent time in Holland.

That was the ideology of football that I liked. I educated myself, watching, studying and learning. I knew my basic principles but because I had stopped playing early I had the time to go and learn from the very best. And the model was always Spain.”

In Swansea, he found a club receptive to his Iberian ideas. Under Roberto Martinez, they had developed a reputation for playing expansive, passing football and even had a smattering of Spanish players in the squad.

What Rodgers has done is underpin that with an intense pressing game modelled on Barcelona. Serene on the surface but working hard beneath — no need to hammer home that analogy.

“My idea coming into this club was to play very attractive attacking football but always with tactical discipline,” he said. “People see the possession and they see the penetration, the imagination and the creativity, but we’ve had 23 clean sheets this year. So in nearly 50 per cent of our games we haven’t conceded a goal.

“The example of the Barcelona model was a great influence and inspiration to me. When I was at the Chelsea academy, that was how my players would play, with that high, aggressive press, combined with the ability to keep the ball.

"That’s something that we’ve then been able to roll out to here and defensively we play with high pressure and high aggression. Everyone knows their function within the system. It is like an orchestra, if one of them isn’t doing it, you don’t hit the right note.”

Rodgers always wanted to be a conductor but was happy to take his time getting there. After working his way up to become Reading’s academy manager, Rodgers was signed by Chelsea to run the youth team in 2004, something of a culture shock.

“I was 14 years at Reading but I knew it was time to go. I’d only been at Chelsea a week when I got a call from my brother. He asked if I’d seen who was linked with my new job. It was Jean-Pierre Papin.”

Rodgers impressed Jose Mourinho and he was promoted two years later to running the reserve team.

The patronage of the Portuguese helped accelerate Rodgers’ career but, now that he is a manager in his own right (having been in charge at Watford and Reading), it makes him feel a bit claustrophobic.

Even his touchline dash after the play-off semi-final win over Nottingham Forest was taken as an homage.

“I’ve heard all this rubbish about the Mourinho touchline dash... it’s just instinct,” he said. “I’m not sure how long the protege stuff will go on for. I’m proud that he saw something in me, but we’re totally different. He’s one of the most charismatic characters in the world; I’m just a rough Irishman who’s trying to carve out a career as a young manager.

‘‘I’ve always had to do it the hard way anyway and there’s no doubt that if I get to the Premier League people will say it’s him who’s got me there.

"I hope over time, and I’m not being disrespectful to him, I’ll be seen as my own man and someone who has achieved on his own merit.”

Reading welcome back old friend

Reading manager Brian McDermott will hardly be surprised by his rival’s methods this afternoon — he and Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers go back a long way.

McDermott joined Reading as chief scout in 2000 when Rodgers was working with the academy. Under Steve Coppell, McDermott was promoted to reserve team manager and when Rodgers returned to the club in 2009, after his time with Chelsea and Watford, the pair worked together for the 195 days Rodgers was in charge.

McDermott has impressed since succeeding Rodgers, with FA Cup wins over five Premier League teams, including Liverpool and Everton, in two seasons. This season, with 26-goal striker Shane Long to the fore, Reading have lost only once in the league since Feb 12.

“I’ve never had any problems with Brendan; he is a good manager,” said Reading chairman John Madejski. “It didn’t work out for him at Reading, but we always knew it would work out for him somewhere.’’