Barcelona must change its philosophy according to Arturo Vidal

His comments unlikely to go down well among Barcelona supporters.

Arturo Vidal gave an interview where he spoke about Barcelona’s season including their historic loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Among the things he talked about was the club’s need to adapt and change with regards to their playing philosophy. Something that is sure to cause some angst among the Barcelona faithful.

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"“Barça have to change their way of thinking; football has evolved a lot, that DNA stuff has been left behind and other teams are better in terms of more force and speed, and technique sometimes drops to a second level (of relevance).”Source: Diario Sport"

To many, this is going to come off as Vidal saying that Barcelona can no longer rely on what made them successful. That the club need to be quicker and more physical.

This obviously goes against their philosophy which has been the cause for much of their success up until recently.

He also gave his thoughts on their Champions League exit.

"“We did things that cannot be done at the top level and in the end you pay for it against an organized side with a winning mentality with physically prepared players and a strong system of play, when you are weak in your head and energy that happens, it happened to us.Source: Diario Sport"

Interestingly enough, the physical play that Vidal believes Barcelona should shift towards is how they tried to play against Bayern and that ended up in a battering. As far as the “Barça DNA” talk, one could argue they deviated from that both under Ernesto Valverde and Quique Setien.

Setien was supposed to bring that style back but failed to do so. In fact, he went away from what brought him success and it ultimately led into him losing his job.

The bit that stood out was the Chilean midfielder stating that Barcelona are mentally fragile. Perhaps they are given their debacles in Europe the last three seasons. That is an area in which new manager Ronald Koeman is going to need to work on.

Players in a club such as Barcelona need to be prepared both physically and mentally given they are under a lot of stress because of what is expected of them. Even more so now if Lionel Messi does wind up leaving the club.

Vidal’s Barcelona future is uncertain.

Despite Vidal’s criticism and his claim that the club need to change, if they do, he might not be around to be a part of it.

He is one of the players the club and Ronald Koeman are looking to move on. He’s been the talk of a lot of transfer talk with a return to Italy looking like the likeliest scenario.

According to Mundo Deportivo, Inter Milan have spoken to his agent about a possible reunion with Antonio Conte. The only obstacle, which is a significant one, is he would need to terminate his contract with Barcelona so Inter could then sign him on a free.

As it stands, Vidal still has one year left on his deal.

Should a move to Inter not happen, according to Goal, he would not mind a move back to Juventus for another possible reunion, this time with Andrea Pirlo. However, given some of their recent signings, there may not be room for him at midfield.

His comments about the club and his future may not sit well with Barcelona. But considering they are looking to move him on, Vidal may feel like he has nothing to lose and would not mind being moved on.

The Catalans are currently focusing the majority of their attention on the Messi saga, and rightly so, but they cannot forget about their rebuild. They need to make a decision on what to do with Vidal as the season starts back soon and not much, if anything, has changed.