[COLOR=#red]Barcelona success in La Liga down to secret hero Rafel Pol[/COLOR]
Comparing Barcelona's squad from the 1-0 win that clinched the league title on May 17 to the list of names from their fatal 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid on the same date last year tells a story.
On the day that the Catalans conceded the 2013-14 La Liga title, their first-choice keeper Victor Valdes wasn't even in the country, opting to travel to Germany to carry out his recovery from a cruciate ligament injury that ended his season in March.
Jordi Alba managed to make the bench but didn't play, having injured his right biceps in the 2013-14 Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid and a similar knock from the cup meant Neymar was also unable to start the league decider.
Gerard Pique was given the all-clear to play Atletico but only at the last minute after battling a hip injury dating back to a previous encounter with the same side in the Champions League.
Only one regular player was missing from Barcelona's La Liga-winning starting lineup last weekend and the decision not to risk aggravating Luis Suarez's hamstring was an easy one to make, given two cup finals are still on the horizon.
The Uruguayan's minor problem aside, Luis Enrique's squad is in impeccable condition at the most crucial moment. Mentally fresh, inspired and operating at twice the pace of most of their rivals, if they lose out on the treble it certainly won't be due to a lack of fitness.
The contrast between Barca's current shape and their exhaustion from this time last year couldn't be more apparent, and one brilliant young man is credited with the change.
Physical coach Rafel Pol came to the Camp Nou with Luis Enrique after working under him at both Celta Vigo and Roma. The Mallorcan has an enviable curriculum, boasting an undergraduate in physical sciences from the University of Barcelona, masters in injury prevention in sport from the University of Castilla-la Mancha and professorship in physical preparation from the Real Federación Española de Fútbol.
Pol is also a genuine polymath, capable of turning his hand to multiple disciplines. He has written and lectured on his methods, holds a UEFA B coaching license and runs a publishing company with fellow Barcelona staff member Robert Moreno.
His 2011 book "La Preparación ¿Física? en el fútbol" was produced when he was still a relative novice but left enough of an impression on a prestigious figure he now works with to convince him to write the foreword.
That figure is Paco Seirul·lo, the head honcho of FC Barcelona's physical department, who has been at the club so long he worked with a gangly, 15-year-old Pep Guardiola when he was a player before forming part of the Catalan's coaching staff 23 years later.
Lauded by Guardiola, Seirul·lo's motto is that a good physical coach makes his players fall in love with training. His younger colleague appears to have achieved that over the past 12 months.
The only explanation for Barcelona's raw power at this stage of the year is that they have trained well throughout the season. For a while, that wasn't necessarily the case. Under Gerardo Martino, there was a divide between what the footballers expected from their daily sessions and what their coaches expected from them.
Around this time last year, El Pais journalist Lu Martin published an article that revealed much of where Barca broke down in 2013-14. Players complained that the methods of Martino's physical coach Elvio Paolorosso were old-fashioned and significantly beneath the level of sophistication and tempo they were accustomed to.
After a few particularly lax small-sided games, one veteran decided to speak up. "At this level of intensity we're going nowhere. Can't you see that this is embarrassing?" he asked.
Perhaps the most damning claim from that expose was that the data provided by Barcelona's physical coaches was often ignored, a stark contrast to Luis Enrique, who works extensively with Pol on information gathered from GPS-ready vests players wear in training.
Having the right tools doesn't necessarily mean the right results of course and that's where Pol's creative talent comes in. While Paolorosso's exercises led to bored and disenfranchised players, his successor has succeeded in engaging them mentally, in part by placing focus on the one item every Barca footballer wants to have as often as possible: the ball.
Nolito, one of the players Pol worked with at Celta Vigo, once noted that he had never met a physical coach who opted to use the ball as often.
At a club where that same small sphere holds an almost spiritual significance, his ideas fit like a glove. The shared ideology is no surprise considering where the Mallorcan served his apprenticeship before turning professional.
Pol's practical experience began with FC Levante Las Planas, an amateur side whose ground lies in the shadow of Barca's huge sporting complex in Sant Joan Despi, western Barcelona. A match report written by him on a game contested at the Blaugrana's training ground can still be found online.
The facility he now works at is one he is well acquainted with, even if the standard of players has changed quite dramatically.
The desire to write as well as train has never left the 28-year-old, whose second book is currently in production and will be released when he leaves Barcelona. If this season's treble aspirations are anything to go by, Pol won't be short of material to work with. His own work with the Barca players has helped to get them this far in the first place.
