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Cruyff, Manolo and a delightful Atlético-Barça anecdote
The story Pepe Brasín heard from his father and never knew was true or just an urban legend
Pepe Brasín tells the Cruyff anecdote about how to mark Manolo.
Pepe Brasín revisits a line attributed to Johan Cruyff before an Atlético-Barça clash. Asked how he would stop Manolo, whose great strength was losing his marker, Cruyff replied that in that case they simply wouldn't mark him.
As he joins the panel, Pepe Brasín raises something that has been on his mind for years, prompted by the interview with Manolo. His father, who adored Johan Cruyff and his one-liners, used to tell him the story often, and he never knew whether it was true or just an urban legend.
The tale places Cruyff at the press conference ahead of an Atlético de Madrid v Barcelona match, in the season Manolo won the Pichichi as LaLiga's top scorer. A journalist asked him what he planned to do to stop Manolo. Cruyff asked in turn what the striker did best. The journalist replied that it was losing his marker, and Cruyff finished: "Then we won't mark him."
According to the story, Barça kept their word and didn't mark him. It is exactly the kind of quip that made the Dutch coach an endless source of memorable lines, and Brasín admits he had long been waiting to have Manolo in front of him to ask.