Let Neymar showboat - football without fun is nothing...

By now it's little wonder Neymar doesn't stuff old newspapers down his socks. Shin guards aren't enough to protect the Brazilian from all that LaLiga's crunchers and boneheads throw, or rather kick, at him. Referees can only do so much. Cards, yellow or red, aren't of any use to Neymar when he's lying crocked on the ground.

Some say he brings it upon himself. That his showboating, like the kind he twirled and swirled late on in Barcelona's 5-1 thumping of Leganes on Saturday, makes him a fair target. The studs and crunching challenges he is often subjected to are justifiable retribution for the humiliation he metes out to his opponents. 

"Why are you taking the ball across your own half? You're provoking the opposition," former Barca midfielder Michael Laudrup questioned after the weekend's comprehensive win at Camp Nou. "At 4-0 you can't be showboating and provoking your opponents." The Dane's sentiment is one widely echoed across LaLiga.

Unhappy Athletic

Of course, Saturday wasn't the first time Neymar has been accusing of disrespectful showboating. Xavi had to prevent the Brazilian from being picked on by Athletic Club's entire team midway through a game last year, with the outraged opposition surrounding Neymar after he flicked a ball over the head of Unai Bustinza with both feet. 

On that occasion, Neymar even came in for criticism from Luis Enrique for his trickery. "In Spain, this is looked on very badly," said the Barcelona boss. "If I was an Athletic player, I would have reacted the same, or even worse. In Brazil, this is normal, so we have to understand the context. He didn't do it to humiliate his opponent; it is difficult to explain it when someone is losing but we will try to control it with time."

Not that this tempered Neymar's stance on showboating. "They can be angry, but it is my way of playing and I have done so for years," he shrugged after working Athletic Bilbao into a frenzy. "Just because others get angry doesn't mean I am going to change my style of play."

Embrace, don't pillory

And neither should he. Neymar should be free to showboat whenever and wherever he wants, regardless of whether Barcelona are losing, drawing or winning at the time. Too often football gets dogged down in what is respectful or disrespectful, to the point where the true meaning of the term has been lost.

Neymar should pay no attention to the accusation that by nutmegging an opponent or throwing them off with a step-over he is showing a level of contempt towards them. Football without fun and spectacle would be a decidedly dull, even depressing, place. Neymar's showmanship should be embraced rather than pilloried. It is players like the Brazilian that make the sport so compelling and so he should be given the freedom to play in the way that is most natural to him. 

Those who believe Neymar should eliminate the flicks and tricks from his game are probably the same people who demanded Dimitri Payet should apologise for his rabona assist earlier in September. Sometimes it's forgotten that football is fundamentally a form of entertainment, and Neymar, as well as being one of the best forwards in Europe, is an entertainer.

Ronaldinho

If there's one club that should recognise this it's Barcelona. The Camp Nou has long been the domain of the showman, from Johan Cruyff to Rivaldo to most notably Ronaldinho. The former was a showman by nature, almost unable to touch a ball without flicking it over his, or somebody else's, head.

Ronaldinho scored 70 times in five years in Catalonia, but his nutmeg count surely outnumbered that multiple times over. So why was it acceptable for Ronaldinho and the others to showboat, but not Neymar?

Even Barcelona fans have taken to criticising their Brazilian No.11 for humiliating opponents with his skill. This follows the same train of thought that once halted Italian teams from running up the scoreline as a sign of respect to their already beaten opponents. But surely this ethos actually does more to embarrass the opposition? It's like playing table tennis against a sibling who promises to keep one hand behind their back to give you a chance.

In an age when tactical organisation and responsibility in football has never been more prevalent, with philosophy and ideology tired buzzwords of the current zeitgeist, trickery like Neymar's provides something of an exception. An antidote, of sorts.

Football shouldn't be all about training drills and strategical blueprints. Sometimes the game needs a spot of showboating. Football needs players like Neymar, including his flicks and tricks.