Liverpool or Barcelona? Javier Mascherano reveals which club saw him at his best

Javier Mascherano has revealed that he considers the best football of his career to have been played during his time at Liverpool, rather than at Barcelona.

Mascherano spent just over three seasons at Liverpool following a 2007 transfer from West Ham United, where he and Carlos Tevez had controversially been placed a year earlier by the third party company who held their registration at the time.

The Argentine didn't win a trophy at Anfield, although he played a key role as they ran Manchester United all the way in the 2008/09 Premier League title race. But his performances prompted Barcelona to sign him for €24m in 2010, making him part of a squad that won 19 trophies over the next eight years, including five La Liga titles and the Champions League twice.

"Liverpool's Mascherano was physically brutal," he reflected to Argentine outlet Ole.

"But out of five passes, he gave three to an opponent [laughs]. Sometimes I watch my games at Liverpool and say: 'What a way to lose balls'. [But] it happens that he had the ability to recover and I was very lucky with the teammates I had. In that midfield, I played with Xabi Alonso and [Steven] Gerrard. I only had to run to give it to them who would then take care of the rest."

Joining Barca at the peak of the Pep Guardiola era, Mascherano appears to believe he became a much more polished version of himself at Camp Nou, perhaps taking away from the some of the rough edges he possessed that had made him a perfect fit for the English game.

"Pep's great legacy is not the titles. His legacy is what he contributed to this sport. There is a football before Pep and another one after Guardiola," Mascherano said glowingly of his former boss.

"When I arrived in Europe in 2006, it was very different from how we now look at football after Guardiola's Barca. Now, everyone works on how to go out and the pressure and before Guardiola everything was more natural and less worked."

Since retiring in 2020 after spells at Hebei China Fortune and Estudiantes, Mascherano has turned his own hand to coaching and was made Argentina Under-20 boss in 2021. This summer, he will lead the country's Under-23 team at the Olympics in France.

As a player, he turned out a record 20 times for the seldom-seen age group, winning an Olympic gold medal in 2004 and then returning in 2008 as an over-age player as Argentina retained their title.

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