FC Barcelona Tactics

[House of Flies]

I would like to argue with Gio.

Barcelona is not about fast tempo. Real Madrid is fast tempo/counter attacking side. It only seems fast tempo maybe towards the end of the move though the move itself last maybe 20-30 odd passes but the build is slow. Real Madrid is about being direct.

That point aside. Barcelona's tactic has evolved but for a lot of reasons, it has not worked as far to a lot of fans. Problem is that people are making last season as a benchmark for all of the seasons from here onwards which I strongly disagree with as it is simply delusional. Last season was an anamoly that wouldnt repeat itself with the same squad if you roll the dice a 100 times. People have gotten delusional to new heights and everyone has an opinion on the current season. We didnt change anything in 06/07 after an awesome 05/06 and we saw what happened to there.

We made a change in 09/10 considering the success, we had in 08/09 which was needed because our biggest strength was starting to become our biggest weakness. Teams started exploiting that and were getting away with it. It was obvious to Pep and everyone else that we need more pivots in the team so people cant man mark Xavi out of the game. Hence, welcome Ibra. Despite his terrible games, he did his job as a secondary pivot. Problem is the fact that Eto'o was the exhaust whilst Xavi was the engine. Now, we installed another engine so definitely, there will be a problem. Another thing that many dont realise is that Messi is not a playmaker and will never be a playmaker so you cant consider him as a secondary pivot. Our tertiary pivot is on defence with Pique/Marquez/Chyg taking the mantle to build up moves. All moves must go through the pivots. However, having no clear finisher except for Messi and an inconsistent Pedro has caused a ton of problems. We need a finisher for this system to work. Henry on the left provided scoring last season but that has dried up which has caused us huge problems cause we didnt anticipate it.

Having double/triple pivots on each phase of field will make us unpredictable and give us no obvious weakness as the opposition simply will not know who to double mark or mark out of the game. However, we need a continuity to make this tactic work and that implies that we make sure that our left hand side is working because we need a goal scorer there. Pedro is good as an option on the bench but he will never truly be a starter because he has no obvious gameplan.

Pep is doing good but he needs to stamp out indiscipline from this squad cause thats becoming an issue that needs resolving asap. We are not as bad as many people point out to be due to what Barcelona did last season. Again, thats just their delusional speech.

[IrvDizzle]

I agree with everything Gio has said basically. You needed to replace Eto'o with a superior version of him, instead you went for a different sort of striker. That plus Ibrahimovic is overrated, but alas I know I am in the minority there.


One thing I'd like to add though, which isn't about tactics, but alas I feel a good point is that after such a successful season, there was always, always going to be the feeling this season of after the lord mayors show. Plus do the players have the same intense hunger for it? How can they?

4-4-2 will definitely not suit bara, as you'd be way, way to easy to open up, considering your full backs defensively are not world class. Alves is a world class right back, but there is a difference to what I said. So 4-4-2 and you'd get murdered.

Cut Bojan loose Irv, he isn't good enough to start for barca, not in a million years.

ok ... so the 4-4-2 (having thought about it, I dont think it's a 4-4-2), another reason why I created this thread (and what Bojan's thread is trying to establish) is why Pep switches to it ... so this it the formation as I see it:

-------------------- GK
-- Alves ---- Puyol ------ Milito ---- Maxwell
------------------- Toure
-------- Xavi
----------------------------- Iniesta
---- Messi ------------------------ Pedro
------------------- Ibrah

it's like a 4-1-2-2-1 ... with Iniesta, Pedro, Leo, and Ibrah (because I saw them all over the field) all with free attacking roles and Xavi with a free midfield role and Toure covering either Alves or Maxwell as they push up. It was really hard for me to tell, because the attacking players kept on switching positions. But I did see Maxwell push up a lot more. I guess Pep is doing this to try and get everyone more involved, but I'm at a loss to explain why Pep implementing this system. I hope someone could tell me.

as for Bojan, what's wrong w/ him? he showed flashes of brilliance this year and last year. But I don't know why Pep is hardly giving him minutes.

[Beast]

That's an excellent point about FCB's defense starting from the attacking three rather than the back four, and Ibrah's tendency never to be that type of player. I like the concept of putting Ibrah on the wing, and Thierry in the middle. But Thierry didn't play well in the middle last year and he loves to drift left, which means he'd be running in to Ibrah's space. But this is a great segway in to another reason why I created this thread: what do with our left attacking side. The right is where the majority of FCB's attacking impetuous comes from, but the left has nothing. So going with Gio's recommendation of switching Thierry inside and Ibrah outside, irrespective of what this does to Pedro (which is another point to discuss) this would mean that the right would be Maxwell --> Iniesta --> Ibrah with Thierry drifting towards them. I would believe that Thierry and Ibrah would get in each other's way for the first games, but over time they would develop some sort of creative interplay that would bring some attacking balance. but it would be hard going at first and Thierry would have to make sure he did not drift out wide too much.

here's another suggestion, what about Ibrah -- Bojan -- Leo?



thanks, Valon.

I saw Henry playing this season in the center (when Ibra was out ) and it was his best performance .
Henry has the intelligence and the off the ball movement that Ibra lacks (and needed for your game , remember those defense cutting passes behind the defense for Eto'o ? ) needless to say imperial finishing and he already has the understanding and sync with Xavi-Iniesta-Messi & Alves.

I think he stopped running on the left and at the same time Ibra on the left would allow him
1- space to shoot
2- facing defenders face to face

i'm not Ibra biggest fan as you all know but i think if i'm a manager i will utilize Barca this way .
regarding Bojan for a 4-3-3 he is not fit for the role due to his size but he and can be amazing winger
Bare in mind you won't get a full fit 90 min out of Henry now so slowly introducing Bojan again will be a good thing when the result is secured proving Pep start to make his subs early on

[Beast]

I would like to argue with Gio.

Barcelona is not about fast tempo. Real Madrid is fast tempo/counter attacking side. It only seems fast tempo maybe towards the end of the move though the move itself last maybe 20-30 odd passes but the build is slow. Real Madrid is about being direct.

That point aside. Barcelona's tactic has evolved but for a lot of reasons, it has not worked as far to a lot of fans. Problem is that people are making last season as a benchmark for all of the seasons from here onwards which I strongly disagree with as it is simply delusional. Last season was an anamoly that wouldnt repeat itself with the same squad if you roll the dice a 100 times. People have gotten delusional to new heights and everyone has an opinion on the current season. We didnt change anything in 06/07 after an awesome 05/06 and we saw what happened to there.

We made a change in 09/10 considering the success, we had in 08/09 which was needed because our biggest strength was starting to become our biggest weakness. Teams started exploiting that and were getting away with it. It was obvious to Pep and everyone else that we need more pivots in the team so people cant man mark Xavi out of the game. Hence, welcome Ibra. Despite his terrible games, he did his job as a secondary pivot. Problem is the fact that Eto'o was the exhaust whilst Xavi was the engine. Now, we installed another engine so definitely, there will be a problem. Another thing that many dont realise is that Messi is not a playmaker and will never be a playmaker so you cant consider him as a secondary pivot. Our tertiary pivot is on defence with Pique/Marquez/Chyg taking the mantle to build up moves. All moves must go through the pivots. However, having no clear finisher except for Messi and an inconsistent Pedro has caused a ton of problems. We need a finisher for this system to work. Henry on the left provided scoring last season but that has dried up which has caused us huge problems cause we didnt anticipate it.

Having double/triple pivots on each phase of field will make us unpredictable and give us no obvious weakness as the opposition simply will not know who to double mark or mark out of the game. However, we need a continuity to make this tactic work and that implies that we make sure that our left hand side is working because we need a goal scorer there. Pedro is good as an option on the bench but he will never truly be a starter because he has no obvious gameplan.

Pep is doing good but he needs to stamp out indiscipline from this squad cause thats becoming an issue that needs resolving asap. We are not as bad as many people point out to be due to what Barcelona did last season. Again, thats just their delusional speech.

I think you are wrong here Jatin ,
Barca system is pass and move and that is done quickly to avoid closing up the space and the midfield and that's who you dominated the midfield with midgets .
u don't play slow at all you just pass quickly to keep possession , the old Cruyff's "if the opponents don't have the ball they can't score " that's why you pass sideways many times but the game , the build up , the passing are all quick lightning and that's a big part of your success in recent year in Europe
I wish we were direct , we would have faired a lot better in Europe but that's for another topic
i agree with last season being an exception while it's not a benchmark for your season you also should not expect the bar to be far off from last season , people are not expecting a total domination and will take couple of defeats as they are , just a defeat
but they are expecting at least the game not to drop in the fashion we saw and it would seriously be a delusion if anyone claim Barca this season (especially the last 3 month ) is anywhere near it's best but far from it

as for the rest i think objectively we can agree that Ibra neither contributed as a playmaker nor a finisher to the extent that "Machine/System " as you like to call it is not working well
and Messi is a playmaker just look @ the assist charts , the problem is there is no one to pass to most of the time so he is taking the bull by his balls and doing both scoring and playmaking /assisting for everyone

[AnfieldEd]

I would use Bojan as bait to buy a LW/striker

[House of Flies]

I would use Bojan as bait to buy a LW/striker

Read the first post.

Gio, Real Madrid is super direct and thats coming from all of the matches that I have seen them play in CL and against Barcelona. Apart from that, I have no clue.

Pass and move is still there. But thats still slow buildup in the midfield phase. Defence phase pivot distributes the ball multi times to find space to pass it to midfield pivot who will look for pass and move. Ibra being the tertiary pivot would allow for inside forwards to find more space (which they are already doing).

Unlike what many people think, we are still challenging for top honors this season despite a clear change in the tactics department. We won 3 trophies already this season and are challenging for 2 more which in itself shows you that it is not that bad despite the doom and gloom that you see on a matchday chat with multiple buffoons screaming "Crisis," "Barca sucks," "Ibra sucks." Many have gotten delusional hence despite a lot of good things, they want a repeat of the triplete not realising that it was the first time it happened to a La Liga team.

The problem with having multiple pivots in each phase of the field is that, there is no clear playmaker because essentially all pivots are playmakers which is a system that would require more than one season to perfect with more signings and adaptability.

What we did last season was a Rijkaard system implemented for many years and perfected by Pep with a lot of factors going our way.

[AnfieldEd]

I have done, and if you want to play different tactics or keep to the same tactics, then you need a LW or a striker. Thus as I said I'd use bojan as bait for a better player and the cost in monetary terms won't be as much.

I also said I agree with everything Gio has said, he is spot on in his assessment.

Pep does want JM too, so he clearly wants to adapt the tactics from last year, but the current way, I don't think suits you.

[Hamzah]

did nobody like my tactics or was that missing the point?

[Valon]

The topic is not about posting a formation Hamster.

[Samuel Eto'o]

Beast I feel that Pep should have you as his assistant. I agree with the majority of what you are saying. You totally get what we lack and your understanding of the Barca way is amazing.

[Valon]

Beast is a Madridista though. Would you want a Madridista as n AssMan?

[Samuel Eto'o]

The man talks sense. Thats more important

[barcetia]

The man talks sense. Thats more important

No it's not :S I'd rather lose than have a Madrista as coach, he would harm us intentionally.
Agree 15601% Jatin. Excellent post.

[Bojan]

Yeah, Gio wants to harm Barca tactics channeling his seedy thoughts to Pep through internet! Watch out!
Oh, Pep is bafoon as well then as he just snapped at Barca players yesterday.

[Beast]

Bojan

thanks Eto'o , i appreciate your nice words i'm just stating my observations on your performance this season