FC Barcelona Tactics

[Birdy]

the reason why we won so easily is the awkward decision for murinho (and good for the game of football) not to trust his last year tactics of sitting (very, very) deep and narrow and employing istead a ludicrous high line..
you cannot win barca with a high line, cause messi and pedro mostly and villa secondly are leathal runners.. a simple through ball and game is over..

Maybe Real hasnot learned yet its anti-football lesson or (less-likely) Murinho is trying to build a team playing more offensive..

 

[Trequartista]

I know its really too late but do we actually play with three men defence or with a four one?

 

[Birdy]

we play with a four one, BUT when alvez goes upfront (which happens often enough) abidal stays back and everyone shifts to the right to cover the area..
The only game this year i have watched and we did play with 3 men defence was at Calderon against Atletico with Busi in the center, pique right, puyol left..
Maxwell and alvez pussed a lot and at the same time upfront providing super width..
And it actually proved a correct tactic, as it was a more easy win than waht the score tells.. Consider successive defeats and our suffering at Calderon the last two years with the 4-3-3..

 

[dalitis8]

What Barcelona tactics...they are hopeless against the dark art of Mourinho...

 

[Trequartista]

I disagree,our back line looks like a three one in possession,four when we lose the ball,ABidal has done this in the treble year,same last year where he rarely played bec of injures,at the start of the year,it was Busquets dropping in the build up flanked by both Puyol and Abidal but when Abidal was back to his top form,Busquets no longer did that job,always Puyol centrally,Pique on his right,Abidal on his left,Alves usually having more freedom than any other player on the pitch,Villa,Iniesta rotating to cover the left wing,I think Abidal is more of a 3rd centreback rather than being a LB

 

[yusuf]

mourinho does not have the players to play the trap and is the reason he could not go to that sort of game

 

[Birdy]

@Mido
watch player's position vs Espanyol on Saturday and you will get better the whole issue about abidal and the 3 center-backs.. Alvez pusses a lot upfront and so when the opposition starts a counter he is most propably absent.. In those cases we play with a trio at the back..
But in every other case, alvez is responsible for defending in the right back area.. I agree that this happened in the treble year and many many times after that, as our 'basic' line-up is with abidal at LB..
But the game vs Atletico back in September was a totally different case.. Pep explicity instructed Busquets to drop deeper than usual (both in possession and not) and we formed a 5 at the back, which of course worked 100% like 3 at the back, as both Maxwell and Alvez were starting their efforts from the halfway line.. Its a differnt case than the lopsided thing with abidal and alvez (which doesnt appear all the time in the game..)

 

[xaviniesta]

FC Barcelona tactics under pep guardiola including formations, quick free kick, short corners, pressing etc

[video]http://www.youtube.com/user/allas14?feature=mhum#p/c/1EF2CE00312D4D4C[/video]

 

[beef-supreme]

Haha! Pretty sweet youtube channel

 

[xaviniesta]

oh man, i loved when thiago came on and we played without pivot with 3 attacking midfielders. this should be our plan b to break busses

 

[barcetia]

well thing is, when we play a bus of greater quality than levante it will be harder to play like that..

 

[Birdy]

@xaviinesta
great job, great channel..

 

[IrvDizzle]

I can finally write something here!!!

ok ... as we all know, FCB drew at Gijon on Saturday. Now irrespective of whether or not it Gijon playing a "great" game or FCB's seemingly unable to break down teams who are capable of defending as a unit, what I want to discuss is Pep's tactical adjustment to some crazy 3-4-3/2-1-4-3 hybrid vs that entrenched opposition with the subsitution of Keita for Gabi Milito. The formation was as follows:

--------------- VV
--- Pique ------------ Maxwell
------------- Masch
-- Keita ----- Xavi ----- Iniesta
-- Alves ---- Messi --- Pedro
-------------- Villa

Or something like that ... I really couldn't tell because I was semi-caught up in the game rather than watching the formation. Pique bombed forward like an AM and Masch would drop back as a make-shift CB. In the 60th minute, Gijon brought on Canella to help mitigate Dani's effectiveness on the right side, and the impetuous of FCB's attack went down the left through Maxwell and Pedro. However, the attack down the left never looked as dangerous as the type of chaos that Dani caused on the right.

I thought that there was no fluidity between the guys on the pitch, and Gijon was able to balance their defence more. I wonder if that was something Pep was holding close to his chest in hopes of surprising an opposing team, or if that was just a reflection of the situation. Either way, I still thought that FCB was most effective when they were counter-attacking and running at the defence, rather than trying to pass their way through the Gijon defence.

Was anyone able to pick up anything on Pep's decision to change formation?

 

[Barcaman]

Hm.. I can't say what idea Pep had with Keita for Milito, apart from the obvious strengthening the midfield but I was kinda expecting Masch to come out and thus enabling Pique to be set as target man and leaving Milito as our last man. While Keita is a good player he really did not make any impact and, as you said, we didn't look much sharper up front.

 

[Aryagorn]

Well this was what I was mentioning in the matchchat thread for next game... There's every chance Pep will go for the exact team mentioned by Irv except Abidal replacing Maxwell and Busi replacing Masch. Abidal to counter Walcott and Busi for obvious reasons and because he does a better work compared to Masch playing the central man of three-man defense when both the fullbacks bomb forward.

This way he actually need not sacrifice Villa and then Iniesta to wings to accommodate Keiteee's steel in the mid field!!