Valencia defeat themselves against Barcelona
Barcelona Vs Valencia, Camp Nou. More game reviews:
La liga, Week 26 Rasmi’s Review,Total Barca. Game review Ade C.’s Review, the offside.
Game preview: Here Kxevin’s Review,Barcelona football blog.
“I am not even sure if they will be as tempted to fight for this game as they usually are against Barcelona ... Three points in this game is a jewel, but greediness is a devil. They may try- lose-get-injured-and collapse in the following games where they can’t afford to be defeated. My bet is that they will try to start the game in a strong way, and then decide about the second half based on what happens in the first.”
“If Keita is not ready to start then I wish that we use Yaya in his place”
“Don’t struggle against Valencia in the first half even if it means guarding possession and dominating the midfield without taking risks to score. With their fitness level problem, time will not work for Valencia interest. Make them run after the ball in the first half while you control possession, and they will hand you the three points in the second half.”
“The most important key to win: Leave no spaces between the lines for counter attacks. Valencia will not play a patient buildup style; they will try to move the ball from their third to offense in a glance.”
I thought it’s better to start the analysis of this game by pasting some of the remarks I made in the preview, so any critic here do not sound like some hindsight thoughts. The best thing about this game (for a cule) is that Barcelona won. Three goals, three points and a big stone blocking the liga path was moved so the team keeps on marching toward the title. The win was also good because now I can be even more critical. As there will be no emotional frustration involved.
The starting lineup had two important defects that I showed my concerns about before the game. No Henry, No Yaya/Keita. For the first one, I can give Pep and co. the benefit of doubt. May be, it was a smart decision to keep Henry fresh till Valencia players collapse fitness wise, so he can easily run over them. As for the second, it’s one of my problems with this technical staff since last season (again, expect more about it in my article tomorrow), they do not give enough focus on the midfield demands for specific games. It will always happen, when this midfield play against a technically gifted opponent who can knock the ball forward with pace, we suffer. Yet, when we use this midfield while having two offense oriented fullbacks behind, we shoot ourselves in the leg (two legs to be specific).
Yaya is not in his best form. I can agree on that. This fact was mentioned on this blog more times than it is mentioned on all Barcelona blogs added together. But he could have served in the midfield much better than Bojan served the offense. Iniesta on the flank serves better than Bojan when he plays there as well. So it was better having Yaya (midfield), Iniesta (offense) rather than Iniesta (midfield), Bojan/Pedro (offense). Valencia generously decided not to get advantage of this defect. How? By missing lot of chances in the first half, added to one tiny foul Emery did in his selection, which left a significant impact: Using Dominguez instead of Zigic in the first half. And Zigic instead of Dominguez in the second.
With Busquets being the only midfielder doing the major defensive job in the first half, and with the lack of defensive contribution of the offense especially on the flanks, and with two offense oriented fullbacks trying to run forward anytime possible, Valencia players had it easy to slice through the midfield toward Barcelona’s area, regardless of the brilliant job Busquets did through creating lateral cover for the two flanks, he was always outnumbered. Valencia problem was not to reach Barcelona’s Zone, but what to do afterward. Zigic as a focal point in the box would have served them better than Dominguez work rate in the first half, while Dominguez work rate could have served them better in the second half than Zigic. See, the period where they were close to score, they kept the piece that’s needed to complete the offense puzzle on the bench. And when their fitness level dropped –in the second half- they had no Dominguez to bring to the game so he put more fresh pressure on Barcelona’s defenders and midfielders. Most of Barcelona threat in the second half was initiated by Barcelona’s defenders who had it easy to move the ball forward. Zigic is not the right guy to prevent that. That’s the beauty of this game, the little things that make or break.
Back to Barcelona, the moment I saw the selection I set my objective for the first half, and that’s to see no goals. If we do not concede in the first half, we will win this game, as Valencia will not be able to survive fitness wise for 90 minutes. Forget about scoring, that selection can’t score. The players were moving the ball around the box with satisfaction that it’s all what they can do. No striker in the box to cross the ball to, or to pull the defenders and create spaces for the technical midgets to penetrate, and no Keita-type midfielders who can run into the box to catch the defense by surprise. Add all that to the fact that shooting from outside the area is forbidden, where will the goals come from? When you have no strikers to start, use Chegrnskiy. I bet he could have improved our offense significantly there. It sounds like a joke, but I am barely joking.
Valencia missed as many chances as luck can deliver so they earn the three points. The second half started by fixing a bug: Henry in.
I didn’t expect him to do a great job, as his form lately was not encouraging. But it was certain that his presence will be more than enough to improve offense. I said it before and I say it now, offense needs a landmark to move per se. It’s like the North Pole for the compass, even if you have no intentions to go north, you need to know where the north is to draw your roadmap toward your destination, the net in this case. There was no focal point to lean on in the first half; there was a Henry in the second. With the pressure on the ball he generated he lead by example, as we saw more aggression and dedication to earn back the ball. With his movement he created spaces and offered outlets IN FRONT OF THE BALL, which was not the case in the first half where all the players were playing behind the ball even in the offense third.
Valdes was the same keeper we know, and the rest of the world doesn’t. The perfect keeper for Barcelona. Maxwell and Alves had an unfair mission with the lack of cover they suffered; it wasn’t easy for them to do what they like most and do best: offense. Alves was better, Maxwell was ok. Pique played one of his best games so far this season and Milito proved again why I rate him as a great defender. Not in his perfect form yet, but he inspires confidence and dictates his leadership. Busquets was one of the invisible key performers, Xavi was Xavi, and Iniesta played slightly better than the previous game though he needs to start demanding the ball in more dangerous places rather than in a deep spot, which he improved a bit in the second half compared to the first half. Pedro and Bojan suffered from the absence of a focal point in between (Ibra or Henry). They are more a supportive type of players than leaders. One of them is fine, two of them on the flanks with Ibra/Henry in the center is a risk, without that experienced striker it’s too much, and it doesn’t work. Henry proved that he is still a need for the team whether you consider him as a super sub or an essential option. In the center he plays with ease. May be this game will inspire Pep and co, more ideas regarding the offense dynamics when both Ibra and Henry start. Something I’ve been demanding since the beginning of the season.
I do not take the “Best player in the world” seriously. I do not believe it’s a valid idea to pick one player in a team sport where you have a huge diversity of attributes related to positions and say: “This one is the best”. Ronaldinho at his best was not as good as Buffon –not even close- when it come to goalkeeping. So how can we decide who is better? Just to make it clear. But IF (a big if) we will surrender to that idea, then there is one and only one player who deserve to be addressed as the best player in the world. His personality, dedication, and talent labels him as the best and on a different level compared to the rest: The messy Messi.
adal Said,
Nice review. Nice touch to link all the other reviews here.
I seem to forget if we created any other real chances in the second half besides those three that Messi scored. And for those 3 was also done mostly by Messi's individual brilliance. Did we create any other real threats from other strikers?
Posted on March 15, 2010 at 10:06 AM
Waleed Said,
Possession is one WAY to get into the the main objective of the game, which is creating chances which in turn leads to scoring.
I'm saying this because I feel that in this season, possession has become THE objective, I believe that the lads really enjoy kicking the ball around, and they do it in a way that no other side dare to mimic, even on a training ground, but they seem to be addicted to it that they are too afraid of losing the ball by moving it closer to the goal line, may be it can be attributed to the lack of dynamic off-ball movement in the front line, may be! after passing the ball over for sometime there is a moment where the final pass should be executed, and this moment seems to be missing this season, well, sometimes we are trying to cross the ball, and again these crosses require more pace and precision to be dangerous.
and the above ramble have nothing to do with the 1st half against Valencia, in which we lost possession more than any match I can recall, even more than our first half against EE.
now regarding Henry substitution, as you said, it could be in Peps mind to exhaust their energy by our young and fast front line then to bring him on to finish the job, maybe, but it's obvious that the timing of this sub. was much earlier than it was planned. the timing made it look like more of an emergency sub. rather than a tactical one, or lets say there was a tactical emergency! and credit to Pep, and/or Villanova to react fast or otherwise we could have lost the match.
all in all I see it this way, a disastrous first half and below average 2nd half baring in mind that we were playing Valencia missing their whole backline + Albelda as well as their lethal weapons upfront!
@ Adal, yes we did,not as many as we hope to see anyway,
one was by Messi when Henry passed the ball to him from the right side and Cesar somehow manged to deflect it by his leg,
another one was when Iniesta, I think, crossed the ball to Pedro in the box who instead of reflecting it to his totally free colleagues in front of the goal line, he flicked it right into Cesar hands.
Posted on March 15, 2010 at 3:11 PM
Waleed Said,
and I forgot to say, Ramzi!! stop writing previews after seeing the match, thats is cheating ;-P
Posted on March 15, 2010 at 4:02 PM
adal Said,
Waleed, Thanks!
Posted on March 16, 2010 at 12:35 AM