Football pundits are like stock market brokers. Fast to hail one thing, and faster to roar the panic cry at it the very next moment. Twenty four hours ago, Pep was the football Einstein, one bad night made him the one who barely have the football knowledge that “Football for dummies” handbooks can offer. The guy didn’t change, the result was different though, and that’s more than enough to put him under the critical knife of frustration.
Cruising across the blogosphere there were some reasonable game reviews, no doubt. Regardless of how far I agree on everything everywhere. On Total barca, Rasmi tried be as unemotional as possible. Isaiah showed fan support. And still waiting the review of my co-writers at The Offside. But through the fast cruise I made, there were lot of interesting comments and links that make you wonder sometimes if it’s you who don’t understand what was going on during the matchEZZ or you just misunderstand the explanations and analysis you read…
First of all, lets list all the excuses so we finish with it and start some more serious talking (you can even skip this part if you feel like it) :
- Inter were more fit for the game. Played on Friday and had all the time of the world to prepare for this game in their backyard. Barca’s weekend game was exhausting. And after Alves red card, the players had to burn that extra gallon of energy they were saving for the Champions league game.
- The Bus trip. It is a lame excuse in a way. But it’s one of the little things no doubt. Not only the trip was not the most comfortable experience, but most importantly it forced the technical department to cancel the tactical sessions for this game as there was a lack of time to prepare.
- The injuries suffered. Not only Iniesta was unavailable, but also Abidal, Keita and Ibra are coming back from injury and not fully fit for the game.
- Referees? Don’t expect to read anything about refereeing in my posts. Never happened, never will. Saying so, I don’t mean there were “issues”, and I don’t mean it was the perfect game. I just don’t comment on referees. Sue me.
Alright now that we released that heavy load, we get rid of another shit bag: Scapegoat hunting.
We lost the game because we used Maxwell instead of Abidal. Now if anyone really think that Abidal was ready to start and Pep said:”No thank you”, then tell that dude he is out of his mind. You need to tell him that so he seeks a treatment before it is too late. Were there some other options? We will cross that bridge later. But this “Why Maxwell and not Abidal” whining is just annoying.
We lost the game because Busquets –the guy who completed more passes than Messi and Ibra together- started the game. “If we used Yaya instead, we would have won the game, healed Mourinho’s egocentrism, helped Balotelli to mature, and convinced Moratti to finance Ac Milan”. Don’t be a hater now, but honestly, there is no belief that’s more delusional and common than that. Not only the overall performance, but even the goals we conceded against Inter carry the same DNA of goals we conceded against most of the teams we played against with Yaya being involved. I can easily list the likes of (and its not sorted. Thats how my memory served) Valencia,Manchester city, Real Madrid, Chelsea in the first leg and the second leg (Yaya performed better as a CB than he did as a DM there), Villarreal, Kazan, Almeria, Zaragoza where our structural weaknesses were exposed the same as it did against Inter, regardless of the final result and the opponent quality. By watching the full games (beside many other games during Pep Era), things will be clear for anyone who is willing to see it. Was the structural fragility avoidable? I will tackle that later.
It’s not that Busquets was setting the world alight. But he was not bad taking the overall performance of the team in consideration. In fact, he was better than most of the players in the selection against Inter.
Before the game kickoff, some of the fans were demanding Henry instead of Pedro for this game. After the game opinions changed, at least for the majority. The main focus was of course on… the 200 Zillion euro guy: Ibrahimovic.
Regarding Ibra, I read lot of none sense. But the craziest thing that beats it all was posted on Zonal Marking today. The post title is: “Why did Pep play Zlatan Ibrahimovic?” It really brief lots of miss concepts you can read here and there and everywhere. So I want to give sometime to comment on this one. Nothing personal, but it sums up things.
Look…Just to give some credit (now that we are mentioning the follow bloggers), I really like the people who write on that blog (Not sure if one person or many). They do huge effort with photos and interesting storyboards game in game out, which is solid and entertaining regardless of how realistic it is. Football analysis is closer to literature and art than mathematical science after all. That’s why “football experts” are usually labeled as journalists, not as scientists. No harm in some creativity that serves as thoughts feeds (I do it myself sometimes on purpose). I appreciate the time they put in all that, but sometimes creative approach starts to analyze football as volleyball.
If Ibra must not start this game because Inter’s compact lines includes defenders like Lucio and Samuel (meaning: big defenders), then Ibra must not start any game for Barca. Messi, Pedro, Bojan, and all the midgets can cut through open defenses of tiny boys like a knife through butter. It’s this kind of games that Ibra was bought for. Because Pep was not satisfied by Eto’o type of players against the likes of Inte (Or Chelsea?). Say he was a stupid buy. Say he didn’t perform well. Say his nose distracts Messi when he shoots on target. Fair enough. But not this none sense. Not on a blog that focus on the tactical aspects of the game. That’s a crime.
Moreover, if we don’t start Ibra, we have to start someone else, right? Even though at Zonal Marking they suggest that it was better to play ten men than eleven with Ibra included as “Ibrahimovic taking up Messi’s space did a better job for Inter than a man-marking brief ever could.” What space? My myopic eyes failed me again as I saw no spaces at all in this game… I didn’t see Messi sprinting with the ball through Inters’ lines and just before scoring, he bounce of ibra’s Thigh and lose the ball. Eh…never mind…
But back to the options, will we start Bojan instead of Ibra? Anyone else think that Lucio and Samuel may step on him without notice? Damn football games! Let the Champions league go to hell, we don’t want to murder the kid!
Was it better to play Messi upfront? Just a fast remark, Messi was a success against Real Madrid because Pellegrini game plan helped him in that. One of my favorite coaches and I can never be more disappointed (in an enjoyable way as a Cule?) as I was in the Classico. Against Inter-like and Chelsea-like teams, it doesn’t work. Anyone expected Xavi to find enough space behind Inter's defense to fax the ball to Messi, classico-like? Besides, If the team was already struggling WITH Messi contributing in the midfield, How will the ball reach the frontline if Messi played an Ibra? Because no one can expect him to dribble through the Italian lines while arranging his pokemon collection.
No doubt, having Messi closer to the box was a need. Yet, the match dynamics dictated constrains. Papers analysis is as easy as hindsight wisdom.
Finally, why not Henry instead of Ibra? Because Pep watched all Barcelona games and training sessions this season. He did! It’s the same reason why Henry was not introduced later on during the game. Something I will leave to the second post I will write about the game.
Ibra was there because Barca needed a focal point for offense. Ironically, the midgets’ offense underperformed more often than it worked. Ibra may get sandwiched between Lucio and Samuel in the box. But the likes of Bojan will not even need any of them in the box for the crosses, and one of them will be enough to blow the kid out of the box. Bojan is a lethal forward when it comes to finishing, but he is not a good player for static situations battling for the ball in the box. Not in an away game at least, where the stadium puts immense pressure on the visitors. Ibra’s movement can pull Lucio out of position to follow the striker’s movement to the midfield. Ibra can head passes to spaces upfront for the Pedros and Messis to get advantage of. He is the highway to the box that save the effort of trying to out-pass Inter’s lines and players one by one. Ibra can receive the ball and protect it till Barcelona lines shuffle to the final third. It gives the players the time to catch their breath and reposition properly. And when your players’ form and fitness level is not at the best, you need the highways and pauses. It didn’t work? So as Messi scoring a hat trick and Alves crossing one ball properly. Will anyone demand benching Messi and Alves as well?
Barcelona was not playing against their shadows. They were playing against a quality opponent. Something to take in consideration. Now was it possible to get a better result? That’s for next post.
Read More
My column on Total Barca:
Barcelona 2010, better or worse
The unsung Heroes of Barcelona: Fullbacks
Barcelona’s injury woes; turning Crisis into Opportunities
Previous Articles on Football Mood:
Shopping tour, Cesc, Silva or Villa: Who will join Barcelona?
Advocatus Diaboli: Barcelona youth academy, Overrated.
Scoup Group: Our Football Mood News Agency
Barcelona 2010, Tactical Ramble.
Who score goals for Barcelona?
From Ronaldinho to Ibra, Txiki in number
Follow my Barcelona Champions' league previews on The Offside.
My column on Total Barca:
Barcelona 2010, better or worse
The unsung Heroes of Barcelona: Fullbacks
Barcelona’s injury woes; turning Crisis into Opportunities
Previous Articles on Football Mood:
Shopping tour, Cesc, Silva or Villa: Who will join Barcelona?
Advocatus Diaboli: Barcelona youth academy, Overrated.
Scoup Group: Our Football Mood News Agency
Barcelona 2010, Tactical Ramble.
Who score goals for Barcelona?
From Ronaldinho to Ibra, Txiki in number
Follow my Barcelona Champions' league previews on The Offside.
Feech Said,
Damn, this ended before the best part. :)
Will you post the second part today or it will be for another day?
Posted on April 21, 2010 at 12:50 PM
barca96 Said,
pep made the wrong changes imo.
Posted on April 21, 2010 at 8:29 PM
Anonymous Said,
where is the next part ??????????????????????
Posted on April 21, 2010 at 10:14 PM
Ramzi Said,
Next part:within 24 hours. We need to kill time till the second leg, or we will all go crazy :)
Posted on April 21, 2010 at 11:51 PM
adal Said,
In the absence of Iniesta, does Messi play part of his role when Ibra is in?
Really looking forward to the next piece.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 1:42 AM
Anonymous Said,
hi ramzi you said :
"Twenty four hours ago, Pep was the football Einstein, one bad night made him the one who barely have the football knowledge that “Football for dummies” handbooks can offer."
but the truth i said that pep is very poor at tactic even as we was winning, sometimes u can make wrong tactic and still win since you have very motivated talented players (the fact that alves playeed in last clasico as RW was huge mistake since alves stregth is in running much all the way and he didnt play well in the new Role but barca won ...)
Pep is great motivator but he is not a good tactican he can prepare players to go to fight but when something go wrong in field he almost never has a plan B
there is no coach in the world i know who his team play 89 min in the semifinal of cl wothout shooting 1 time at the goal where he has much option to change and he just doesnt react.
people defend him because they like him (i like him too but dont forget this season we lost copa because of him (first game at nou we lost because he tried to rest so many players) we will lose laliga because of him 9its arrogant when you go to play against Espanyol outside campnou and let 4-5 players play non typical position for them its arrogant and stupid)
in the CL i still dont understand why bojan idnt enter especially last minutes he let pique be the fw instead ofhaving bojan there to score and you can blame pique that he cant score ...
and about pep preffering bus over yaya its his catalan heart making decision but its not fair to toure ccan you imagine he would have done this to xavi or iniesta (i dont)
at the end even last season people start notiing that pep isnt that great coach but it was good hidden because barca almost never needed a plan B because of the brilliance of Barca form last year and when we needed the plan b like chelsea game pep was really just watching and not knowing what to do
i dont like pep tranfer policy neither he always make it clear to the board or this player or nothing else so the other team understand this and can ask for 25 M euro because they know the board has no other choice ....
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 1:59 AM
Anonymous Said,
i am ej by the way
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 2:01 AM
Ramzi Said,
ej, if you catch my observation about Pep last season, I dont think anyone was more critical than me. But the coach should either 1) be evaluated based on his general football approach that the critic agree on. or 2) Demanding firing him as his approach is not suitable. I can live with both opinions. My problem is with the "Aftermath analysis" thats based on the result obtained. Let me give a hint about the second part:
If Pique scored in the last 10 minutes, the same critics would have hailed Pep for his subs that made Pique more secured to run forward to the box. "Pep the genius did something no one understood. but it proved right". I am sure you read that before ;)
No problem with critic, if its stable and based on a criteria that we dont change on weekly bases. I still have the same issues against Pep that I had last season. If you go back to my articles about it, it actualy proves me right when it sounded too wrong last season. My critic back then was not popular because the team was winning. My defend now will not be taken with joy because the team is losing. I just try to keep the balance by countering the radical judgements. Not a popular role, but I enjoy it.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 2:12 AM
Ramzi Said,
"about pep preffering bus over yaya its his catalan heart making decision"
Then why did he keep Pinto and offload a catalan keeper? Why playing a none catalan Pedro more than a half catalan Bojan? Why loaning out Botia and paying 25 M for a Ukraine? Why paying to get Ibra and not Cesc last summer? Why giving more starting time for the likes of JDS over muniesa? I can go forever. See what I mean? Some common sense people...
Obviously I dont agree on this one. But I am sure all the avidances of the world will not make people understand that Busquets is better than Yaya AT THE MOMENT (including all the games the two players played this season). so I won't debade this one. I will just use the commen respond:"Yaya didnt play enough to get his form back" to say that it suggest that Yaya is not in his form because (inserts whatever). So we can agree at least that the game against Inter is not the best game to offer Yaya to get back to his form. May be next liga game? And here it worth noting that I as almost the only supporter to go for another DM last summer. Regardless if you agree on that or not, Pep only trust Busquets. If busquets is bad, then -at least from the Coach perspective- there was a need for another DM.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 2:23 AM
Anonymous Said,
when i sy his catalan heart its not only catalan its more the cataln group and for me :
iniesta and pepdro are part of this group, so its not exactly the catalan blood its more the group and about Busquets i will never try and blame busquits because is pep choose me to play at barca and i dont perform dont blame me blame pep that e did that.
Busc is our player he is from our youth so he is very importnt and i love him but i dotn think he has better form or better atm as toure.
Buscuits vs. Yaya i will tell you what think:
what is the Job for a DM player and lets try to make a connection .
1)A DM should have a defence skill
*i guess both are good in tackling but toure due to is physic is little bit better
2)He should be able to decide when to make a foul or not, he has a very important job in stopping counterattack
*it was 2-3 times this season when busquets have mistaken in deciding to do te foul or not , remember ATMadrid game Busc could have made a simple foul stopping ujfalui but he was to concern in not doing that in this part its very important that the DM doesnt get yellowcard for stupid action since DM is the worst position you can play when u have a yellow and i think both toure and buscuits are sometimes hot minded and get yellow for protesting this is very bad
3)The DM sohuld try to make so less wrong passes as possible / should not lose the ball , a wrong pass from the DM and it is very often 2 fw oppenent attacking valdez with puyol .
as you mentioned Busc was the best in this point yesterday but lets not forget his wrong passes cost us some goals this year.
i think i this point Yaya is better than Busquets
4) this point isnt especially about DM but its about every single barca player
barca play depend and work only if all players always run witout the ball and make themself free to get the Ball so the player with the ball will have always 3-4 option to give the ball
in this point i see Busq better than yaya but really in very small amount
Some other attributes about MF player in general , they should run and press much, its good if ond of MF player has a strong shoot...
I really think that in the Sum toure is better option than Busquets he has his strong shoot he is higher and for me he knows when he have to make the foul and when not
i forgo very important thing :
Ballcontroll
i am sure you think Buscuits is better in that but in my opinion toure is much better.
I dont think we lost the game yesterday because Busquets playes or because IBRA playes we lost it because after the 1- we lost controlling the game and there was no reaction from pep.
its sometimes self mord to try crtisize a coach who brough you 6 cups but Barca last year really almost never needed a Plan B we was the best by miles and in almost everygame we dominated from beginning and the game was over in halftime this season we need the plan B and it comes with this all strange lineups where players play as different role with no reason not bcause we are out of defenders like in the CL final but because pep start trying to be too much the hero ...
greeting EJ
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 3:29 AM
chris809 Said,
It's unbelieveable that no matter how Sergio plays the Toure-Busquets debate is always there. At least a few people admit now that Busquets is better at the moment, but only because Toure played a lot less than him, they say. The thing is, it's the reaction of what happened at the beginning of the 2009/10 season. Toure's form dropped significantly so he lost his place as first choice dm. Since then nothing really changed: Busquets performs well while Toure is a shadow of himself.
You can't expect it from Guardiola to use a player just because he's a bigger name or his past accomplishments. It's like demanding Henry instead of Pedro after every game. That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? It's a similar situation(a great player lost his place to a La Masia graduate because of his poor form) with two different names.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 3:38 AM
Ramzi Said,
You can be sure you will read a more serious critic regarding Pep's game plan in my second post more than all what you read so far this week. Worry not.
Regarding your comparison Busquets Vs Yaya (And I like it that finally someone is trying to put it in points rather than adjectives). What makes me less convinced about it is the following:
Point (2) it’s common that fans while watching a player they like, they focus on the good moments (Messi dribble and score less than he dribbles and lose the ball for no reason for example. Not saying he is not the best worldwide, but well...I guess you got what I mean). While when a fan watches a player they do not like as much, they only remember the bad moments. I am sure that while watching the matches, there were lot of moments where you "Hail Hail" Yaya while watching the game for an interception he made. I am sure Busquets interceptions (most of them at least) went unnoticed. Regarding decision making "do you foul or track back" Just check some of the links I added in the post. Yaya games (Kazan for example?). Now of course we can always make one event looks better or worse, but it’s arguable to say the least?
Point (3) "The DM should try to make so less wrong passes as possible": It’s safe to say that Busquets complete more passes than any other midfielder we have-besides Xavi of course. This is one of the rare points where statistics are more valid than ever in football. Believe it or not, Yaya a) do lot of wrong passes that cause troubles as well-this year and last year. b)Contribute less in the game dynamics which makes him receives less, passes less=>do fewer mistakes(doubtful). Now even if he does fewer mistakes, is it a good thing considering the reasons? Not sure about that, Pep doesn’t agree at least.
Mind you, an in form Yaya (And I mean exclusively his form between January and May last season) can cause serious headache for Pep in the picking order. With his current form, he is not. Simply put.
"about Busquets i will never try and blame busquits because if pep choose me to play at barca and i dont perform dont blame me blame pep that e did that."
Dont blame him for playing in the National team as well, though the coach is anything but a Catalan patriot there :)
Pep, Del bosque (I never remember how to write his name), and the host of clubs (Milan, Arsenal,Juventus...) trying to sign him before renewing his contract at Barca, probably saw lot of quality in him, that Yaya's huge shadow is covering at Barca.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 4:02 AM
Anonymous Said,
hmm chris ...
did you ever heared one ere say play henry instead of pedro ???
the answer is no if u dont know...
why nobody demand this ?
because Toure didnt disspoint anybody with his play , for almost the whole world who saw toure and busc playing this season almost 8% of them say toure played better did less mistakes and etc.
nobody is speaking about pedro because he is deliviring and because henry is not.
forget bignames i tell you henry has much bigger name thna toure and the most here dont want him to start including me.
AND again i think atm toure is better than busc.
And we didnt lose because of Busc or because of Ibra or iniesta missing.
we lost because of us not having a plan B , because after the 1-0 inter took the game and we didnt react after the 1-1 they was killing us and pep didnt do anything exactly like arsenal game in londion in the 3-1 there was a point where we lost the control pe pdidnt react it finished 3-3 in this game it happens very semilar they scored goals too and it finished 1-3.
he can start whenever he want but he should know how to make some subs to maintain control.
he subbed IBRA in the worst time , after 1-3 you remove the onl big forward we have and let Pique and Maxwell fight in the fw ??? wtf
after Maicon was injured it should ave been MAx out Abidal in
but instead we saw pique trying to do things he as a CD player doesnt have to kow to do.
against we lost the copa del ray in the gae in campnou because pep rested too much players(he admitted that)
we lost Laliga(i really think its to 70% lost)
because pep started a very stupid lineup where almost no player plays his normal position
i forgot against whom we was leading 3-0 pep entered 2 new CB players made mess it was then 3-2 very fast but messi came again and rescue us with a penalty who he gave to ibra...
pep trys to make strange things wen it works he is the hero look how intellegent he is he won with 5 players playing different role.
when he lose pep won us 6 cops so nobody should blame him.
again i started blaming him in the classico barca won they throw me out of the chat the laughed at me why because barca won but the lineup with letting alves play as fw was stupid if he wanted to make sure rihgt defense is standing he could still let puyol play there and let alves out and maybe bojan take his place.
I sometimes think that if pep start playing with 9 players and barca win people will really think that this ws a good tactic..
it will take some years before people understand that a coach is not only a motivator but with 6 cups in 1 year i think pep has credit for another 3 years so i will wait tell this time.
the time when barca had to celerate madrid for laliga wasnt eaisier than this and i servived it.
I lovE PEP but not as a Main coach he should either be the 2. coach who makes the whole moticvation or he should have a coachhelper who he will listen too who will tell him whom to sub and when and how to react in some games.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 4:17 AM
Anonymous Said,
i guess maybe he should have ramzi as a second coach adviser ..
seriously i am sure ramzi sometimes scrwaming on the tv (like me) pep now its the time we need freshblood , our dm has a yellow let sub him ...
bythewas i read the last post from me and i noticed i didnt write that we lost laliga because of espanyoul game ...
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 4:25 AM
Anonymous Said,
Part 2/2
-----------------------------------
4)Motivation talks
Motivated players plays likly 110% unmotivated plays 80%.
this is very hard for oaches to keep players motivated when they go to play xerez after playing against RM and winning there ...
IN THIS PEP IS THE BEST
PEP=10
teh secret of the succes of last year wasnt the brilliance of messi and iniesta it wsnt the head of xavi it was the fight the running always make your self free for the opponent.
this we have to thank pep for
-------------------------------------------
5) reacting during the game
WHen you do the right lineup and the motivation you are only 50% done.
the whole tactics before the game is no more valid after a goal or a red card.
you know always how your players approaching to the game but you cant never be sure how the other tam will play
you have 6 players sitting beside you have potential so you can sub them to influence the game to refresh tired player to react to action from the other coach
PEP=01
Believe me i will sound harsh but i never saw in my life a coach who is worst in this point than pep , not in the laliga nor in any other league in the world.
sometimes i feel he forget he is the coach he just watch the game in tv but otherwise even the tv watchers are screaming pep wake up , sub him sub the other one.
from pep no reaction.
you can be sure if the plan A of pep wont work barca will still try it till the game end but tihs isnt really profissional
against chelsea we was lucky the first shoot from us we scored.
but ehat does it speaks to the coach??
---------------------------------
6)Demanding right players from te president
People forget that a team mcan be the best in the world for long period only if he has a healthy tranfer policy
you can buy a player for 80 Mil and sell him for 75 Mil and its a good tranfer and buy a player lets say for 25M and sell him for free an its a bad one.
when a club A want to buy oplayer from club B there is very important parameters :
1-does Club B need the monesy
2-does the player want to join
3-does team a need the player much
4-is there another players team a can get for a low price
PEP=3
when pep goes in public and say its weither this player or nothing this makes the parameter
3 & 4 just reach the sky the Team B will demand 25% more atleast.
and pep has this habbit in saying we want him chygrynski or i will stick with my youth player
how do you think the president looks in the neogotiation ?? i will tell u very week
so lets sum the points
9.5+9.5+4.5+10+1+3 = 37.5/60
wihout math i think its like 65% and thisis ust average
Greeting EJ (elia Jahshan)
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 5:01 AM
Anonymous Said,
Maybe we can speak about which attributes should a Coach have and lets give Pep some points.
PART 1/2
Points(1-10) 1 bad 10 best
---------------------------------
A) He should have good contact with his players and a Dominant Character
this is very important because this wlil prevent fights in the dressing room will prevent people feels unhappy and the domnant char will help players listen to there coach and do what he demands
Pep = 9.5
for me looks very often as he is there friend and in the same time when he say something they all listen we cant demand more, and thanks to his dominance we have no figths like the ones in rijkard era
---------------------------------------
2)Makes good Training , teach players some tricks(i mean corner combination , fast freekicks)
this all looks buetiful but its all studied and hardwork
PEP=9.5
i really never saw a training by him but i can say from what i see in the pitch players with good stamina, always pressing always running
barca always when they have a fk the opponent is busy with speaking with refree barca players busy in finding a player who isnt in offside who can get the fast fk and be 1vs1 against the goalkeeper. i think we are the best team in the world with this
----------------------------------------
3) Build upp a formation rotating players taking the bes of his players
choosing a strong lineup while the lineup should always ake on considration how the opponent looks like , who should we give a chance , will it be a physical game or a typical spanish game.
which players should we sub , what will happen to the player psyche if we sub him now in r out
PEP=4.5
lets forget the whole game against Madrid or espanyol where pep really missed with our lineup.
what about promissing players cooming to barca and not deliviring anything ?
its ofc their fault too but how its possible so many players come to barca and they suddenly dont know how to kick the ball to mention hleb , caceres , henrique , dymtre ...
and about te ratation system , lets take the best year ever (last year)
how many players did PEP use?
he started rotating at the beginning of the season but suddenly it was all time the same lineup we go then to the CL final and we are lucky tat toure could managed to play the CB role so well.
-------------------------------------
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 5:01 AM
amal Said,
You have strong Ramzi point but your approach is vague.
i do not agree with NOT starting Ibra as mentioned on ZonalMarking, but their saying has some true to it.
when we had eto'o back then,Messi, Henry or any other option upfront would have huge felxibility interchanging their positions so fast that we used to distract our opponent's defense easily.
I know that Ibra brings a whole new concept to our offense against the likes of Inter, and Chelsea, BUT the presence of Ibra as focal point so far showed a huge disadvantage to Messi.
It's not the space that Messi is lacking, but not being able to swicht plays is the problem. For example, when Ibra was sent off against Almeria, we moved faster and scored right after that, Ineista said after the game " WE PLAYED BETTER WHEN IBRA WAS SENT OFF" (on facebook)
So Messi is trapped in one area, couldn't switch to other side. Ibra can't play on the wings too, can't switch spontaneously with him.
If in case he changed his position, he'd deploy Pep's plan in the first place, and Zanetti/ Campiasso would gone free for more offense lay out.
This ability to interchange was the one of main keys Mou used to win the game, especially Pandev with Sneijder, Eto'o ( Eto'o completely took Puyol out of position and left him exposed.)
Ibra just back from injury. i didn't rate him at all. although i thought he did a decent job distracting samuel in Pedro's goal and left huge gab behind, but barca is yet to go with such change easily.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 6:35 AM
Ramzi Said,
The second post will be delayed till tomorrow. I prepared some photos to use, which took some time. But I have to go out soon. My day off finish now ;)
Amal, when Ibra was interchanging positions at the begining of the season, everyone complained about it. Thinking that an Ajax trained player cant interchange position is well...not true (and I followed him since then by the way and know exactly what he can do). In fact Ibra is a more varsatile player than rumored. He can switch flanks and he can move deeper and create spaces. More time for him in the club will make the fans see more of that, only if they put this: "when we had eto'o back then" because as long as this stands, Eto'o will always be busquet's Yaya.
In fact there was no chance for interchanging positions in this game as Inter played deep defence and barcelona midfield (with Messi included) were so far from the offense area most of the times (By the way, expect couple of photos about it). Ibra and Messi were too far from each other to interchange (and the reasons are beyond Messi and Ibra/Eto'o/Henry/Bojan). I even predicted it in the comment session before the game.Of course Ibra was able to move closer to Messi in the midfield and have fun with the other dudes exchanging pointless posession. In stead he stayed upfront pushing inter defense back to create some more spaces between the lines. Now I dont know how anyone will complain about that.
Sorry but, Zonal marking had no pint in this one. May be because Barcelona's football style and Zonal marking do not match :)
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 7:34 AM
adal Said,
hmmm, we played also better against Espanyol with 10 men when Alves was sent off. Maybe we should always play 10 men against 11 so there will always place to run around like chickens so it looked like we were fast.
I really don't think what Iniesta meant is that we played better without Ibra. But like always, ppl can play text out of context anyway they want to just to blame on someone they dislike.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 7:40 AM
illumina Said,
hey Ramzi, i applaud your work and intelligence in analyzing soccer, however, I disagree with you on Busquet in the last game against Inter. ej is right with deciding when to foul or not, even though this is arguable, I think Yaya is better if everything is summed up.
Given the situation we were in(Barca) during the game against Inter, it was obvious the midfield needed to be strengthened, Busquet wasn't offering the movement, Keita wasn't offering anything tangible but we were also short of options and it's also Pep's second year coaching, I do think he could have reacted earlier, the bleeding could have been stopped at 2-1, but Pep is learning as well.
On Busquet completing a pass, I think it's magical Xavi has high completion pass rate because he doesn't only pass horizontally, but looks for space, killer passes, vertical pass and diagonal pass, in this view, Busquet pass completion rate is shortsighted because most of his pass are horizontal, essentially keeping the ball, he is good though for movement and drawing fouls(albeit annoyingly).
I'm not a proponent for Busquet neither am i for Yaya, but owing to the way the game was going agains Inter, Yaya couldn't have been any worse than Busquet or Keita so he deserved to have come on. You also have to consider when you don't play a player in important matches, some of which they deserve, it takes away from their spirit to fight, we can disagree on this but it's just human nature.
Lastly, any fan that outrageously blame Pep or the team are just shortsighted, you win some and loose some, we can only hope that people learn from their mistake and give their all.
Visca Barca
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 7:57 AM
kamikaze kontiki Said,
Ramzi, I liked the first half of the post but I think your criticism of ZM is a little unfair. I think you are intentionally ignoring or misinterpreting the point he was making.
1. Firstly, Barça and Xavi in particular tried to play a more direct ball to Ibra on at least 3-4 occassions in the first 30 mins but each one failed(Ibra either being called for a foul or miscontrolling or losing the ball after initially controlling). So this was the manner in which Barça attempted to change their style of play but did not succeed in doing so. And at this point Inter's defence wasn't as deep as it was in the 2nd half so perhaps Barça's fluid short-passing game could have worked to better effect.
2. With Ibra occupying the centre-halfs the DMs who otherwise would have played closer to Xavi stuck instead to Messi, the positioning being such that effectively Barça's passing lanes forward were blocked i.e Xavi was not pressured too much on the ball but he had no incisive passing options. Now this is debatable. Obviously there is no gaurantee that if it was Messi alone up front the Inter DMs would not have occupied the same position and remained there with more discipline than Gago and Alonso showed.
3. Barça were less secure defensively on the left side. Keita provided no attacking threat there and I think ZM is saying he failed to track Maicon.
Now I don't know about points 2 and 3 but my interpretation of it is this. Against RM, Pedro started on the left. This allowed Barça to spread the defence laterally. With Ibra playing CF, Messi just behind and to the right of him and Pedro further to the right and Keita hanging around in the middle of nowhere we had no width.
The only goal we got was when Maxwell stepped forward and that didn't happen again untill Pep made the substitution in the 2nd half. So, I have a lot of sympathy for what Pep was trying to do by bringing Abidal on.
Going into the game I was hoping Ibra would create space for Messi but for that to happen the defence needed to be stretched with Pedro on the left flank and Alves on the right. For me the tactical failure or mistake was in selecting Keita over Yaya (i.e not playing with a double pivot) and not using Pedro on the left in the manner in which Pandev negated Alves.
But that having been said consider Bojan in place of Ibra. The greater mobility brought in by Bojan could have provided:
1. A greater presence on the left flank given Bojan's willingness to occupy wide positions.
2. A chance of drawing the centre-backs wide and out of position.
3. Better defensive cover if Bojan can follow Maicon and allow Keita to cover the centre.
Quite simply the Ibra as a focal point concept does not seem to work for Barça or maybe it will just take a lot longer before it does. It makes our play more static, it allows the opposition defence to remain well-organised. At the very least even if we start Ibra we need someone like Bojan to play of him since Messi is always going to be playing behind him.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 8:24 AM
Jovce Said,
i'm sick and tired of everybody blaiming Pep for this game. Maybe he made some moves that i didn't like (pulling Ibra out) but this is the guy who brought 6 titles to us in only one year by playing magical football. Maybe he is not the best in tactics but he is by far the best coach in developing strategy.
The Ibra debate, the bus-yaya debate, the d.alves as rw debate and all the other questions that have been raised the pass few days are the result of only one thing: WE HAVE FORGOT THE TASTE OF LOSSING in the past two years.
The entire team played badly: they didn't run as they can, they did't have the right paste in the midfield,they didn't crate enought space, alves has dissaster, bad passes, bad reffering, too much bullying from our opponents...it just happens to have a bad game.
This is not the end of the season for us. Inter we have to play another 90min at Nou Camp on wider field with a lot more space for Messi and this game they will have less maneuver space for tactical surprises.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 8:42 AM
Jovce Said,
kamikaze i see your point, but i must disargee with you on your Ibra point. If you look at the perdo's goal you will notice that the space was created for him by Ibra pulling Lucio inside the box. Even if we put Pedro on the left flank, Alves on the right, Bojan in the midle with Messi behind him, all that inter have to do is to allow to our wide players to deliver crosses which as we have seen wouldn't be any kind of problem for their deffence considering the height of Bojan and Messi. In this situation Keita would have to make runs in the box leaving a lot of empty space behind. I just don't see how wee could pll this one without Ibra
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 8:58 AM
Ramzi Said,
Kami! For a mysterious reason I got the feeling that I have to check the post before I leave :)
- "I think you are intentionally ignoring or misinterpreting the point he was making."
Yeap! I am a bad guy! I won’t even comment on this one. Needless to say that, there are zillion blogs on the web. I only comment on (and about) the ones that worth. So if that blog is mentioned here and took that space of my time, that’s enough as recognition. In a way they summed different things that different people pointed out on different blogs. Responding to it was for that matter.
- "perhaps Barça's fluid short-passing game could have worked to better effect." The magic word is "Perhaps". I don’t think so. I think it is theoretically valid. Practically it is as valid as saying "stupid Pep, he had to play Pique as a striker from the start as he showed more presence there". Others do believe it would have done miracles. Fair enough. Besides, I remember Xavi passing the ball more than 4 times to Messi who tried to dribble his way through inters defenders (the way expected without having Ibra)and fail. No perhaps here. If the perhaps sideline Ibra, it exile Messi as well. Because against Real Madrid he was dribbling through the defense and "Showing the quality of a true 9?". Against Inter, he barely ran 3 meters forward at a time. And that’s when Ibra was not on his way but stretching the field closer to the other flanks (I will post a photos about it and you can take the timing and watch how the moves ended up). Again, no perhaps or hindsight analysis, it’s about documented events.
- The thing is that the DMs of Inter didnt really stuck to Messi. They were marking him one at a time depending on his position while the other was creating Zonal cover based on the ball circulation. Again, when Ibra used to drop to the midfield to do exactly that (confusing the DM/CM) no one understood the trick (To be fair, players need time to adapt to each other). Fans were yelling:"Damn you ibra stay in the box!". I have one of the photos that shows how ibra role pushing the defense line backward created a needed space in the midfield. It just didn’t click.
If Bojan can actually provide all what you mentioned, in a game against Inter away under the hosts fans pressure (the atmosphere was unbelievable there). Then he should have played more games than Pedro. I even consider him a must at the WC for Spain to have any chance. IMO it’s just the normal situation when a team lose: The player who doesn’t play is the Man of the match.
May be at home, with different game plan, Bojan can help in some ways. In that game, he wouldn’t have had any impact as a starter.
Now regarding the unrelated Ibra points you mentioned. I will tackle that later. As you know, in the comments session of the preview, I hoped to see double pivots, but didn’t expect it. But thats for later discussions.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 9:38 AM
Romyan Said,
Great work Ramzi . Waiting for the second part.
IMHO, Pep did very good job, yet, he is a human , so he commits some mistakes which is normal for anybody.
People criticize without knowing many things, like that guy said Pep changed 2 CBs in one match and they almost had the draw , but the fact is that Pique and Milito weren't able to continue and he had to make a change especially for Milito who has bad injury profile :
http://www.fcbarcelona.cat/web/english/noticies/futbol/temporada09-10/03/21/n100321109984.html
And people make judgments even when its proved that Pep was right when we had the news that both of them were injured.
Ibra and Abidal just came back from injury and Pep isn't Wenger to risl all his players in one match so he lose them for the rest of the season.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 9:38 AM
kamikaze kontiki Said,
Ramzi
Pep was one of my favourite players and I honestly cannot think of someone better suited to be Barça manager than him but if he makes a mistake I feel it should be realised as such so that it is not repeated and not glossed over with the "we must keep faith in the coach therefore not question him" stuff that I see so many self-righteous cules reacting with.
Now, I am not going to belabor any point since you have promised further clarification in your next post. But I will say that I saw a Barça OUTNUMBERED in defence and in attack. Each of the 3 goals saw a maximum of 3 Barça defenders against 3 strikers inside the Barça penalty area. Now if that is not tactical and systemic failure I am not sure what is.
The Ibra question I hope you will deal with. I was happy to see him move around and occupy different positions. Normally I praise him just for doing this. But in this game it lasted only for 20 mins and by now, I am dying to see an honest evaluation of his perfomances which ignores the prejudices regarding whether he should have been bought or not (and here I will say that I am among the first to fall guilty of such). I have only watched since mid-Feb so I am hoping you will deal with topic extensively in your next post or maybe in an altogether separate post.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 1:02 PM
Anonymous Said,
Qualities of Yaya:
1)Covering
I remember a game last season there was a counter attack(maybe 3 on 3) and the opposition left wing received a ball in the sapce vacated by Alves. The right center back held firm a bit but what saved the day was yaya sprinting full speed from the centre circle, covered the winger with ball and tackeled. His speed his phenominal once he gets to top speed( i wuold say faster than Keita) and his ability to control, and not foul while at full speed is phenomenal. Busquets doesnt have this kind of defending in his arsenal.
Im talking about covering large areas of space on counters. You yourself pointed this importance for our game in an article you wroted- something about vaccum tunnel in the center. I remember in your diagrams the DM has the most area to account for. Am I blind but i think Busquets doesnt have the speed to cover that area, nor the savvy as someone mentioned to know when the foul, tackle, or stall the player on the ball.
I notice you always mention busquets attributes, such as pressing without giving yayas. Busquets is a good presser, but he does not have the speed to play the mentioned defense, or catch-up scrambling defense. I think the latter is more important for DM. Maybe bus should play further up.
2) Usefulness in the box
The inter showed what happens opposition throws numbers in our box. We arent use to and dont expect(for good reason) this very often our midfielders(Xavi, iniesta, messi?) dont like following their man if they crash the box. This is what makes the Dm so important, and one of the reason why ppl like the yaya so much is that he does superhuman (human x2) things in this area. sometimes its about brute pace and well timed tackles to save the day. Busquets is far behind in this regard. I believe yaya would have done better witht he inter goals than busquets(tho im not saying he did anything wrong per se).
3) Winning 50/50 balls in midfield, control and retaining possession.
Busquets pay play "smoother" tiki taka, but yayas ball wining and efficient passing i think more than matches up in terms of ball possession stats. I do not know this for a fact but i hope that makes sense to you. All this not even mentioning the silly passes leading to goals which I think comes from a bad/lazy habit busquets has of playing a one touch pass to his sides when he is facing our goal. These are infact blind passes(the kind Ibra does so often). Even Xavi never does this, Xavi always takes a touch to reorient himself, that passes, master skill which is second nature to him. Until busquets cuts this pass out of his game, I dont think he is fit to play DM.
3) athleticsim, stamina
anyway you get the idea. I dont want to say anymoer as you probably already know all this. I would simply like to hear your feedback and acknowledgement of yayas attributes over Bus. I do believe yaya is super versatile, can pass well enough to be xavis backup, and can maybe play the third midfield role.
Also, i know you appreciate what Keita offers, but dont you think he inability on the ball hinders oour options, like during the 2nd half at inter.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 2:04 PM
Anonymous Said,
To Ramzi,
Let me first say that I have been appreciating your analysis and thoughts since last season- its great to see passion tempered with systematic thinking in your writings.
Now, I want to say it really something that has always bugged me was your failure to appreciate what yaya offers us over busquets. I wanted to get this out before the flood of comments of your next post.
Discussing form, the only reason Busquets is in better form is because he has been given so many games to get to this stage, remember the beginnining this season, he was terrible. And on form, am i blind but Yaya has been pretty decent this past month, i would say even better than Bus.
Now lets get on to judging the form. You cannot say ppl are too critical of busquets. From of the cirticism comes seeing a trend in many of his games, of which he has had many, compared to the select few games Yaya has had. I notice you give examples of these off-form games yaya has had, but they are so few and far between, never a consistent run of bad games.
Regardless of form I think that based on ability an average yaya out performs and average Buquets. And this is the part I'd like your feedback on.
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 2:04 PM
Ramzi Said,
There is a new post up, but lets brief the respond for this one:
"I want to say it really something that has always bugged me was your failure to appreciate what yaya offers us over busquets."
If you are following my posts since last season, you know then that this is not true. In fact, If you go to the following post and check all the selections I picked in the past (through the photos there or the links), you will notice that Yaya was in the selection, not busquets. Including articles I wrote earlier this season.
But I will not tell you that any 22 years old handsome guy will wish to marry my grand ma because she was beautifull 60 years ago. Yaya was at his best last season. He was our first option at the begining of this season. He didnt perform well. Busquets earned his place fair and square. Thats life. Now Yaya has to show his worth anytime he gets a moment to prove himself. Whether it is one game per month, or one minute per game. Thats how proffessional football roll.
The difference is that, I evaluate current form which starts from Zero before every game and gets the fair mark after it. I dont remember Xavi's previous game while watching the next one. Because I will not evaluate his performance right if I have prejudgements.
I was against Henry Signing from day one. Nothing against Henry (one of my favourite players, I watched Arsenal because of him and that other dutch genius), but I thought the squad we had didnt need a Henry. His first year with the club was bad. I critisized him, his fans didnt like it. In his second year he did great, I praised him while his haters kept on attacking him, and didnt like my praise. This season (I predicted before it starts) that he will not be as good. He is not performing well, and I am pointing it even if his fans do not like that.
I supported Abidals signing from day one. Praised him since day one and got lot of passive comments for that. Then Abidal won over the fans parminantly. He did consecutive mistakes and I pointed it out. His fans considered me a hater :)
I praised Yaya signing. I always pointed out his weaknesses but always considered him an asset for the club. Even when everyone believed he will be sold, I -against all the odds then- said that he is staying. The club will not risk losing him. Now he is not doing well. So thats how it is. May be he can fly, blow a tsunami when he whistle, head the sun causing a sunset, or whatever supernatural qualities he has, The bottom of line is that he got enough starting role at the start of the season to prove himself. Busquets was better and sealed the deal. Its yaya's job to win back his position. I wish he did. As the last thing I care for is who starts. As long as the team perform to the altimate potentials possible for every game.
Posted on April 25, 2010 at 11:14 AM
Bibin Said,
This is ridiculous. Nobody is questioning Pep's selection of starting line-up. What the bloody hell was he doing holding back two substitution when we were 3-1 down. Miracle from heaven. One more goal there we would have been in driving seat.
Posted on April 27, 2010 at 8:08 AM