It was going to happen. Sooner or later. The hard way. The easy way. At home. On the road. It was going to happen. Think about it no more. It happened. The first loss in the season.
Winning this game would have crowned Barcelona as Liga champions. It would have been odd to happen that early. It would have been even dangerous, which is another story.
We have to analyze the two folds of the game separately: Before Keita’s injury, and after Keita’s injury.
The starting lineup:
Valdés;Jeffren, Puyol, Milito, Maxwell;Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Keita;Messi, Ibrahimovic e Iniesta.
On the bench we had:
Pinto, Muniesa, Bartra, Jonathan, Henry, Pedro and Bojan
Pep, decided to use Keita in the midfield rather than in defense, Picking Jeffren as a right back. Was it better to use Keita in the defense instead? That’s impossible to tell. The idea of having both Keita and Busquets in the midfield was very reasonable. In the game preview, I tried to point out the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.
What about using Jeffren as a right back? With all respect, anyone who gives a Permanente judgment that it was a wrong decision is not reasonable. None of us actually saw the other options in action on the highest level (unless if we want to judge based on Muniesa debut last season). Again, I pointed out in the game preview that Pep will decide based on what he will see in the training sessions. There is a reason why he called three youth defenders to join the first team even though he will barely use one. It’s a clear sign that none of them is a certainty yet. After a number of training sessions, he concluded that none of them is ready, so he picked Jeffren who is more adapted to the atmosphere of first team matches. Bartra debuted in the second half, and I can predict that he impressed the Cules. But I saw clearly that he was not ready for a game like this. He lacks the calmness that Jeffren showed which was essential for the beginning of the game. Generally speaking, we can judge based on what we know, and we don’t know these players for real. They are performing perfectly at Barca athletic and all the way through the youth ranks, so did Bojan. First team debut is another story.
Keita Injury was a turning point in the game, I was curious to see Pep reaction. Keita out, Pedro in, Iniesta to the midfield, and the game keep on going.
Here it is important to quote a paragraph I wrote in: Who score goals for Barcelona?
“Picking a tactical structure for the team is a crucial stage in team building, but it’s just the beginning of an endless process of continuous improvement. To perfect a system, it’s important to have a “What if” logical circuit that ring in the coach’s mind all the time:
- What if the opponents’ defense terminated my key player threat in a game?
- What if my basic offense flow (attacking on the flank/center/counter/…) didn’t click in a game, what are the alternatives? Are the alternatives dependent on changing the players’ roles on the field or should be made by getting a bench player involved? How many subs this change requires? What if that bench player was not available?
- What if I suffered defense fragility in a game that forced my midfield back? How will that effect offense and how to deal with this challenge?
- What if player -X - got a red card?
And the “what if” loop keeps on going... Seeking perfection requires finding alternative scheme for each and every match scenario.”
- What if the opponents’ defense terminated my key player threat in a game?
- What if my basic offense flow (attacking on the flank/center/counter/…) didn’t click in a game, what are the alternatives? Are the alternatives dependent on changing the players’ roles on the field or should be made by getting a bench player involved? How many subs this change requires? What if that bench player was not available?
- What if I suffered defense fragility in a game that forced my midfield back? How will that effect offense and how to deal with this challenge?
- What if player -X - got a red card?
And the “what if” loop keeps on going... Seeking perfection requires finding alternative scheme for each and every match scenario.”
Usually, the scenario of losing one of the midfielders should be well covered by the resources available on the bench. You are planning to use (Busquets and Keita) in the midfield with specific tactical instructions, if one of them picks an injury you won’t have a problem as you will have Yaya to step in. He is capable of keeping the game plan clicking as perfect as ever. But when you have all the injury/absence mess and you are using all the reliable resources you have as starters (in the defense and midfield) then you need to plan a scenario that even consider changing the tactical structure if anything urgent happens. You need to train your players on that during the pre-match training sessions so they perform the change smoothly when you give the order. When Keita got injured, I expected one of the following scenarios:
1)Substituting him for one of the youth defenders. Using three static center backs (Milito-Puyol-Bartra?) with a line of Maxwell-Busquets-Jeffren in front of them. Xavi and Iniesta as attacking midfielders behind Messi and Ibra. This way we achieve the following gaining:
a)Having three Center backs closes the defensive area at the center. And with the youth defender playing as a third Center back with Milito and Puyol where the roles of the three players are pure defense, he will be easy to lead and control. We could have even given him the instructions to tight mark Aguero whenever he is in our defensive third. Bartra may not contain the Kun but he can complicate things for him a bit delaying his offense flow so he gets more containable.
b)Having Maxwell and Jeffren on the same line with Busquets instead of acting as fullbacks means that they will have a line of three defenders to cover behind them, that will decrease the damage of Jeffren's lack of defensive quality for example. In the other hand this line of three will create a numerical superiority in the midfiled with Xavi and Iniesta so we dominate possession. Simao and Reyes would have faced more resistance on the flanks starting from the midfield rather than running in space into Barcelona defensive area. And Finally, Jeffren and Maxwell will be able to contribute more offense wise on the flanks (something they do better than defense). This may lead to moving the game permanently into Atletico Half.
2)Keeping the defense untouched (Maxwell-Milito-Puyol-Jeffren), but then using Xavi as a second holding midfielder beside Busquets With messi and Iniesta as attacking midfielder behind Ibra and a second striker (Henry, Pedro, Bojan based on who is more fit to play). This means switching to a 4-4-2 instead of keeping the 4-3-3 in place.
Pep instead opted to keep the same structure, moving Iniesta to the midfield and installing Pedro upfront. I am not sure how valid my assumptions are, based on the players' in Pep’s basket. But I have a strong feeling it could have worked better than what we’ve seen for the rest of the game.
Atletico knew that they need to move the game to our half at any cost. Lopez, Tiago, Assuncao, Reyes, and Simao were pushing the lines forward all the times from the center and the flanks. Aguero and Forlan played the synchronized trick where one of them pulls Puyol out of position and the other demand the ball to be played into the space behind Milito. On the flanks we were always outnumbered. The rest were predicted details…
Then the substitution of Xavi for Bojan took place. Xavi picked an injury, but regardless of that, having Messi in the playmaking role was a promising idea with the hope that he moves the ball forward more often. The question is: Why not Henry? I am aware he was far from being in the right form since the start of the season, but I can’t avoid feeling shocked that Bojan got the call instead.
I will not evaluate players as I always focus on the team as a group. For example, it’s true that Messi didn’t perform up to the standards but we already knew it will happen if he had no support from the right flank, as I mentioned in the game preview. The individuals were the victims of the match conditions, not the other way around.
I hope Pep and co reread this game from a critical perspective. We will have to live with the injuries we are suffering from for a while now. This game lessons will prove being crucial for the following games.
If there is a good time to lose, it’s now. With the rival being five points behind us, rather than being in front and opening the gap. A defeat during key players absences, away from home against a team that always create complications for Barcelona rather than a loss of a full squad a game that we shouldn’t lose. This kind of games rub you three points, but cast no doubts in the dressing room, and doesn’t harm the winning motivation a bit.
Finally, the injuries tsunami that attacked our squad. I am not going to analyze its impact on the following games, we will cross that bridge later. But I hope the technical staff reconsider the changes they made to the training sessions. Since I read on Sports about the physical training sessions we added after being knocked out of the cup, and the players are falling like leaves. Find the problem, and find it now! Before Messi or Iniesta drown in the flood.
Jnice Said,
Great article as always. I agree about the training thing and like Iniesta said, it's not by chance. They need to reassess the physical training sessions.
I disagree about Bartra, though. I thought that judging by how he looked when he came on, he would have done a better job than Jeffren. He might have started off poorly because it would be his first game with the 1st team and he was probably a bundle of nerves, but he would settle eventually.
Your point about Jeffren being more used to the atmosphere is a good one, but I think he was just as nervous as Bartra would have been because he was playing in a position he has only played in once against some fierce players. Hindsight is always 20/20, though.
Posted on February 15, 2010 at 5:23 PM
Romyan Said,
Great and brief article. I want to highlight one point , allover the game, and especially after Bojan stepped in , the right flank was neglected from our players calculations . When the game was going to end , all players were in the center and left side , Bartra was alone on the right side , but none of our players thought about stretching the field .
And yea , that's the best time and way to loose. Luckily, next 2 games are at home , we should win until some injured players come back, Pique, Marquez, Alves , Toure, Xavi coming back will mean many things .
Posted on February 15, 2010 at 6:25 PM
kamikaze kontiki Said,
I would say that we have trouble when a team plays with a high defence. That combined with our own high defence causes crowding in the midfield. Tiki-taka is hard to maintain in such a situation and fails to open up space. If anyone has the possession stats, i think we might find that possession was considerably lesser during this game.
The lack of width on the right made things worse. I thought it was Jeffren that was nervous and thats why he failed to support the attack.
Normally we have an alternative in the long passes that Marquez or Pique provide and having someone like Henry who has made a career out of running onto through balls and beating the keeper in the ensuing one-on-one.
Also this never seems to be a problem when playing at the Camp Nou and only happens during away games.
Last point and the most worrying one, there seemed to be no fight in the team and they stopped trying about the 80th minute or so.
Posted on February 15, 2010 at 7:44 PM
kamikaze kontiki Said,
hmm... scratch that! ESPN has the possession as 66% to Barça. Sure didn't seem like it during the game.
Posted on February 15, 2010 at 7:48 PM
chris809 Said,
As Bede Márton wrote after this match: "Somebody could finally explain to Atleti that Real Madrid is their hated rival, they shouldn't collapse against them and play the match of the year against us. Espanyol understood this long ago."
Posted on February 16, 2010 at 1:40 AM