We are playing against "anti-football”, whatever the hell that means, all the time now. Teams have figured it out; Messi isn't playing anywhere as good as he was in previous seasons. If he doesn't perform in a system which was built to get the best out of him what’s the point of keeping it and making other players suffer for it? I'm sick and tired of seeing our wide men pass the ball back into the centre instead of taking on their man, I've had enough of our midfielders, bar Cesc, getting to the edge of the box and instead of risking a direct pass deciding instead to pass it backwards or out wide to the winger who will then bass it back to them, then they would pass to Alves who would cross the ball into the middle, it would get headed away, then we would start all over again.
This unnecessary sideways and backwards passing is the very reason so many people, not me, find possession people so boring. It works when you are leading and want to take control or facing a team like Man United who think their good enough to take us on so we just pass them off the park. It also doesn't help that a midfielder is our second best finisher in the past couple of seasons. It has been what, 13 games since Pedro last scored a goal and Alexis has 1 or 2 goals a season. Villa then starts 2 games in a row and scores but then is benched the next game so his momentum is lost. Tito said he was ready to play 90mins but I'm beginning to have doubts about that now, there's something were not being told.
Messi look far better back out on the right, where he belongs, he looked dangerous again, because he had more space due to Celtic flooding the centre in an attempt to mark him out of the game when he was playing in the middle, with him out wide they were marking air, and we looked likely to score each time. I was fine with false 9 when it was used as a trick up the sleeve tactic, it bamboozled Sir Alex's 08-09 United Dream Team, well, after the 10min anyway, Sir Alex obviously had not gotten the memo, but after the game I thought, yeah, it worked tonight, but let’s hope it’s not seen as some I win tactic. But Pep kept it, and due to it still being an unknown tactic, it worked. Then we came up against Inter, and well, we all remember how that ended.
Time to change it I said, either play Messi out wide or play him as an AM behind Ibra. But no, we kept it, and it worked again. An in-form Pedro and Villa were a huge reason why it worked, buts that's a story I will save for my grandchildren, the season Villa, Pedro and Messi were all on form at the same time. That was the closet we got to our 08/09 heights, beating the foolish United team once again (someone really has to send Sir Alex that memo). Sadly, there was no treble again, due to Madrid’s parked bus
Then came season 10/11, we had signed the prodigal son and Alexis, and I thought to myself,
"Cesc is here, he plays best in ether Iniesta's position or Messi's. Pepe isn't going to move Messi, so we may see Iniesta playing out wide or a 3-4-3, but will Messi be at the head of the 3, or will he try to play the False 9 role and come deeper and take the space occupied by Cesc, which will lead to the 3-4-3 failing?".
This is exactly what happened, Messi pushed Cesc back, and the Cesc occupied Xavi and Iniesta's space with Iniesta having to move out wide to find space. To add to this, teams had finally seemed to find their brains and flooded the centre to prevent the systems effectiveness. Add to this, injuries and inconsistency and you have the recipe of the famous Shitstorm stew.
This had far more of an impact on any other player not named Messi it seems, Alexis showed glimpses then faded, Villa, Ibi and Pedro vanished off the face of the earth, Cesc looked like a lost lamb, we had to promote Tello and Cuenca who despite their obvious talent were not able to step up and replace those we lost. That which did not need fixing was showing cracks, Messi was covering them all by himself, his best ever season, which he will not replicate again, that much is clear. That became all that was talked about.
"Wow, Messi scored a hat-trick, that’s 454585934 goals in 20 games"
"But were 10 points behind Madrid...."
"Who cares, Messi scored, Madrid have bribed the refs anyway"
"
"
Now on to this season, we started off well, a new manager was in, Players felt the need to impress, and I was full of hope that Tito would do away with the accursed system, the bane of my existence.
"Play Messi behind Villa or put him out wide I said, if he scores only 50 goals but Villa scores 40 and Pedro 30 no Barca fan would care, it’s a team game. It's far better than Messi scoring 70 with the 2nd highest on around 15 and Barca only winning the Copa”
. 10/11 season, once which I very much will avoid telling the grandchildren about.
"It was a time best left in the past" I will say.
I had hopes for this season, that we would see innovation, which we have done, we have found a solution to the parked bus, but we still have the mentality, that if its isn't broken then don't fix it. But we have been found out; it is beyond me how we have managed to win so many games so some poor performances. The system is broken, now is the time to fix it, before we find ourselves in the same hole we dug ourselves back in 06-08. Because supposedly back then, winning a league and CL double meant that nothing needed fixing. How arrogant we were, lets not be the same now.
I agree to building a team around your best player, when that player is not on form though, the system will do much more harm then good.
