Luis Enrique

[khaled_a_d]

The best system to play an aging Messi in would be behind Suarez in a 3 line with a double pivot behind him to work as a shield for our back 4. You absolutely can't play Messi in a midfield 3 because he doesn't have the workrate to play there. But if you play him as a trequartista, in a free role, he can shine like a much better Totti until he's 35-36.

We need something like this to make an aging Messi work very well. In this position you can allow Messi and Suarez at the top, and form a tight 4-4 line in defence. For that we need a wing player who is the profile of Pedro or Alexis Sanchez. Fast and hard working, willing to help the defence quite a lot (really surprised that Neymar's been putting some defensive work as well). Also, the DM needs to be very specialist in that position, he must be an ace at fouling at the right time, tackling, and a beast in 1 vs 1 defensively. Both the defenders behind Messi should take only moderate risks. They have to be there if Messi loses the ball, not be caught above Messi on the field, because then every lost ball will potentially lead to an attack being initiated directly on our back 4.

The 4-2-3-1 would mean though, that both wingers need to come down, in order to help on the defensive transition and form a midfield 4, or even midfield 5 if one of Messi and Suarez (they can intercharge) drops a bit. 4-5-1 seems to be the most solid defensive shapes around atm.

When you have someone like Gomes in more reserved that suit him (which is semi-pivot) or hard working Rakitic (again semi-pivot) but putting a more reserved flanks as Roberto isn't such attacker and a new RW will surely do more defensively than Messi then I think Messi can fit in. It is close to what you think but more Barca-esque IMHO and also more suited to what we have.

 

[DonAK]

Better not drop points on Saturday

 

[xXKonan]

I remember rumors when Lucho first joined he wanted to utilize a double pivot, but when we did the Duo of Masche-Busi struggled.

I think Busi can work in a double pivot but not with a destroyer like Masche, but with someone like Rakitic and Gomes, Verratti etc he could.

 

[SocalBarcaFan]

Would Arda work well enough in that RW spot with a double pivot? Obviously not ideal but with all the news on Barcas financial situation there may not be enough money to spend on a perfect fit. I do think that formation would work. It would benefit the attack as well as defense if Neymar and Arda put effort in there.

 

[FlaFCB]

Would Arda work well enough in that RW spot with a double pivot? Obviously not ideal but with all the news on Barcas financial situation there may not be enough money to spend on a perfect fit. I do think that formation would work. It would benefit the attack as well as defense if Neymar and Arda put effort in there.

No. Arda is terrible on the right.

 

[SocalBarcaFan]

No. Arda is terrible on the right.

Yes he has been with the old 433. We have never tried the proposed 4231 and probably never will. But what other options do we have?

 

[Aryagorn]

I would go for a 4-2-3-1 in order to try and get the best of Messi for a longer duration.

Neymar-----Suarez------Iniesta
---------------Leo
---------Busi------Gomes
--Alba---Umtiti---Pique----RB

I said RB coz ideally I would want Roberto to be playing instead of Gomes

And playing that wide role on right is not some thing new to Iniesta, he has done that before. He won the Euro for Spain playing there.

And that is like the best XI. I would play Rafinha/Denis instead of Iniesta whenever possible.

 

[SocalBarcaFan]

I would go for a 4-2-3-1 in order to try and get the best of Messi for a longer duration.

Neymar-----Suarez------Iniesta
---------------Leo
---------Busi------Gomes
--Alba---Umtiti---Pique----RB

I said RB coz ideally I would want Roberto to be playing instead of Gomes

And playing that wide role on right is not some thing new to Iniesta, he has done that before. He won the Euro for Spain playing there.

And that is like the best XI. I would play Rafinha/Denis instead of Iniesta whenever possible.

I guess putting Iniesta or Denis/Rafinha at RW would ensure that when Barca lost possession they would fight to get it back. I just picked Arda there cause he is the best finisher imo out of the other options we have there.

 

[xXKonan]

Arda is a lot better on the LW than he is on the RW.


I feel like we have the players to use a 4-2-3-1, but Lucho doesn't seem interested in utilizing other formations other than the 4-3-3 and sometimes the 3-4-3.

 

[DonAK]

Not sure how this is going to work out right now.

[formation=barca,8]
GK
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Mascherano-0-0-Pique-0-0-Umtiti
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Denis-0-Busquets-0-Iniesta-0-Alba
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Messi-0-0-Suarez-0-0-Neymar
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
[/formation]

This is the Conte 3-4-3 btw.

Denis is Victor Moses. Busquets and Iniesta are Matic and Kante(yeah, I know, not really comparable defensively). Alba is Marcos Alonso and then there's the front three where Messi like Hazard is allowed to go in to the middle and wide.

Why Denis? Because he's faster and more mobile than Rakitic and we would need that as he would have to make a big push defensively when needed while providing width forward, and if he can make that defensive contribution of just getting back along with Alba, we'd have 5 men in defence while Iniesta and Busquets will be tasked with stopping the counter attack from the middle, while they will also be able to connect through the middle and push forward.

Actually, I don't think this is going to work either as it might limit Iniesta offensively and the guy is 32 and certainly not mobile enough to handle the role efficiently.

I'll post it anyway though. Just thinking about it. Lucho certainly got to do something with our right side though which is completely useless along with the defensive transition which is failing spectacularly.

The problem again with a 4-2-3-1 is that if you pair Busquets up with Rakitic or Gomes, they're slow to get back defensively which is a problem when the two FBs push forward, we might be left with 3 players behind which is a bit suicidal. Not to forget you got to have Iniesta in the Starting XI. There's no way he's getting out of the Starting XI. A guy like Arturo Vidal would've perfect if we were going to play like that, but we don't have anyone like that. Aggressive, tenacious, able to get from box-to-box quickly.

These lines are such a mess thou

http://lineupbuilder.com/?sk=dx1kx5

The formation on paper has nothing to say whatsoever. It's how you play on the field which matters. Something that's penned down as a 4-3-3 might not be that. Like Pep's 3-3-4 against AC Milan in his last season.

 

[xXKonan]

All I know is the right hand side is a dead zone and Lucho hasn't fixed the issue everything is sterile and no matter who we play at RCM it still it's still a deadzone.

Losing Dani was huge, but what made it worse is Lucho, didn't change the tactics on the right hand side at all he just expected for Roberto to fill in that hole Dani left and expected Rakitic/RCM to keep doing the same thing like Dani was still here.

Dani and Bob are polar opposites and Roberto is a CM/DM and the differences between them are so vast it's like comparing a Mountain to a Dirt hill. it would be like us losing Messi and Lucho telling Rafinha/Denis to play like Messi use to do.

and everyone's reaction would be.

it just can't be done.

 

[serghei]

The way I see it the 4-2-3-1 would allow Messi to be in a free role by making the wings to form a 4 men midfield in defensive transition, in a compact 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 depending on the position of Suarez. But you need a top class RW, otherwise teams would just crowd Messi more and leave more space for the RW knowing that said RW is not a potentially lethal threat. So it has to be someone young and fast who will stay there and demand constant attention from the other teams' defence. Rafinha, Denis, Gomes are not that. Neither is older Iniesta. One main reason why teams manage to crowd the midfield more now than in the past is because our right side when Messi is missing from there doesn't look very threatening. So almost all teams we meet focus more on stoping our left stronger side while flooding the midfield to crowd Messi, because they know those are the danger zones atm when you play Barca.

 

[JerseyAddict]

Just found 2 articles that are fulfilling each other. It is all that we know already, but not bad to point out...
Against AB on Camp Nou our right side was empty most of the times and everything wen't over Neymar. As someone said, Rafinha noticed when he was subbed LOL.

Maybe realy Luch abbandoned right side... like some unwanted child.

USE GOOGLE TRANSLATE

http://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/fc-barcelona/20170113/413307820815/barca-medias.html
http://telesport.telegram.hr/analiz...-visak-protiv-svakoga-na-konkretnom-primjeru/

 

[Neymessi]

He isn't gonna try anything new so why bother.

Consider the most important match of the season. Who would you guys play along with iniesta at rcm? At this moment there is no clear winner for me with a lot of average players as options. Lets hope one of the midfielders turns really really good somehow for that spot. Rakitic would have to be my pick perhaps.

 

[Messi983]

It's Raketa, no doubt for me. He's the most proven from the bunch.