Overall he had a bad game, gave the ball away and could have been sent off...
pep tactics would have overcome this atletico pressing. atletico are doing the same thing Bayern did, intense pressing, pressing the width and pockets barca have, and outnumbering barca in attack and defence. count the number of players atletico have during defence. I counted all 10 atletico players defending actively at one point.
that's the same workrate Bayern used to dominate barca.
pep's tactics revolved partially on the predicition of this tactic being used against him, so thats why pep always had a highly defensive tiki-tika, to wear down opposition presses by making them redundant within the barca zone, also this effectively stretched the opposition pressure, alleviating the intensity of pressure in offensive zones.
Tata (martino) is more pseudo tito then pep with his tactics. he's reintroduced pressing, but he hasn't used the tactical alignment and foresight of pep, he hasn't equipped the neutralizing effects of defensive possession, and barca are struggling to create chances by attacking straight into the crescent of a wave of atletico defenders.
atletico's pressing caused this imo.
to quote something I wrote at another forum about this tactic:
when neymar subbed on two things happened.
1) his movement and energy made barca's rhythym far more fluid and dynamic. barca also look much more comfortable in possession, and at last started to have some patience on the ball
2) atletico seemed to lose focus as their greatest threat in messi was off and they didn't have the same inspiration for the intensity they had prior.
the most suprisiing thing to me about barca since pep left is their lack of patience, no more possession until an opening is available, it's all forward bravado with little regard to tactical match up. barca can be easily dominated if they don't focus and naively attack on the assumption of their prowess. when teams outnumber barca in attack and defense, it's difficult for ANYONE to have a stable team and rhythym.
atletico's pressing caused this imo.
to quote something I wrote at another forum about this tactic:
when neymar subbed on two things happened.
1) his movement and energy made barca's rhythym far more fluid and dynamic. barca also look much more comfortable in possession, and at last started to have some patience on the ball
2) atletico seemed to lose focus as their greatest threat in messi was off and they didn't have the same inspiration for the intensity they had prior.
the most suprisiing thing to me about barca since pep left is their lack of patience, no more possession until an opening is available, it's all forward bravado with little regard to tactical match up. barca can be easily dominated if they don't focus and naively attack on the assumption of their prowess. when teams outnumber barca in attack and defense, it's difficult for ANYONE to have a stable team and rhythym.
+1Good stuff Busi! This is probably done to avoid any temptation Pep will offer him in the next couple of years.