When Messi drops deep, NO ONE is up front.
Agreed. Our rotating is fabulous but the one area I have issue with is that when leo drops into MF, no one moves across. They stay on the wings. Pedro or Fabregas or whoever should be moving across (hack, even making a diagonal run across the back four if leo pulls them out of shape) and letting the wingback take their place on the wing until the attack advances, or we lose the ball.
The risks then become pointless. The Spanish league doesn't exactly have a reputation for good defending, Europe it's a whole different ball game. Barcelona's 'pass until blue in the face' just doesn't work against well organised defences as it would in forcing defences to open in la Liga.
Fair statement. However, a lot of the time it isnt working because of a view things not being done properlly, rather than the tactic itself being void. For example, 1. no one os mkaing the runs highlighted above- potentially allowing xavi to make cutting passes. 2. Our passing game does/will work, when we up the tempo., actually attemped proper counter attacks when the oportunity arises. or take a risk every now and then.
What was even more worrying for Barcelona is they were beaten at their own game. You know, hustling the opposition, winning the ball back and putting them under immense pressure.
Credit to ACM big time. But I'll be honest, I think their performance has been a little overrated. They were no where near as good as youd think listening to everyone. But yeah, they did well.
By the way, what exactly is Sergio Busquets good for? He adds absoloutely nothing to Barcelona.
.................................. say wa?
Awful at breaking up play, doesn't protect a seriously weak backline and doesn't really have the licence to go and make things happen going forwards, not to mention he's got this irritating ability to overplay EVERYTHING. He's like Mikel, occassionally you'll see him do something useful, othertimes you just feel he's been majorly underused, which isn't to say he's a bad player, but he quite clearly isn't a good defensive midfielder, Mascherano is comfortably better.
No one, and I mean no one- is an amazing near perfect AM
and an amazing near perfect DM. What Busi does is be very good at both, allowing xavi and iniesta the freedom to concentrate purely on possession and trying to manipulate the shape the opponent, while at the same time being good enough on the ball that he doesnt ruin our game plan of (and in fact outright improves): playing everything out from the back, keeping the ball on the ground, using a possession heavy game etc. In short, Busi is one of our most important players.
I cant take you this seriously after that.
In the second leg, Barcelona should consider dropping him completely and putting an extra body forwards so Messi doesn't have to drop so deep, perhaps play Fabregas or Iniesta behind the trio of Villa/Sanchez, pedro and Messi. Their backline is extremely slow - exploit it. Don't test them and they'll quite happily boot out poitnless crosses all evening.
If we drop Busi we are more likely to concede from open play and destroy all hope of progressing, depending on what the alternative is. My perferred lineup would be:
---Busquets----
-----------------
xavi--------ini---
------m----es--P
-------es----ta--e
vi-------s--------d
--l--l--a--i-------ro
But i cant see villa starting.
