Guardiola ends the European Super Cup final with six central midfielders
The Barcelona XI that ended the European Super Cup final - the six midfielders are highlighted
Usually ZM looks at sides’ starting line-ups for matches, before assessing how the shape changed as the game went on.
This is slightly different, however, because the interesting thing about Barcelona’s Super Cup win over Porto on Friday was the way they finished the game, with six central midfielders amongst the ten outfield players.
The arrival of Cesc Fabregas has prompted various questions about where he’ll fit into the side. The real answer to that question is rotation – with Andres Iniesta a little injury-prone, Fabregas only averaging around 60% of league minutes over the past three seasons and Xavi Hernandez needing an increasing amount of rest these days, it’s not as big an issue as some have suggested.
Nevertheless, it is interesting that Pep Guardiola has tried to strengthen his side in midfield (and further forward, with the arrival of Alexis Sanchez). It’s hardly as if Barcelona need improvement in those zones – epitomised by the fact that when they won the European Cup final last season with a 3-1 win over Manchester United, their three forwards all scored a goal, and their three midfielders all recorded assists.
What Guardiola really needed was a centre-back. At a crucial stage last season he had a severe shortage in that position, meaning Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano had to deputise. Eric Abidal’s return from illness gives Guardiola another option there, but with Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique both out for a couple of weeks, Abidal is the only established fit centre-back at the club. Gabriel Milito has left the club, although with his lack of pace, he was completely unsuited to Barca’s high line. 21-year-old Andreu Fontas has been promoted to the first team, although at this point there’s nothing to suggest that Guardiola sees Fontas as anything like a regular this season.
So, whilst Busquets and Mascherano may have ‘filled in’ at centre-back last season, this campaign they might do so on a more regular basis. Pique, Puyol and Abidal will still be the first three choices, but Guardiola’s decision to prioritise spending €50m+ on a winger and another central midfielder suggests that he’s more than happy to play holding midfielders at the back.
In many ways, it makes perfect sense. Barcelona have the ball for the majority of every game they play, and therefore passing skills become more vital for the centre-backs. Guardiola wants good ball circulation from his side, and having two midfielders at the back will simply increase his side’s ability to pass effectively.
With the side playing so high up the pitch, Barcelona’s centre-backs will probably be playing in a similar zone of the pitch to holding midfielders in post sides, as mentioned with Bruno Soriano of Villarreal in midweek. Marcelo Bielsa, a good friend of Guardiola and another who favours a high defensive line, happily played central midfielders at the back with Chile – with Gary Medel and Arturo Vidal featuring there. He looks to be doing the same thing now at Athletic Bilbao with Javi Martinez and Carlos Gurpegi.
It’s along the same lines as something ZM has mentioned on many occasions – particularly the idea of a ‘modern centre-half’ who would start in midfield but drop into the backline as play develops. Busquets has done that many times before, of course, and did it on a permanent basis at Atletico last season.
It points to the gradual homogenisation of the centre-back and holding midfield roles, and a further development might be to play three players – two centre-backs and a holder – who can all play in each of the three positions. A trio of Mascherano, Busquets and Pique would be able to do that – Pique has the ability to play as a holding midfielder.
In this match, in addition to three central midfielders, Guardiola used Andres Iniesta on the left for the final minutes – nothing unusual about that, since he’s played that position quite often. He was the sixth nominal central midfielder in Barca’s system 4-3-3.
Can it go any further? Quite possibly. Messi, after all, is playing deeper and deeper – having gone from a high right-winger, to a central forward, to a false nine, and arguably now to a number ten in some games. Interestingly, in pre-season Guardiola tried both Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara in the Messi role, suggesting that a midfielder could sometimes play that role, too.
For Guardiola, he is taking his ideology a step further. His impact upon football has been significant in his short time in charge of Barca – having been forced into early retirement as a player because clubs didn’t want passing midfielders, as a manager he set about trying to build a midfield comprised entirely of passers.
The next step is to try and get as many passing midfielders into the side as possible.
Guardiola ends the European Super Cup final with six central midfielders
Liking Masch at CB now. Loved Fabregas’ goal too, he deserves to be at Barca!
Not sure how my team Porto will fair this season… Losing Falcao is a huge blow
Yeah I was sad to see Falcao leave. Wanted to see him in the CL
I would have understood if he had gone to a top Spanish or English team, but… Atletico? It’s one of the better sides in Spain but it’s not strictly top. That’s interesting, because he changed a club qualified to play in Champions League for a team playing in Europa League. Is it only about money? Or is it fear that he won’t be playing that good in the upcoming season, and so nobody would want to buy him in a year?
It was rumoured that he’s waiting for a move to Barca. They only have to click their fingers in the next two / three seasons if they do want him. All a bit strange, though.
Losing Falcao is not a big deal when we compare it with a loss of Andre Villas-Boas.
Maybe not, but at least they had a bit of time to adapt to that.
Losing Falcao is a big blow to Hulk. Falcao was excellent at drawing both center backs, leaving Hulk one on one against a physically overmatched right back. Now it’s much easier and safer to shift a center back to double up on Hulk, cutting off his dribbling and shooting lane
what i dont understand is why dont teams attack barca more i think at the moment it does not matter how good you defend against them they are going to beat you. remember inter milan in that famous champions league semi under jose mourinho i think i have never seen any team defending with so much tactical awareness and organization in modern football and yet they lost that match 1-0 i think teams should adopt the kevin keegan philosophy against barca which is ” it does not matter how many you score we will score more” cause i think the only way to truely test midfielders turned into defenders is to attack them and see how barca does anything good not playing with proper defenders. i think every manager who comes against barca start his match strategy by sorting out how to stop them from scoring goals and not by how to beat them and that is the only reason that barca has no difficulty playing with makeshift defenders or midfielders playing as defenders.
How do you attack when you don’t have the ball?
That was ManU’s problem in the CL final. They set out an adventurous side and could only sustain a threat for two ten minute periods (at the start and end of the first half).
exactly my point ManU could only sustain pressure on barca when they attacked them in those two spells as u have rightly mentioned but remember ManU was not attacking in that game they actually played with only one striker in chicharito all their game plan revolved around the fact that chicharito has got pace and so they were hoping that a long ball will find him which was actually not a good strategy
Brilliant analysis, always love this kind of piece! I wonder if Paul Scholes was ten years younger and Guardiola bought him! He could be one hell of a player in Barca. Despite their excellence in building attack and playing tiki-taka passes, Barcelona should really work on their defensive set-pieces though, they were really awful in that department.
BTW in my Football Manager Guardiola decided to buy Demba Ba and Romelu Lukaku. With those two guys’ imposing physical presence, they are really difficult to beat –if not impossible. He played Lukaku in the centre, with Demba Ba on the left and Messi on the right (sometimes Messi plays in the centre and Pedro in the right side). Then on the second half he will deploy David Villa whose speed and agility ready to tear the opponent defense’s tiring legs. Please if anyone could give me advice on how I can beat them, it would be very much appreciated.
Demba Ba!
Best way to beat the shniz out of Barca in FM (if you’re Real Madrid) is to go long ball 4-3-3 and kick the jazz out of their players. My worst result against them is a 2-2 away draw. Incidently he also bought Lukaku in mine. Their defense is so poor and high that Ronny, Higgers and the Benzmeister can tear them a new a-hole every time. Just make sure your midfield can play the passes – I go Xabs, the Kakmeister and the Sa-machine. So its
Ikes
Arbs – Rambo – Pepmeister – ‘celo
Kaks – Xabs – Nuriello
Benz – Higs – Rockin’ Ronny Ronaldohead
3 goals from 137 corners last Liga season.
I don’t think “really work on set-pieces” is called for as you suggest.
They are good enough already.
Robert Huth is the answer to your problems. And rory delap.
“in pre-season Guardiola tried both Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara in the Messi role”
Fabregas didn’t play any pre-season games to my knowledge?
Actually, Fàbregas played as a false nine against Napoli, last Sunday or so. So he did play a pre-season game, only at an unusual time, after the Supercopa.
Ah right, my bad, ta.
The inevitable question this raises is, where now for John Terry?
Like players like Chicharito in the disappearing poacher/centre forward role, the classic center back may simply be to good to drop and wont leave the game completely but it seems that versatility is the way forward for players at the back so that they can more effectively deal with the versatile attacking players emerging.
I would like to poin out that Guardiola shifted Iniesta to center-midfield when Porto got their red card, to exploit the space infront of the defence (DM, was moved to CB to cover for the sending off). Now the reason i am pointing this out, is if you take a look at the whole second goal its very noticable and quite crucial that Iniesta was there in center midfield, because he brought the ball 30-40 meters forward with no one marking him. I am giving credit to Guardiola here, because it was good tactics to recgognize that space and move Iniesta there.
Well spotted!
I would say Iniesta was actually right forward at that point, with Sanchez at left forward and who’s run created the space for Cesc to move into.
I think the whole thing is bunk anyway. Iniesta has played left side of attack hundreds of times and Mascherano and Busquets were playing centrebacks not special centrebacks who play in midfield. If you played Pinto on the wing would that be a revolutionary new two goalkeeper system? Gary Mabbutt played midfield after Fashanu ripped his eyes out – why not do a big feature on him. Seems like half the reason this was written is because it was Barcelona.
Now we know that you are not of Barcelona’s football. The point is not about a midfielder filling the role of a defender or a forward filling a role of a midfielder, the point is that Guardiola is taking a step further in the Barcelona philosophy of playing with possession. Like ZM is pointing out, the reason why is he deploying those holding midfielders is not just because they know how to defend, but they can play the ball out.
Haven’t you noticed that Victor Valdes 90% of the time plays short passes to the CB rather than long pass it to the forward line in hopes of some of his diminutive size teammates gets it?
It’s all about Barcelona way of playing, how so? Possession, you attack with the ball and you defend WITH the ball.
excellent article ZM. very JW
its enriching to see a mnager with an idea, a concept/theory, that goes out with the courage to make sure it is applied practically at the highest level in football. just comes to prove that football is about much more than simply winning!
what Bielsa applies & I find missing with Pep is the stopper. the backline lacks speed & the ability to recover without applying “last-ditch” methods as we’ve seen against both Porto & Madrid (particularly Dani vs Cristiano, 1st Leg Super Copa). Porto were unexpectadly even worse than Madrid at exploiting this! OT, but Hulk had to be the front man, with another capable winger occupying Adriano. maybe James Rodriguez (the next Colombian prodigy to be ruined by a backwards footballing ideology that misunderstood Valderamma’s generation) or Varela.
my favourite component in the system is the role occupied by Keita at the moment. I can imagine Pep wanting Cesc to eventually occupy that role is Busquets becomes a permanent at the back. in any case, Barcelona always have a different midfielder intiating the attack from the 6 position. to be honest, I think this tactic is built to suit Xavi. he recieves & dispatches the first ball from the back best. if it goes through Busquets to Xavi it takes longer, with more triangular maneuvering to find “the right moment” to attack.
when’s the Blizzard coming out next? my life needs a purpose again!!
Yeah, it’s like Bielsa said when it comes to centre-backs…
“Yes they must be strong, yes I want them to be resolute in the tackle and, yes, they must be able to clear danger… but above all, since they are the players on the pitch who can enjoy the most time on the ball, I want them to be able to play”.
The way Barca is innovating is super interesting. This article is along the same lines as what you are talking about:
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2011/08/16/2617774/with-the-signing-of-arsenals-cesc-fabregas-barcelona-could-begin
Man, I had regular nightmares last year at Uni down to Ruby on Rails…
glad to see Guardiola getting some credit.
Don’t want to rain your parade,
but Barcelona deploying 6 midfielders doesn’t mean other teams will follow suit.
“gradual homogenisation of the centre-back and holding midfield roles” may apply to Barcelona philosophy, but I’d say they’ll remain an exception as other countries/leagues will keep on playing their own brand of football.
I have my own doubts about that too and I was also going to comment something similar.
Maybe this whole system is only applicable to Barcelona.
Spain national team (both youth squads and the senior squad) try to mimic Barça’s style, to some success, but definetely not in the same level as the Catalan club. Trying to push it further like Guardiola is doing doesn’t look an easy task to the national team, mostly composed of Barça players. If it looks hard for them, I can’t imagine any other team or club employing this method in a near future.
But, undoubtedly, it’s a great tactical advancement as much as it’s beauty on the eyes!
“Spain national team (both youth squads and the senior squad) try to mimic Barça’s style, to some success”
Yes, they’ve had “some” success
I think what he means is some success of playing Barca’s brand of football. Spain NT plays possession football and has a wealthy amount of midfielders that can play all around the pitch.
If Spain NT did play like Barca, they wouldn’t be narrowly winning games or loosing
My question on Barça’s 2nd goal, isn’t Iniesta’s run suffeciently ‘involved’ in the action to be offside, because it puts the goal keeper and defenders off. I understand the new rule asks for a player to be involved to be offside, I would argue that making a run into the box is getting involved (or whatever the jargon is)even though cesc obvioously wasn’t offside. For me the rule only meant when a player was not involved in the game at all, as in injured, or next to the sidelines. Iniesta was running towards the penalty spot! Just food for thought and wanted to see whjat people thought.
As a Porto fan I was very proud of their performance, one of the best performances of any team against Barça.
I also wondered about Iniesta being offside. As for Porto’s performance, I can’t agree it was one of the ‘best’ vs Barca, since they didn’t score. It was promising, but as Matt noted above re. the loss of Falcao, it’s now easier for opponents to key on Hulk. Kleber, the new CF, had looked promising in early games–against weaker opponents–but he blew a great opportunity to level the score in this one. At least Porto now know what they need to do to advance in Champions.
If busquets is moved to CB permantly with mascherano, then i think xavi should be given the holding role, hes played there before, has excellent positioning and obvs a excellent passer. Then have either kieta further forward with fab/iniesta or both fab and iniesta with xavi, though fab would have to develop his tackling skills.
The defence pushes up, the attack drops deep – Guardiola is basically getting closer and closer to playing a team entirely composed of midfielders.
Just would like to add, Mascherano is no longer just an emergency option at CB. Pep didn’t buy a CB because he plans to play Masch there permanently, and make Keita Busquets’ sub. Mascherano is now first choice CB, and when Puyol recovers, he will be first choice CB sub. I think Pep sees him as Puyol’s natural replacement. He is the only one with Puyol-ish characteristics, and he also showed against Madrid and Porto that he is getting better in the air. I already feel as if he is one of the best CBs in the world, or he will be soon, as he is still getting better there.
I don’t think Masch will be ahead of a fit Puyol yet,but maybe in another 2 years.
I meant Mascherano will be the first choice CB sub, with Puyol in the starting lineup. Sorry.
You wrote it okay, he just didn’t read carefully.
and the bast part is…he’s 1.71m / 5ft7! monster masche
Surprising that you mention the DM/CB interchanging as something new.. Van Gaal had been doing this regularly at Bayern, although he didnt have players of that quality.. When they have the ball, usually Demichellis used to move into the midfield to become an extra passing option esp. against United in the CL QF game in 2010 (as you yourself had blogged).. When they sold him, he pushed Tymoschuk into the CB position so that he can play his usual DM role when they had the ball (this was disastrous though)..
“but Guardiola’s decision to prioritise spending €50m+ on a winger and another central midfielder suggests that he’s more than happy to play holding midfielders at the back.”
This could spectacularly backfire if they come up against forwards with real pace (as shakthar showed last year..) and good finishing skills.. Tomorrow’s game against Villareal will be interesting in this aspect..
I believe one of the reasons to play midfielders as centre-backs is to battle pacy forwards, as a typical tall strong-build CB is always more probable to be a slow turner and poor with his feet (not that Busquets and Mascherano are the quickest ones out there though
)
Interesting article, but I think Guardiola is overdoing it. Barcelona needs proper center-backs, even though they won, they were second best, Barcelona only won due to Messi’s brilliance and not due to their team playing well – some people may believe otherwise but the past 3 games of Barca have been all Messi and not Barca. Madrid had numerous chances and they got into better scoring positions – they weren’t able to take advantage of them but over time you will see the results.There has been an over reliance on Messi for goals and assists. I think this new philosophy of having holding midfielders in defence will backfire as the season progresses.
Mascherano is a proper CB. He is still learning, but he is already high quality there. Against Porto, Barcelona weren’t second best. They struggled with Porto’s high line, but Porto were reduced to two or three long shots by Moutinho. That was their only threat. A mixture of form (Barcelona is still a long way off their best form), a terrible pitch, and Keita at DM, meant Barca couldn’t circulate the ball quick enough, which is the only way to escape the high pressure if you don’t have a big Striker. Against Madrid, the first leg Barcelona played bad, but in the second leg, the match was 50/50. Actually, Barcelona were better, and had more scoring opportunities.
As for relying on Messi, that won’t be the case when Pedro and Villa reach top form (both aren’t doing well at the moment) and when Alexis Sanchez adapts. Also, any team with Messi is going to rely a lot on Messi :p. He is getting better every year, and he has reached an unbelievable level. It isn’t a sign of weakness that most of Barcelona’s attacks go through him. Especially now that he is playing deeper and will be more involved in the build up.
It’s August! Wait until the team gets into its regular form.
One of the most interesting aspects of the match was the way Guardiola changed shape at the end of the match after Rolando was sent off moving away from his favored 4-3-3.
Pereira had already utilized his three substitutes. So he moved Fernando, the holding player, deeper to act as a center back. Guardiola responded by moving Iniesta off the left wing back to central midfield to exploit the new space that opened up.
Barcelona ended the match playing a highly fluid formation, but it was almost a 4-2-2-2. Xavi and Keita were deep. Iniesta and Fabregas in more advanced midfield and Sanchez and Messi up top. Again – highly fluid, but that was roughly their shape.
Interestingly, when Guardiola moved Iniesta back to central midfield he also switched Sanchez from the right side of the pitch back to the left. I believe he did this to get Messi on the right side of the 2 man formation up top. That allowed Messi to cut in to his left foot – which was a key reason why he was able to make that beautiful cross to Fabregas for the second goal.
I believe that may be the first time Guardiola has moved away from the 4-3-3 and fielded that kind of 4-2-2-2ish shape.
In addition to the 6 formal central midfielders Guardiola ended the match utilizing three other players – Messi, Sanchez and Alves all have highly multifaceted skill sets and can be considered almost as midfielder variants in how they play.
It was a radical demonstration of universalism. 9 of the 10 outfield players weren’t playing “positions” in a conventional sense. Rather than occupying discrete roles, Guardiola was distributing multi-faceted skill sets across the pitch and trusting his players.
Fascinating tactical completion to the match.
Not having seen the game, I’d guess moving Sanchez to the left was (also) to balance the team, making way for Alves’ usual runs high up the pitch.
Seems like if this change were to be implemented, and other clubs were to look into using the same tactic as well, pure strikers would possibly come back into fashion – strikers that would probably get the better of DM/CB hybrids. The problem being that a team like Barcelona may keep the ball all game anyway. Of course the offshoot of that is that they would be more susceptible to counter attack anyway. I think it might be overindulging personally – Barcelona’s problem isn’t possession, that’s for sure.
I reckon Mascherano will be far better for Barcelona at centre back than he ever would be at the base of midfield. When he first signed and he played in his ‘natural’ position, it seemed to me that he slowed Barca’s game right down, and took the zip out of their build up. Part of that proved just how quietly important to Barcelona Busquets had become, I guess.
Given that Mascherano wasn’t the right man, at least when Barca had the ball, it seemed folly to drop Busquets back to centre-back, when his talents were so necessary in midfield. Meantime, Mascherano might not have the height to make him an ideal centre-back, but he has good pace, is fast on the turn (both vital for a team that plays such a high defensive line these days) and is mobile and fit enough to cover for Alves defensively. He will get better at the positional side of being a centre back the more time he spends there, so it shouldn’t be too much of a concern.
And besides: it’s not as if there are a surfeit of tall centre fowards who get plenty of long diagonal balls to knock down or score from in Spain, is there?
Finally, with the emergence of Keita, Mascherano is probably third choice for the defensive midfield position.
This season is going to be really exciting to watch what Pep actually does over time.
There are so many possibilities thats its really confusing to be honest.
Also i am so glad for Masc. All those whiners and haters after he left, saying that
He’ll be rotting on the bench,
He sticks out like a sore thumb in Barca, etc etc
How wrong were they.
Would have been interesting to see a full review on this one.
I though Porto played very well against Barca here, particularly in the first half, keeping compact, knowing when to press, getting numbers around the ball. Breaking into space behind FB after positive transition. Only conceding goals due to stray pass and when down to 10 men and still trying to press.
Barca to start Iniesta, Thiago, and Cesc in midfield against Villareal. Whoever thought they were silly to sign Cesc after promoting Thiago was most definitely wrong. Who needs defenders when you can field a team of central midfielders?
This might be nitpicking, but I would have included Messi as a central midfielder, as that’s his role for Argentina, playing even deeper than his typical False 9 role at Barca.
Barcelona vs Villareal, what a strange line up from Barca especially the centre backs of Keita and Basquets emphasising the point made in this article. Have a feeling it mat backfire against tricky and fast Rossi and Nilmar. Only Abidal is technically a defender.
Only Barcelona.
They’re playing with theoretically 1 defender and 9 midfielders against Villareal at the moment. Man U and Roma used 4-6-0 in the past few years but the formation they’re using against Villareal is more like 3-7-0 (as if it’s ever possible to define their formation). Incredibly cohesive on offence!
Here’s my attempt on trying to put it on paper: (imagine front 6 swapping places constantly)
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8571/barcahc.png
Villareal in 1st half were very narrow, Pedro esp. had half the pitch to himself almost.
Taking a leap of faith,
there were 0 genuine CB’s.
Abidal in classic Barca form is a LB who plays CB (diff for France though).
Revolution baby.
Got a glimpse of Iniesta once already subbed sitting in he dug out, looked like he was on a beach, so fresh.
I’d just add that in my opinion Fabregas was played in a more advanced position than Iniesta. I wholly agree with the rest.
I’m proud of FC Porto, who faced the worst time the best team in the world.
With injuries after losing Falcao, with the instability caused by the transfer market and that had at least two out of eleven players through this …
We played a great game.
Just 10 minutes from time was not marked clearly a penalty for FC Porto, with 11×11 in the field.
UEFA did not leave Barcelona suffer more.
http://thebluefactoryofdreams.blogspot.com/
“Guardiola wants good ball circulation from his side, and having two midfielders at the back will simply increase his side’s ability to pass effectively.”
However, Pique will be played in every single game he’s fit for (deservedly), so writing about a team of midfielders as though the CB position is better filled with world-class midfielders instead of a new CB signing able to press, hold a high line, have heaps of agility, height, pace and vision….
My feeling is that Pep went for strengthening in the positions he did because, whatever the budget, it’s very hard to find exquisitely talented defenders who fit the Barca mould, and while Manchester United (for example) can’t do a Manchester City and buy everyone, so have to spend within their still reasonable means and develop players, Barca have created a gap and can’t afford to switch in a ‘developing’ player as it would allow the chasing pack to draw closer – so better to play with Mascherano/Busquets where their strengths can be used, save money in the transfer market and (certainly against teams where they’re less likely to be exposed (anyone but the top 1-2 teams from each league)) and strengthen the quick passing game which a commenter rightly said Mascherano in CM/AM or even DM position ruined somewhat for them.