Barcelona 2-2 Milan: Milan’s narrowness frustrates Barca (just about)
The first half line-ups
Milan scored in the first minute and the last minute, to bookend a game otherwise dominated by Barcelona.
Pep Guardiola used Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano at the back, with Seydou Keita in the holding role, in the usual 4-3-3.
Max Allegri was without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, so Pato started upfront, supported by Antonio Cassano. Antonio Nocerino and Gianluca Zambrotta also started.
This is a strange game to analyse – how well did Milan’s tactics work? Certain aspects – the narrowness, the formation, exploiting Barca’s lack of pace at the back – worked well, but Barcelona probably could have put the game beyond them. With Guardiola using roughly his usual side and tactics (the centre-backs aside, an issue covered a lot recently), let’s look at Milan’s tactics instead.
What went well for Milan
1 The formation and overall structure
Italian clubs’ inherent narrowness cost them dear in the Champions League last season, but here it seemed to help Milan. The last side to win at the Camp Nou was Hercules, who used a flattish diamond midfield on the way to an impressive 2-0 victory, and after Milan generally competed well here, other managers might consider using a diamond. The back four played reasonably narrow, the three-man midfield sat deep and tried to prevent Barca playing between the lines, whilst the trequartista (Kevin Prince Boateng, and later Clarence Seedorf) played in a zone that occupied Keita, which sometimes meant Barca were unable to go back to him to retain the ball.
2 Dealing with Lionel Messi
OK, he was still a threat. But Messi thumping the floor when he was denied a goal by the outstanding Alessandro Nesta summed up a frustrating night for the Argentine. Milan’s strategy was, frankly, not to pay too much attention to him: they kept their shape. Of course, they closed him down when he got the ball, but the three-man midfield meant that Messi couldn’t find much space to come deep and receive the ball in that zone. He’s also seemingly been discouraged from coming too deep, as he tended to do around the time of the Copa del Rey final, which meant Barca simply played in front of the opposition. It might be that you can’t get too tight to Messi – he beats you anyway. (He still created a goal, but that was from a strange situation in the right-back position.)
3 Dealing with Dani Alves
What’s the disadvantage of playing a 4-3-1-2 against Barca – or any side? You’re leaving their full-backs free. But Milan were happy to do that, and left Alves to Zambrotta, Pedro allowed to wander into the middle. For some reason, Alves never went down the outside, with Zambrotta showing him inside – onto Zambrotta’s stronger foot (although both are pretty good) – and Alves’ weaker side. As a result, Barca were too narrow and were unable to stretch the play.
4 Pressing later on
Milan sat relatively deep in the first half – not too deep – but when they went behind on 50 minutes, Allegri altered his tactics and pushed higher up, playing more proactively and forcing the issue. Barca were still the better side in that period, but it demonstrated flexibility and an urgency to win the ball – there’s no point sitting back and soaking up pressure if you’e behind.
5 Playing out from the back
As Pato’s early strike showed, Milan were likely to get joy by using pace up against Barca’s centre-backs. Guardiola’s side generally play a high line, but Busquets and Mascherano were likely to be a little tentative and retreat towards their own goal. Therefore, particularly in the second half, it was notable that Christian Abbiati, Nesta and Thiago Silva played short goal-kicks from the back, trying to prompt Barca’s front three forward – and in turn, the rest of the team -leaving space in behind.
6 Logical goals
Milan had two likely sources of goals – (a) pace through the middle and (b) set-pieces. Both worked.
What went badly for Milan
1 Too many free-kicks conceded
A team with Mark van Bommel in the holding role is always likely to be vulnerable here, but Milan dived in too much and made tackles they didn’t need to. Nesta conceded fouls cleverly, when there was a direct threat on goal – but the midfielders made silly tackles, and van Bommel picking up a booking after 18 minutes for dissent was sheer stupidity when he was up against Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta for the rest of the game. Typically, he managed to evade another card – but he didn’t make a single tackle in the game for fear of a dismissal, and that hampered Milan.
2 Too many long shots conceded
Xavi is not renowned for long-range shooting, but he had three long range efforts because there was space either side of the Milan ‘three’ in midfield. One, towards the end of the first half, was very close.
3 No clear out-ball
Barca were vulnerable at the back, particularly to direct attacks, but Milan weren’t clever enough with the positioning of their forwards. It wasn’t quite clear what Cassano’s role in the side was – a deep-lying forward, yes, but what is that player meant to do when his side has no possession and barely gets into the opposition half? He could have come wider, or deeper, to drag Mascherano further out of position and to instigate an attack. Alternatively, Urby Emmanuelson could have been fielded from the start (which was expected amongst the Italian media before the game) to provide pace down the flank. Barca should have been tested more on the break.
4 Tiredness
Cassano tired, Pato tired and Seedorf tired. Only the right hand side didn’t suffer, and it was notable that both Ignazio Abate and Antonio Nocerino had the legs to pressure Barca in the left-back zone late on. Nocerino’s persistence resulted in the corner for the goal.
Barcelona 2-2 Milan: Milan’s narrowness frustrates Barca (just about)
Pato’s goal was incredible, the acceleration for it was amazing.
I knew he was fast, but damn, that run puts into perspective how fast he really is. Faster than anyone besides Walcott maybe?
maybe not faster in general, but way faster on the ball.
Aside from teh first 26 seconds, he was abysmal. (i’m a Milan fan).
He had a good 15 mins, I would say. Then, Milan had no possession. I agreed with the author abt Cassano’s role, maybe Urby could have been more useful as we saw when he came in the milan was slightly better.
Anyway for Pato, he is not a complete player yet, i hope he can reach his potential.
P.S. 2007’s Kaka would surely create chaos in that Barca’s defensive lineup.
Pato could have done the same, if Milan midfield had played with a bit more calmness, and try to string a few passes together.
Busquets has become a blackhole of defence, too bad
Busquets hasn’t “become” anything, he’s just playing out of positions as a CB in a 4 man back line.
True, the 1st goal on the weekend was as a result of him being beaten on the jump, same as yesterday. Pep should be playing players in their positions and forget the experimenting of playing midfielders across the back.
But he still simulates very well, look at the foul (that is a foul?) before the Villa’s goal.
You still say shit well, sir
Excellent article ZM!
There were 3 things I noticed today:
1) Busquets may be a tall player but he isn’t a CB. He is very slow, not that threatening physically and awful in the air. He should stay as a DM for Barcelona.
2) Barcelona need a pacey CB who can keep up with the likes of Ronaldo, Pato, Rooney etc. when teams counter. Abidal and Puyol are getting old and neither Pique and Macherano are very fast. Playing a high line with slow defenders is a disaster.
3) Barcelona need to do something about their corner kicks. They have the shortest team(in average) in CL and pose little threat going forward. I’m surprised teams don’t take advantage of that(Real Madrid, for example). The only real physical presence they have are the likes of Pique and Busquets.
pique is extremely fast. watch the video of him racing with ronaldo for the ball. also, barcelona dont necessarily need to be better at corner kicks. many of their corners are taken as short ones because they need to maintain possession
Pique is slow as anything! Mascherano is quick.
3 goals from 137 corners in the league last season
There is nothing wrong with Barca’s corner policy. It’s fine.
Check this article out if you still think Barcelona is poor at defending corners:
http://defensiveminded.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/barcelonas-zonal-marking-at-corners/
awesome article, thanks!
Thanks for the cool article!
But I still think Barca needs at least one more Pique-like defender.
Problem is, where do you find a Pique-like defender? Probably the only one I can think of is Thiago Silva and he wont come under 40 million
interesting how you originally asserted that Pique isn’t fast and Barca needed someone fast, and then once you were contradicted you switched to saying they need another Pique.
I think you’re just one of these football manager types who just wants to see player movement and agglomeration of good players at big clubs.
Also, let’s note the following phrase you wrote: Barca “pose little threat going forward.” Even if we’re charitable and assume that you meant they pose little threat going forwards *at corners*, this is still an absurd argument. Barca pose a threat when in possession. If they play short corners, they retain possession.
First of all, English isn’t my first language so I’m sorry if some of my comments seemed to confuse you.
Second, you clearly misunderstood what I meant with my Pique-like comment. I admit, I should have elaborated. What I wanted to say was that Barcelona need another physically threatening defender like Pique. Why? Because when Gerard gets injured there aren’t any defenders in Barcelona’s squad that can give as much physical cover in the box as he does. For example, I remember well the 08/09 CL final when Barcelona was under heavy pressure from ManUnited and they threw in everything they had inside the Blaugranas penalty box but Pique dealt with them all. Without his towering presence, I doubt Barcelona would have kept a clean sheet. Now, as Gerson so kindly pointed out that article of his, Barcelona are very good in set pieces for their height. But in those chaotic moments where almost every opponent storm inside Barcelona’s penalty box, even if they throw every blue-red shirt back to defend, they are still very vulnerable to crosses. That is why I want a Pique-like defender at Barcelona. Someone who can be substituted in if the team is under heavy attack. In my minds eye, I was thinking of Hummels, who is VERY good in the air, fast for his height(solving the fast defender problem) and extremely talented with the ball. He would be an ideal replacement for Puyol.
Third, it would make us *more threatening* if we had other options going forward at corners rather than those one-two’s I see every week. Yes, they hold on to the possession, but sending in more bodies(besides their 2 tallest players) to the opponents penalty box would create more unpredictability in our attack and more chances to score against teams, who defend deeply, like Inter or Milan. What I would like to see is sending in their 4 best jumpers/headers of the ball and leaving the defensive duties to Alves, Pedro or Villa, who are very good with the ball, if the opponent outnumbers them in counter, fast, to keep up with/intercept counters, and great shooters/passers, to start a new attack from the back.
If you find anything else interesting about me, then please, let me know.
All in a great game of football. Supreme performance from Nesta; I will weep when he retires, absolutely colossal. Agree 100% on your point about Dani Alves cutting inside just adding to the central congestion. If he had stayed wide or gone down the outside he would have stretched our (Milan) defence alot more. We missed Ibra alot in the second half when we tired and just needed that physical presence to hold the ball up, because it just kept coming back. I also think our lack of ball retention in midfield was mainly due to Seedorf moving up from the centre of midfield when Boateng came off. The fact that our squad contains only 2 creative ball playing CM’s will hinder us in the future in the CL I feel. By the way, look at how much ground Nocerino covered today! Amazing energy.
“Supreme performance from Nesta; I will weep when he retires, absolutely colossal. ”
Carrying on the Maldini tradition. He and Seedorf are why I like Milan (ok, and Gattuso’s funny, too).
Seedorf doesn’t quit football does he. My god 35 and still running in the CL. kudos for that man!
Refreshing idea to concentrate on Milan tactics for a while, and great timing of this piece, as always: thanks ZM.
I am happy that Antonio Nocerino is finally getting some attention. He used to provide Palermo’s attack with width on the left, under Delio Rossi, while other times he was forced deep along with Migliaccio, but here Allegri placed him on the right, possibly trying to exploit some 2 v 1 situations with Boateng’s usual out-and-out runs behind Iniesta. Abate being strong, that flank looks in very good shape for Milan. They need to focus on their right, their actions look often lopsided.
I thought Barca were very predictable when they got the ball down the flank, always playing it back into the middle which worked for Milan as they were very narrow in defense. Why wont Barca try to cross the ball a little more when they are down the wing? Or try to beat their marker?
Because when the ball gets down the flank, there is no Barcelona player in the penalty area. Messi is false nine, and the rest of them are outside the penalty area as well.
Plus they are all midgets.
And what center forward is going to be there for heading in the cross? Messi plays to far from goal, and is not a traditional CF threat in the air. The left winger is usually positioned outside the penalty box. Barca’s forwards play in advanced midfield positions half the time, so they can’t usually score from traditional No.9 type goals from wingplay.
This match shows how much Barca misses Pique. Defensively, he is more sound than Busquets, but more importantly, he’s the closest thing Barca have as a tradtional CF. When Milan played narrow, Barca did not have any aerial presence inside the box, and normally Pique would have surged inside the box for Alves to pass to.
I’d say Barca were attacking narrow, with minimal help from Alves streching Milan’s defence. We need Puyol and Pique back ASAP, 4 goals conceded in 2 matches.
8 in 6 official matches this season. Our defending is horrible. Really miss seeing this line up: Alves-Pique-Puyol-Abidal.
Congrats to Milan on the draw. They gave it their best but as ZM said “…but Barcelona probably could have put the game beyond them.” This was our game to lose and we happily gifted it to them. Too many wasted chances and a lot of complacency at the end.
Before everyone goes nut, in my humble opinion if this game had ended 2-1 , which it almost did, no one would be saying anything about Milan’s tactics because they “almost” didn’t work.
Pato has the potential to be the best player in the world if he would just stay away from injuries. His goal is heavenly.
If? If the queen had balls, she’d be the king.
Many points being made about the lack of height/physical presence in the air yet suggestions Dani Alves should cross more… That’s contradictory. How often do Barca score from conventional wide play? Very rarely.
Alves should have stretched Milan more but when he got near the goal some bad luck and a poor final ball prevented him from making the 3rd and 4th goals.
Masch/Busi combo will never work v such counter attack minded teams.
Nesta was sensitional.
Cassano disappointingly anonymous.
Good game.
1. It seems the best way to play Messi is like Xavi: you leave him alone (if you close down on either one of them they beat you, either with the dribble or a simple pass) and just keep your shape. What Barcelona needed to do, I think, was what they did against Villareal/Napoli, which interchange Cesc and Messi, and attempt to have Messi attack the corners of the penalty box with Cesc laying off the ball.
2. Agreed on Alves. Most players would dream to have the number of chances and one-on-ones (frequently, inside the box) that he has, but he’s incredibly wasteful and rarely tests the goal keeper on the near side.
3. It looked like that immediately after the first goal that Barcelona went to a lopsided 3-4-3 with Mascherano-Busquets-Abidal in the back and Alves extremely high up the field. Seemed to work and perhaps pointed towards a formation they should have gone for from the get-go.
1. Villareal’s CBs were dragged out of position. Milan’s CBs were happy to stay on their positions eventhough they had no player to mark. You even mentioned that yourself. So how would interchanging Cesc and Messi and “laying off the ball” work?
I think it would work like this:
With Messi being led towards the middle he was often the “point” of the attack, and asked to do the initial (or only) penetration. With somebody else doing that and baiting the CBs (who eventually closed down; it’s not as if they were Easter Island statues), then a quick lay-off to Messi might have led to better match-ups, if only for a fraction of a second.
Think of it this way: tonight, for large portions of the match, the false nine role was really ineffective, pointless even. With that in mind, perhaps it would have been better to have somebody else occupy that centre striker role (like Ibra and Eto’o had done in previous years) and push Messi on the outside where he has less markers and a different dribbling technique.
I think putting anybody between two CBs and three DMs would be extremely ineffective and just a loss of a player. The way it went tonight, Messi (or the person you’d like to see there in his place) was at least engaged in the gameplay, so I don’t think it was THAT ineffective, as you say.
Normally, for such a packed defence+midfield as Milan’s, an opposite team would rather go “around” Milan (crosses), but that’s no option for Barcelona. They had to go through the middle. But I think, what you propose, would be hard to execute, or would do little effect, as the centre of Milan was too congested. There was not much to do there.
Well, no role is ineffective if Messi is playing. But I do think that switching him with Villa or Cesc might have been more effective. The best bet would be isolating him with a full-back, where he can approach the goal at an angle.
(At which somebody would say…”but they would just double up on him or slide over” — exactly, it would stretch Milan out of there natural shape, and this is more or less the strategy that Messi tried towards the halfway point of the second half)
The best way to play Messi is to leave him alone? If you let him get the ball, turn, and get momentum, you’re going to pay for it (just ask Real Madrid) unless you play a very narrow defensive line like Milan did, which closes the space for him to beat you one on one. So I’d be careful if you leave him alone and make sure you have the right wall in place.
Also, allowing Pedrito to reach Messi’s pass for the goal was horrendous. So at odds with the rest of Milan’s defending
None of tonight’s “centrebacks” had had enough caution to slightly touch Pato, before he jumped into lightspeed. It was again a “centreback” (well, Busquets was DM since Puyol had come on pitch, but that doesn’t change much), who got overjumped by Thiago Silva for the Milan header.
What Guardiola does is highly arrogant. “So, if I keep a ball for so long during a match, why would I need defenders at all?” He wants to put midfielders in defence, forwards in midfield, while leaving his forward line empty. Two Milan’s CBs were unemployed for most of the match. The tactic that excludes defenders from the squad can only work, if you are able to keep possession for the entire game, and this is not possible on the grass. Barcelona may dominate possession, and leave few goal occasions for its opponent, and still concede goals (like tonight). Barcelona may have a worse day (like vs Real Sociedad) and concede goals. In both situations, defenders are helpful in preventing conceding goals. Therefore, Guardiola, please stop!
Puyol is old, Fontas is young, Pique is injury prone, Barcelona was struggling for big parts of last season with CB personel. Wouldn’t it be wiser to discard Fabregas/Sanchez transfer (rather Fabregas, Sanchez would be bought by someone else) and buy a good defender for 10-15 millions instead? Use the spare millions for patching budget, and buy Cesc next year? But well, Barcelona is a prisoner of their own brand. They can’t simply let Fontas play, let him do mistakes and learn, like they did with Pique in 2008/09. Now, Guardiola has to trust in versatility of his experienced players instead of talent of his young cadets. But I fear this will prevent him from finally reaching the unachievable – two Champions Leagues in a row. And La Liga title as well. We’ll see. For now, I’m quite calm. This is September, Barcelona gets better in October/November. Then there is a “start of the year” crisis that lasts until April, and then it gets better for all the semi-finals and finals of competitions they survive in.
I think that is going to be the lesson for Barcelona this season. Pep will realize he needs another actual CB and not stick Busquets, Mascherano or other out there. I fully expect them to buy back Alberto Botia or make a bid for Hummels over the summer.
Thiago Silva would be perfect, but he said, he’s not going to leave Milan
He’s already seen how established CBs struggle to adjust to Barcelona’s game, as seen with Caceres and Chygrinsky. At least by using midfielders as the backups, he’s guaranteed some composure on the ball and passing ability.
I think Adil Rami would be very good at Barca. He is technically excellent and has very good range of shots. A bit like Pique.
I think last season’s victories actually hurt Barcelona in the sense that it led Guardiola to believe that he could win with a makeshift backline and a players out of position. Added to that is the problem that he only wants a defender who can “play like Barcelona,” which even in this day and age is very hard to find.
Exactly, that’s why I called his behaviour arrogance. But he’s not going to get away with this makeshift defence this season. But I’d also like to see something more to that, than a pure arrogance (backed up with lack of money for a transfer of a real CB). I can imagine a plan to get rid of a defenders, to keep possession for 80-90 percent of the game, and that can be done better with ball players in CB positions… Perhaps in opinion of Guardiola, CBs might get redundant if the opposition can only threaten you twice or thrice during the match. For most part, but not entirely, it is what ZM has been talking about recently.
About the defenders:
1/ Guardiola has good duo Pique-Puyol, but it injury prone.
2/ Guardiola has youngsters like Fontas, Bartra, Muniesa, but they are too inexperienced.
3/ Guardiola has two DMs who are versatile enough to play centrebacks, but they are out of position in such case.
As you can see, it seems as if he had thousands of options in the defence, but none is truly deft. The only good solution is good, commited centreback. But as you said (and I agree), there are hardly any of them at a transfermarket, that match Barça’s criteria.
Added to that, is the potential season-long problem of Busquets — the best DM on the team — playing in the back which opens up spaces for the opposition. Keita’s a talented player but he’s not a holder; he’s basically a timid version of Iniesta without he God-given abilities and vision.
Like you, I hope to see this issue resolved in January.
it’s resolved when the team doesn’t have pique, puyol, adriano (still recovering), and maxwell injured all at once. With one of those back, busquets can go back to DM (either because pique + puyol go back to CB or because adriano or maxwell allow abidal to play at CB) and the problem is resolved.
barca’s injury problems are somewhat absurd right now. a combination of their long season, a badly planned preseason, and the “fifa virus.”
wow, I can’t believe you just trashed Keita like that. words fail me, except to say that you have a lot of nerve.
“he’s not going to get away with this makeshift defence this season.”
good gracious, i’m not even a barca fan but i hope he does get away with it and someone who knows you in real life makes you eat these words for breakfast with some grapefruit.
I’m a Barca fan and I just fear for the worst
1. more power to him if he can pull it off. i’d love a game with more skills and less lumbering, though of course defensive effort will still be required.
2. even if he can’t he’s got two CL wins and a host of other successes in 3 years. who are you to gainsay him?
Pique is not injury prone, and Fabgregas was needed because the team had no comparable alternative to Xavi or Iniesta. (Thiago will take time, Barcelona learned its lesson after rushing Bojan) And as Spain well knows from tournaments now long past, you don’t get extra points for peaking too early.
I Looked at David Luiz whilst he was playing for Benfica and saw a Barca central defender there before Chelsea got him. Because of the way Barca build up play, they need a particular type of defender which is not your traditional centre back who lumps every ball forward. I think this is why Barca or Pep hasn’t been able to find this player.
Hummels is also a an option for Barca. He is extremely fast for his height, good with the ball and can pass like Pique. He also makes those Puyol-type tackles which would be invaluable for Barca.
Only problem is that he’d be cup-tied if they wanted to get him for this season.
Completely disagree that Guardiola is being “arrogant”. I think he has a vision for how he would like his team to play, that vision requires tactics evolving as teams learn to cope with Barca’s strategies. Regardless he has had enough success that he could be arrogant if he wanted to (but given how humble the man always seems, I don’t see it), and certainly enough success to be free of whining from random web denizens.
He is humble in words, and that is called “style” or “grace” or “courtesy”, and I love that. His line-up decisions speak for themselves, though
. And I do not remove his right to be arrogant, I’m merely stating my interpretation.
He is the embodiment of the current Barcelona team, complete arrogance hidden behind a veil of false humility. Neither he nor anyone at the club have apologized for any of the clear examples of poor sportsmanship on or off the pitch. This Barcelona is not a team the neutral can get behind. Some of their players are among the worst characters in football at the moment (Busquets being the absolute worst).
I’m a neutral, speak for yourself. And to add i rather see a veil of humility than outright shameful behaviour. At least the one using the veil knows he’s wrong.
once again auther showing no interest in la liga and analysing recent game but ignoring previous fixtures
i don t intend to say that am watching some scrappy 3rd division and i want their analysis
no these r la liga fixtures and known world wide and ZM know that
in this case one will be forced to find ZM s Alternatives cause after watching a fixture u have some points in ur head that u want be clear off and if u can t then ur in trouble
am i right
Er, yes?
seriously, what the…?
Is he Sid Lowe, a paid correspondent for La Liga? Is this membership-only paysite where members are entitled to more variety in their coverage?
What?
Btw, it seems that Barcelona were more narrow than Milan themselves – http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/ucl/2012/2007575_tl.pdf
How do you find those graphics?
I have been looking on the UEFA site but have had no luck.
http://www.uefa.com/uefa/mediaservices/presskits/index.html
Barcelona wasn’t narrow. The top figure shows the average positioning over 90 minutes, and it could be (and it is) misleading.
Pedro started at the left wing (see 0-15, 15-30 min figures), then switched to the right wing between 30-45 mins, and stayed on the right for the 2nd half (see 45-60, 60-75, 75-90 figures), hence it falsely seems as if he played in a central position looking at the large top figure.
In each of the 15-minute figures, we can see that the likes of Pedro, Villa, Alves and Abidal were placed wide as usual.
Christ! And below you have average positions for parts of the match… Do not watch particular players, but instead look, how on almost every graph, Milan has its circles closer to the touchline than Barcelona. Barcelona is wider in 0-30. Then Milan is wider in 30-75, and a last 15 minutes is about equal. The average for both halves leaves no doubt.
The conclusion is clear. First 30 minutes Barcelona were too wide, but then they became a bit narrower, they scored a goal, and kept that up until ‘75, when they stopped attacking thrust, stretched the pitch, and played tiki-taka to see the game out.
Those charts are highly misleading. Pedro and Villa both played wide, but switched sides at half. When you average the two sides together, you get an average in the middle. Just look at the 15′ breakdowns below.
That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I didn’t even bother looking at average for the entire match.
Barca – I really dont think this current CB partnership will work, and as someone said before is just arrogant. Mascherano can play there, but busquets is a DM and barca look much better when he plays there. They need pique and puyol back and need to find a good long term replacement for puyol. Mascherano can be a good back-up then. Another problem is keita as the holding player, he is a good player, but not necessarily a good holding player, and when barca have Busquets, a fantastic holding player, they need to play him there. Keita today didnt get into space well enough to provide a good outball for defense and midfield, and his passing was not on par with the rest of the team. I also think abidal could have maybe got forward more to provide width. These problems led to Barca having problems with pace against pato (Busquest is too slow for CB), having problems keeping possession and maintaining attacks and problems with width. Also messi didnt get into the penalty area enough without the ball, to shake things up a bit, came deep too many times.
Milan – There strategy worked really so cant argue, tho they were very defensive. They broke up barcas play well in front of the penalty area, and stopped a lot of clear chances being made. The main tactic seemed to be to play van bommel in messi’s space to disrupt him and stop barca’s main weapon, and leaving abidal free (no right winger) as he was less dangerous. Barca should have got him further forward, but didnt and lost a opportunity. The back four played well. Seedorf knitted play well, and helped milan build attacks when they did finally get the ball. Nocerino showed excellent energy and broke up attacks. Boateng did his defensive work really well, and occupied Keita. Cassano didnt really get into the game (lack of possession) but posed a threat mentally. Pato looked dangerous as well, tho could have done better working with Ibra, with ibra holding up the ball and creating space for pato’s runs in behind. I would argue there fullbacks could have pushed up but they didnt have enough of the ball, and barca leave all three forwards high up, so the right decision was made.
Barca was unlucky, and Milan hardly posed an attacking threat really apart from pato and seedorf. But barca didnt look vintage Barcelona, and the biggest problem i believe is busq not playing DM and helping recycle possession, and messi not having a presence in the penalty area enough times.
I disagree with only one sentence you wrote about Keita: “his passing was not on par with the rest of the team”. Tonight, he topped Xavi and Busquets in passing completion. He managed 95% in that and this was the best in both FCB and Milan (although Xavi managed almost thrice as many passes, so reaching 94% by Xavi is a masterpiece, but in the end: Xavi is Xavi :>). So you can only blaim Keita for the overall small number of passes, but as ZM stated himself, Keita was occupied by Milan’s trequartista, so he had his life hard tonight.
I’ll have to accept thats a good statistic, and his passing completion was very good, but for me, its hard to explain, but he didnt seem to make the smart passes, that i see busquets make. Keita just isnt a holding player though, so i dont blame him, his best position is a agressive CM. And i have to agree you dont usually come up against a a atticking mid that defends like boateng, so hard game for him in a position that isnt natural to him.
I think we can retire the critique that teams who play Barca are defensive. Barca’s known goal and game is to dominate possession. They do it better than any team in the world and probably hold possession more than any team in the world. Milan are a team who attack and also try to dominate possession. However, Milan had difficulty getting or maintaining possession during the game. So naturally, they played defense and played it well. The Barca apologists all complain when teams play them defensively. If you don’t want to be played defensively, don’t try to dominate possession for 100% of the game. If you want to dominate possession for 100% of the game, then don’t complain when teams defend. I’m looking at you Pep. All of this aside, Milan were able to get some possession in the second half when they dropped down to 1 striker, 5 midfielders and 4 defenders. This may be the key to unlocking Barca – strong defense, pack the midfield, and use a striker who is lightning fast at the top.
Abidal not playing with width is because of Pato and this hurt Barcelona going forward on the left, hence I think that Adriano should have been introduced and Abidal moved centrally.
I dunno i think playing 4 CM’s, with three of them playing very deep, and the other mainly played in attacking midfield for his defensive skills, is very defensive. And only playing two attacking players in cassano and pato. And no player playing at right wing/right midfield to take on Barc’s LB. Plus the fullbacks played very deep. I think Milan played very defensive, but it worked so good strategy.
Milan arnt usually defensive of course, but i dont think this was a case of milan going out to attack and being pushed back, Milan had a planned strategy to defend with numbers and play on the break.
Disagree. In Milan’s previous game they started 4 midfielders: ambrosini, gattuso, aquilani, boateng. In this game the started with vanbommel, nocerino, seedorf, boateng. Notice any similarities? Boateng got hurt, so Allegri replaced him with ambrosini. I don’t think this was defensive minded, so much as putting the experienced squad captain out on the field. Seedorf pushed up into the hole. Milan fielded the same formation from the start that they typically use. 4-3-1-2. Barca intentionally tries to dominate possession which forces teams to play ‘defensive’. This ‘defensive’ critique needs to be retired. It is the natural effect of the Barca ’cause’ (i.e. possession).
Anybody else think Guardiola is purposely taking a risk in playing midfielders at the back (since it is only the group stage) in order to prevent the annual center back injuries that occur every spring?
The annual center back injuries already ocurred… Puyol is just getting back from knee surgery and Pique is out for another 2 weeks. What choice did Pep have??
Just wondering: did anyone else think that Xavi was terrific? He showed why Cesc, and even Iniesta, are still far away from his level.
Narrow and deep – this seems the best way play against Barcelona. Sure, Barcelona could have won if they were a little more clinical, which will probably come later in the season. And it also took an amazing defensive perfomance on Milan’s part. But still, it seems the most logical way to deal with Barca. Teams can deal with that if they have a striker who can head the ball, and Barcelona do not. Teams can also rely on their dribblers to beat the defense, but with Sanchez out, Barca had it tough.
If teams start to play this way more regularly against Barcelona, Pep will have to find the solution. He seems way too hesitant to buy a real Striker, so he has to hope that Sanchez, Iniesta, and Messi stay fit and on form throughout the whole season. For the next games, if Barcelona don’t face any teams that are too tough, yet play this same defensive style, then I think Adriano and Afellay must get minutes. They’re no Sanchez and Iniesta, but they are very decent dribblers, better than Villa and Pedro at beating their man. Also, they can take accurate shots from distance with BOTH feet, which would have been perfect today.
Yes, absolutely. For me, the comparison part was Cesc, who simply looked lost out there because once Iniesta had exited the pitch Xavi had took it upon himself to conduct the entire midfield area.
Cesc was far too hesitant to drive and run at defenders like Iniesta will do. Milan had practically no attack after 15 minutes, so why didn’t anyone besides Messi try to penetrate? Villa.. Pedro.. Alves.. Cesc.. they all seemed so afraid to take risks. Unfortunately, the two most energetic attackers (besides Messi) are now both sidelined for injuries. Thiago has flair and can beat a player or two and has a long range shot, he may have been more useful than Fabregas in this match.
I agree that we needed Adriano on the left to run at defenders and upset Milan’s back line, which would have allowed Abidal to play CB and Busquets DM. Alves had an off night and was abysmal in attack.
I really wondered how Milan, a side who have favored the 4-4-2 diamond/4-3-1-2 for a while, would favor against Barcelona because of the fact that their midfields match up perfectly AND deny space for Messi’s movement into deep areas.
However, it seems like whenever Messi is denied space in front of the defense, he just drops deeper and deeper to pick the ball up, as previously stated. However, that’s not completely safe for the other team, even if he is further from goal, because he is now free to run at you. Messi gets many of these goals/assists from his deep runs from midfield, and I thought the first goal from Barca today wasn’t much different. Whether they’re from 50 yards out or 25 yards out, Messi’s runs are dangerous, because they test a player’s technical quality on defense, which can’t always be compensated for by tactics.
Moreover, I thought Allegri should have had Cassano move into Barcelona’s right back zone whenever Alves advanced. This would have given them the out ball they wanted, or made Alves think twice about getting forward and leaving him open – I severely doubt the latter happens though.
Nice summation. Fully agree. And Villa’s constant pinching in played right into their hands. We have always been vulnerable to pace. It’s just that we so rarely give up the ball enough to fall victim to it. Really, Milan reached our goal twice, and scored both times. Shame on anybody who slags anyone for that Pato goal. No defender on the planet was catching him there, and Valdes didn’t have a chance.
Should Busquets have been what he isn’t? Nope. He’s a DM playing CB. I’d rather point fingers at ZubiZa and the boys for not buying back Botia (Pique Jr.) for 2m this summer. You can probably rattle the sofa cushions at the Camp Nou and find that lying about.
Really, this match could have easily been done and dusted, but full credit to Milan. Alexis Sanchez would have been perfect for this match, it goes without saying. There are two ways for midgets to break a bunker: pace and width. Villa and Pedro don’t really provide either, as both tend to want to pinch in toward the middle, which helps the Milan game plan.
This is an excellent space because of the calm analysis of matches here. At Barca sites, people are treating Keita like the devil. He did just fine. He’s a different mid than Busquets, and is very good at his job. He didn’t leave goals begging or get beaten on a set piece, right? Fact of the matter is that this is a very good Milan side.
What’s funny is had Ibrahimovic and Robinho been fit, we probably would have won easily, since Pato probably wouldn’t have started. Interesting.
Pato was Allegri’s first choice, the plan was to explore his pace. Ibra would certainly start over Cassano though.
Maybe not every team can defend deep and narrow with this defensive quality of Milan. But ZM point about the diamond midfield is very interesting. I think managers facing Barcelona should consider more often to preassure Busquets (or whoever play as holding midfielder) and leave one of the fullbacks free. This is what the extra man in the diamond formation allowed and I think proved to be effective.
Excelent article ZM!
It would have been interesting to see Ibra play as he can hold onto the ball and release Pato (although they have not exactly gelled at Milan). Cassano is a great player when everything is in front of him, really visionary, but he could not do much with the ball on the halfway line. Nature didn;t give him those gifts.
Pato would probably have played, even if both Ibrahimovic and Robinho had been fit. Ibra would have been played ahead of Cassano, and Robinho either on the bench or instead of Boateng.
Even if they were only fit for the bench it would probably have been a huge improvement, since Boateng had to go off due to injury after ~30 minutes. That forced them to move Seedorf from his left sided midfield position to Boateng’s offensive midfield position, which definitely hurt Milan’s play.
And they also didn’t have a replacement for Cassano, who was shockingly quiet the entire game.
What’s interesting to me is how Milan would have approached the game had they not scored so early. Would they have stuck to the bunker zonal defending or would they have pressed higher up the pitch. Pato outran the Barca defense in the 1st goal and what Pep does is to instruct Abidal to play closer to his central defenders thereby taking out an attacking option for Barca when going forward. Once Milan sat back I would have thought that Pep would have moved Sergio to his holding position, move Abidal to centre to counter Pato’s pace and substitute Keita for Adriano playing at left back. Busquets is wasted as centre back as Keita is no where the technical level and tactical nous of Busquets.
Barca struggled for width on the left hand side as Villa was again being double teamed like the Sociedad game. Gurdiola needs to be flexible in his philosophy because opponents make it so hard for his team to play (parking the bus) and once he gets the lead, he shouldn’t always want to attack but should use more depth and force the opponent to come get the ball. The same thing happened at Inter in the away game semis in 2010 where Barca got the lead and still chased the game whilst it had been apparentr that Inter were always going to play on the counter.
I think they would have tried to play on the counter more. Although their only real outlets for that would be Abate and Pato. I findit strage that Stephen el Shalraay has been left out of Milan’s CL squad as he is a zip-fast Kaka like player for the last 20 minutes of a game like this. Certainly more of an impact-man than Aquilani.
El Shaarawy was not on the bench tonight, but he is eligible for the B-list squad since he is under 20. Allegri will consider using him in the future, but it was probably a bit much for an 18 year old who has played two matches for Milan since only playing Serie B football to have any sense of positioning and tactical awareness against the best team in the world.
I am now officially tired of people talking trash about Keita. As sibelkacem points out upthread, “he topped Xavi and Busquets in passing completion. He managed 95% in that and this was the best in both FCB and Milan (although Xavi managed almost thrice as many passes…” and that was with Boateng, a sturdy defender, all over him.
Pato scored a lovely goal but overall his play was awful. He lost the ball every single time it was at his feet. He should have been through twce more but his touch let him down on both occassions. As a Milan fan i cannot argue with his 51 goals in 102 Serie A appearances (or therabouts) but I am still not sure how he’ll turn out.
Nesta was tremendous. He was forced to give away two fouls as Abate and Silva’s positional sense wandered. A very good performance from Zambrotta, too.
Let’s not forget, Barca are always pretty much brilliant, so full credit to them, too. That said, i though Allegri has shown signs of becoming a great manager. His tactics in this game and the second leg against Spurs were spot on. In this game he realised Milan’s limits and drilled his players perfectly. He has been tactically agile and is learning big game management as he goes. Very, very impressed.
Could not fail to be agrieved by the lazy stereotypes dusted off by the Sky pundits, when Ambrosini was kicked to the ground (onto a shoulder he has dislocated three times) he was being “theatrical”, Abbiati gave a “sly” look to the bench, Nesta “knew what he was doing”, Milan used all their “dark arts” and “know-how” and Allegri was the “cunning mastermind” behind it all. Please!
Milan didn’t have much interest in getting the ball into play quickly, and they sure showed it. It did seem to frustrate Barcelona at times, which I guess means that it was successful.
But the main source of theatrics, as usual, was from Pedro and Busquets. Still that stereotype about Italian teams doesn’t seem to ever die, even though I probably saw more dives in the “El Clasicos” alone than the entire Serie A season.
“Milan didn’t have much interest in getting the ball into play quickly, and they sure showed it”
Well, that’s one way of calling time wasting from the 1st minute.
The only pundits in the UK worse than Sky’s are on Guardian Unlimited. (Oh, sorry ZM.) I don’t think they ever forgave Milan for ending Man U’s CL a few times. Their knowledge of Italian football is smaller than Andy Gray’s vocabulary.
Totally agree with you Paolo about Pato, he has the ability to score goals like that far more often, but has yet to put together a consistent run of form. Cassano also had an absolute stinker by his standards, poor guy. You could see he was up for it, but it was just not his game, and had Ibra been fit he surely would not have figured.
Whether it was by accident or design I don’t know, but it certainly helped Milan to have Alves seeing so much of the ball in the attacking third. I can think of only the through ball to the (possibly) offside Messi that nutmegged Zambrotta causing any damage. The rest of the time it was a ‘reset’ pass back into the middle to start all over again.
So thank Christ allegri didn;t have to play the hapless Antonini. Zambrotta may be old but he somehow made Alves the weaker player by forcing him inside. A great deisplay from the man with the best hair/beard combo in football. Still.
His touch was quite poor when Keita made the saving tackle, but to say his play overall was awful is nonsense. He lost the ball because there was nowhere to go and no one to pass to for the most part. There were several times where he received the ball, beat a defender (or several) and then lost possession because of the lack of options. Also, Seedorf let him down a couple times- not releasing the ball soon enough which led to a crucial offside and also not giving it to him in a good spot.
The real “awful” player was Cassano, who moved terribly (aside from the opening goal, where he made a nice diagonal run away from Pato to open space his off the ball runs were useless), did little to create, and gave away the free kick that led to the second goal.
Barca have so many good attacking players but they cannot spare few money on defenders so let’s devise a way to avoid fielding defenders at all.
Keep the possession and making short pass until some space appearing. This is extremely passive way to play if you ask me. Only flair attacking play from Leo, Xavi and co cover over this boring passive tactic.
In summary, I don’t think this Barca possession based footy tactic is great. Barca attacking player can play any kind of formation and they will still success. Sooner rather than later, Xavi cannot play so perfect then current Barca tactic bore people to death.
A few points about last night’s game:
• When teams park the bus like Milan did last night (Inter 2.0 much?), the player that probably struggles the most is Dani Alves. Dani is a fantastic player, but he can also be piss poor at times, and it usually happens when teams park the bus. Alves is not good at playing as a wing-forward, which he essentially becomes when opposing teams are determined to defend, because he doesn’t really succeed at what he tries to do in those situations: beat his man in a one-on-one situation inside the box to tea up someone else with a short pass. He know he can’t cross because the Barca players are too short against modern centre backs to get a head on something. Also low slung crosses only really work when they’re put in behind the defensive line. When the defensive line is too deep, with defensive players stationed near to their keeper, they’re practically useless. And the only player Barca has who can deliver those kinds of balls consistently well is anyways Pedro, and maybe Affelay. No wonder Pedro got shifted to the right hand side in the second half, although he was still somewhat narrow for most of it. Alves is good with one-touch passes on his side and is fantastic coming from deeper as a late option for width, but not to unlock defences with his dribbling. He is usually wasteful, almost clueless in those situations, like he proved against Inter in the first tie two years ago, when he was probably the worst player on the pitch, and again last night. He also gets a disproportionate share of the possession because Barca has no width on the left-hand side, something that really hurts Villa’s game. Something that might help is for Pedro and Alves to become “inverted” during deadlocks, i.e. Alves plays narrower and Pedro goes wider. Alves isn’t bad at pinging the ball about on the edge of the box with Xavi and Messi.
• I feel sorry for Villa that his fate at Barca has become to operate as an inverted winger, usually on the left. He is only really effective as a goal scorer on that left side, his primary job, mind you, if a marauding full-back allows him to tuck inside so he can be closer to goal. Is it only me or does he function better when Adriano is in that side? Of course the Brazilian is a pretty terrible defender and is wildly inconsistent, but at least Villa becomes more of a threat when he is in the team. Abidal has evolved into a truly fantastic player so late in his career, but his function on that side appears to be as a more defensive foil for Alves and the result is that this gives Barca an almost lopsided shape, if you can believe that full-backs can make a team lopsided.
I love Villa as a player, but he is quite badly out of form and perhaps even lacking confidence at the moment, and has for a while. He doesn’t have the technique to play as a midfielder, which is almost part of his job now and his passes usually go astray. His final balls hardly ever result in goals and are most often miscued. He needs to get on the end of things. As it is at the moment, he usually has to conjure something out of nothing from where he plays, and this is what we have seen in his last few strikes. They have almost all of them been phenomenal. His free kick was as good as Beckham’s legendary one at Old Trafford when Man United faced Barcelona there in 98/99. But Villa has embarrassed himself with the simple stuff of late. That being said, he is perhaps Barca’s only player capable of producing the truly extraordinary when they find themselves in deadlocked situations. His ability to score phenomenal goals is incredible, but I wish Pep would shake things up every once in a while and let Villa play in the middle, with Messi just behind him, or with the Argentinean on the right, his old position and Fabregas behind Villa. That could be the answer to unlock really tight defences. I think if Villa gets to become the focal point of the attack rather than what he has become in essence, namely a way to nullify the opposition’s full-back on his side, then Barcelona will actually discover that there is a goal machine inside that slight frame. He can play on the left as one option if there is a proper striker in the middle, like he did for Spain so successfully at the World Cup, but that shouldn’t be his primary function. I feel he is being wasted. Fortunately him regularly chipping in with those incredible goals serve as a reminder of his quality to the doubters out there
• This experiment of playing DM’s as centre backs will not work against teams with pacy forwards. I can understand Pep’s impulse to have composure on the ball in every position, but Barca will never be able to control matches 100%. There will always be variables and for those rocky moments you need proper centre backs. I used to believe that Thiago Silva could be the perfect replacement for Puyol, but according to a comment or article I read somewhere, he actually likes to function closer to the keeper and might not be the suited to Barca’s style. That’s why he doesn’t perform as well for Brazil, apparently. I think a player who could actually flourish at Barca is Mats Hummels, because of his ability on the ball and dynamism. For me, Silva is more like a really good old school stopper in the Cannavaro vein.
After I read that you had written this: “[Villa] is perhaps Barca’s only player capable of producing the truly extraordinary when they find themselves in deadlocked situations,” I completely stopped trusting your judgement. I mean, how clueless can you be? Lionel Messi, anyone?
I think u miss an important aspect from Barca’s display. When Pep saw that Pato was such a threat he ordered Abidal to stick to him. Then Masche first and Busquets later advanced a little bit their positions but nobody occupied the left back so the whole display was disturbed and Barca player lost their automatisms and the whole display was a mess. Abidal against Pato was a bold decision but then he should have put Busquets for Keita, and Keita on the left back.
And by the way, Milan is an awful team.
Indeed, but I did say I was looking at Milan’s tactics!
They’re not really awful, they got a draw with the greatest side of their generation, albeit not at their best.
ZM, I haven’t see the game, but do you think the 4-4-2 diamond helps nulify Barce’s particular 4-3-3 because Messi plays as a false nine? Essentialy Barce’s 4-3-3 metamorphs into a 4-3-1-2; and as we’ve seen when 4-3-1-2 meets 4-3-1-2/4-4-2 diamond, the teams tend to cancel out each other, a la Argentinian football, Serie A in recent times? Therefore further explaining why a 4-3-1-2 is a plausible way to play against Barce?
For me Barce’s 4-3-3 this match looked like 3-4-3 lopsided, with attacking thrust to the right on Alves’ side. (e.g. 2 CB + 1 LB / 2 Center MF + Messi roaming + Alves on right / 2 pincer forwards)
Barca’s 4-3-3 is not a traditional one.
If Milan uses the same formation against Chelsea or Man. Utd, it would be a disaster.
Barca’s 4-3-3 is relatively narrow. With Abidal as left-back, there are only 1-2 players (Alves and Villa?) which are comfortable in the winger position, not to mention their aerial presence is next to none without Pique.
Saw the whole of Barcelona against Real Sociedad, but am yet to see the goals from this game. Will be interesting to see how they do against Osasuna, who after an impressive start sit 7th in the league, and then of course its Valencia away and then a home match against Atletico Madrid. Not an easy run of games!
http://studenttactician.wordpress.com/
some of you should relax, pep was just testing new stuff, if this was the knockout stages, milan would have lost by at least 2 goals.
How do you think the game could have gone, had Ibrahimovic been fit to play?
On one hand I think Pato wouldn’t have been in a position to score the first goal, on the other Ibra would have helped Milan get out of its half, by receiving and holding up the ball for the other forward and the full backs to come up and assist him…
Let me start by saying that I think Pep Guardiola is one of the best tacticians in Europe, and I am not here to echo the comments about his “arrogance” with the Centerback Selections. That said I think he made several mistakes, some highlighted already by posters above:
-Agree with poster who said Pep missed a trick by not switching Busi, Keita and Abidal early in the game/pre-match. Thought Pep adjusted for Pato well in second half by assigning Abidal as a shadow, but it could have been so much simpler, particularly as Milan had no threat down their right, so Keita could have pushed on quite a bit.
- Was disappointed that Guardiola didn’t move Mess back to his original position on the right side. With how narrow Milan were playing, Messi would have found more space, and I think that with Alves overlapping they might have been able to “turn the corner” around the Milan backline, and found Villa+Pedro on cutbacks/even on the back post.
On Milan: I Though Cassano was a bizzare selection from the start and KPB’s injury hindered Allegri’s ability to compensate for it. Still, he did well with only two subs in the second half and probably couldn’t have expected more from his team. If he gets a next time, later in the competition, does he use Ibrahimovic from the start? Or is the lesson that pace on the break is the most important thing (Pato+Robinho+KPB)?
I’m really glad ZM mentioned Barca’s shooting from range. With all the talk of tiki-taka, observers too often forget that Barcelona boast some of the most deadly shooters in the game. In the Champions League final Messi and Villa took advantage of space afforded to them on the edge of the box, and their supreme technique yielded two goals.
It really does add to the quandary that managers face in preparing their team for trips to the Camp Nou. While anxious to prevent little balls being threaded past the defense, they must also close down Barca’s forward players when they have the ball twenty yards out.
Hi all
(i’m not a fan of either teams, was completely neutral during the game)
good article ZM again, compliments
i’m ONLY going to summarize things that SHOULD HAVE been mentioned, BUT WEREN’T!
there’s a DOUBLE STANDARDS, here i’m afraid!!!
when FC Inter won the treble, 2 years ago, smashing Barca 3-1 @ home, after teaching Chelsea a lesson in football in their own turf, the night in Camp Nou, reduced in 10 men, passing the leg, they were HEAVILY ATTACKED as ANTI-FOOTBALL…
i’m not here to talk about inter, BUT about the world’s hypocrisy towards MOURINHO!!!
no where here or anywhere, did i see another team, playing against Barca, with less than 30% ball possession called anti-sportive, including AC Milan last tuesday…PORQUE?
now my turn of simple analysis:
kudos to AC Milan’s achievement…it’s just a cynical draw at Camp Nou, thou, which has practical values but not overall merits, the way i see it…
AC Milan has been practicing this style of play for a while now, it’s their right to do so, and it’s proving to work in their direction…i just hate to see naives fooled, so i want to share my observations…maybe i’ll succeed to illuminate a few naives
in the Italian Supercup in Beijing, AC Milan barely touched the ball in the first half, and it took a miserable tactical error of their opponents, and a bit of luck to start kicking around 60-th minute…same happened against Lazio, same against Barca…
in Camp Nou, right about the 80-th minute, i saw Abate and Nocerino going up, out of the sudden, when the world thought they’re dead…than a second time, then a third, and became obvious to me that Allegri was pulling a MOURINHO tactic!!!
Mourinho was the only Barca opponent that announced his tactic publicly to the world, last spring, during the infamous controversy in barca-real clash for the second leg of CL…his words in that press-conference after the match were:
UEFA robbed us of our chance to beat Barca in camp nou, by sending off a crucial player! Our plan was to lay low and push around 70-th minute, when Barca gets finally exhausting from the tiki-taka!!!
Real won the Coppa del Rey with the very same tactic, and come back from 1-0 with 1 man down in the first CL leg in madrid to draw at the very end, and possibly score a second
Overall, MOURINHO has proved more than once, that THIS terrifying Barca can be defeated, through a disciplined squad and a clinical precision tactic of his…
ironically, MOURINHO (being the flamboyant he is), proved the world in the two-legged spanish supercup last august, that Barca is not the only ball-possessing team alive…at major parts of both matches REAL’s ball possession was 62%!!! He just did that to prove his point!
AC Milan’s draw at the end was not a “miracle”, BUT merely a confirmation of the MOURINHO’s tactic, while being heavily ridiculed and labeled ANTI-SOCCER, ANTI-SPORTIVE!!! It’s tome to stop the BS!!!
Double standards everywhere…
cheers everyone
Excuse me, but while your post is obviously well thought and well written, I have to disagree in some crucial points.
You say “AC Milan’s draw at the end was not a “miracle”, BUT merely a confirmation of the MOURINHO’s tactic, while being heavily ridiculed and labeled ANTI-SOCCER, ANTI-SPORTIVE!!! It’s tome to stop the BS!!!”
Quite frankly: Being a regular watcher of FC Barcelona, and having analyzed and assimilated the way they play matches, this was the kind of match they would win 3-0 or 5-0, amount of goals depending on how much the other team can stand psychologically against them before total melting down. But sometimes, I have seen the other team have streaks of good luck (thats the beauty of football!) like here is the case and scratch a good result. But thats what I call miracles!. Milan was a puppet in Barcelona’s hands. produced no football at all. Max number of passes I seen from them was about 4 or 5 in a row. Barcelona could have scored 3, 4 or more goals just by the sheer amount of chances produced. But as I said, this is football and these kind of things happen too!
And about your point of the spanish supercup. It has been talked to exhaustion, to a point im really surprised you still talking about it: Everyone knows at that point of the pre-season Madrid was vastly superior physically, they had more weeks of training and different planning, oriented towards being in good form for the spanish SC, while Barcelona did a totally different planning for the long term, and had to play in Bernabeu without Xavi, Puyol, Pique, Busquets… and it managed to get a 2-2 by MIRACLE (just like Milan did in Camp nou…) In Camp Nou, they were slighty better prepared but Madrid was still vastly superior in fitness level and energy. However, in a close match, with the presence of the maestro Xavi, and a phenomenal Messi, everything is posible and Barcelona won just by having more possession and punch. However these 2 games were merely circunstancial and not a true exponent of the status of the Madrid-Barcelona rivalry.
Im looking forward to see how the clasicos will be this year. If both teams are in equal fitness, I still doubt Real madrid can dispute the ball to Barcelona, regardless of what you say.