Inter-Barcelona CL battle: Defending Pep and losing my last friend
Football pundits are like stock market brokers. Fast to hail one thing, and faster to roar the panic cry at it the very next moment. Twenty four hours ago, Pep was the football Einstein, one bad night made him the one who barely have the football knowledge that “Football for dummies” handbooks can offer. The guy didn’t change, the result was different though, and that’s more than enough to put him under the critical knife of frustration.
Cruising across the blogosphere there were some reasonable game reviews, no doubt. Regardless of how far I agree on everything everywhere. On Total barca, Rasmi tried be as unemotional as possible. Isaiah showed fan support. And still waiting the review of my co-writers at The Offside. But through the fast cruise I made, there were lot of interesting comments and links that make you wonder sometimes if it’s you who don’t understand what was going on during the matchEZZ or you just misunderstand the explanations and analysis you read…
First of all, lets list all the excuses so we finish with it and start some more serious talking (you can even skip this part if you feel like it) :
- Inter were more fit for the game. Played on Friday and had all the time of the world to prepare for this game in their backyard. Barca’s weekend game was exhausting. And after Alves red card, the players had to burn that extra gallon of energy they were saving for the Champions league game.
- The Bus trip. It is a lame excuse in a way. But it’s one of the little things no doubt. Not only the trip was not the most comfortable experience, but most importantly it forced the technical department to cancel the tactical sessions for this game as there was a lack of time to prepare.
- The injuries suffered. Not only Iniesta was unavailable, but also Abidal, Keita and Ibra are coming back from injury and not fully fit for the game.
- Referees? Don’t expect to read anything about refereeing in my posts. Never happened, never will. Saying so, I don’t mean there were “issues”, and I don’t mean it was the perfect game. I just don’t comment on referees. Sue me.
Alright now that we released that heavy load, we get rid of another shit bag: Scapegoat hunting.
We lost the game because we used Maxwell instead of Abidal. Now if anyone really think that Abidal was ready to start and Pep said:”No thank you”, then tell that dude he is out of his mind. You need to tell him that so he seeks a treatment before it is too late. Were there some other options? We will cross that bridge later. But this “Why Maxwell and not Abidal” whining is just annoying.
We lost the game because Busquets –the guy who completed more passes than Messi and Ibra together- started the game. “If we used Yaya instead, we would have won the game, healed Mourinho’s egocentrism, helped Balotelli to mature, and convinced Moratti to finance Ac Milan”. Don’t be a hater now, but honestly, there is no belief that’s more delusional and common than that. Not only the overall performance, but even the goals we conceded against Inter carry the same DNA of goals we conceded against most of the teams we played against with Yaya being involved. I can easily list the likes of (and its not sorted. Thats how my memory served) Valencia,Manchester city, Real Madrid, Chelsea in the first leg and the second leg (Yaya performed better as a CB than he did as a DM there), Villarreal, Kazan, Almeria, Zaragoza where our structural weaknesses were exposed the same as it did against Inter, regardless of the final result and the opponent quality. By watching the full games (beside many other games during Pep Era), things will be clear for anyone who is willing to see it. Was the structural fragility avoidable? I will tackle that later.
It’s not that Busquets was setting the world alight. But he was not bad taking the overall performance of the team in consideration. In fact, he was better than most of the players in the selection against Inter.
Before the game kickoff, some of the fans were demanding Henry instead of Pedro for this game. After the game opinions changed, at least for the majority. The main focus was of course on… the 200 Zillion euro guy: Ibrahimovic.
Regarding Ibra, I read lot of none sense. But the craziest thing that beats it all was posted on Zonal Marking today. The post title is: “Why did Pep play Zlatan Ibrahimovic?” It really brief lots of miss concepts you can read here and there and everywhere. So I want to give sometime to comment on this one. Nothing personal, but it sums up things.
Look…Just to give some credit (now that we are mentioning the follow bloggers), I really like the people who write on that blog (Not sure if one person or many). They do huge effort with photos and interesting storyboards game in game out, which is solid and entertaining regardless of how realistic it is. Football analysis is closer to literature and art than mathematical science after all. That’s why “football experts” are usually labeled as journalists, not as scientists. No harm in some creativity that serves as thoughts feeds (I do it myself sometimes on purpose). I appreciate the time they put in all that, but sometimes creative approach starts to analyze football as volleyball.
If Ibra must not start this game because Inter’s compact lines includes defenders like Lucio and Samuel (meaning: big defenders), then Ibra must not start any game for Barca. Messi, Pedro, Bojan, and all the midgets can cut through open defenses of tiny boys like a knife through butter. It’s this kind of games that Ibra was bought for. Because Pep was not satisfied by Eto’o type of players against the likes of Inte (Or Chelsea?). Say he was a stupid buy. Say he didn’t perform well. Say his nose distracts Messi when he shoots on target. Fair enough. But not this none sense. Not on a blog that focus on the tactical aspects of the game. That’s a crime.
Moreover, if we don’t start Ibra, we have to start someone else, right? Even though at Zonal Marking they suggest that it was better to play ten men than eleven with Ibra included as “Ibrahimovic taking up Messi’s space did a better job for Inter than a man-marking brief ever could.” What space? My myopic eyes failed me again as I saw no spaces at all in this game… I didn’t see Messi sprinting with the ball through Inters’ lines and just before scoring, he bounce of ibra’s Thigh and lose the ball. Eh…never mind…
But back to the options, will we start Bojan instead of Ibra? Anyone else think that Lucio and Samuel may step on him without notice? Damn football games! Let the Champions league go to hell, we don’t want to murder the kid!
Was it better to play Messi upfront? Just a fast remark, Messi was a success against Real Madrid because Pellegrini game plan helped him in that. One of my favorite coaches and I can never be more disappointed (in an enjoyable way as a Cule?) as I was in the Classico. Against Inter-like and Chelsea-like teams, it doesn’t work. Anyone expected Xavi to find enough space behind Inter's defense to fax the ball to Messi, classico-like? Besides, If the team was already struggling WITH Messi contributing in the midfield, How will the ball reach the frontline if Messi played an Ibra? Because no one can expect him to dribble through the Italian lines while arranging his pokemon collection.
No doubt, having Messi closer to the box was a need. Yet, the match dynamics dictated constrains. Papers analysis is as easy as hindsight wisdom.
Finally, why not Henry instead of Ibra? Because Pep watched all Barcelona games and training sessions this season. He did! It’s the same reason why Henry was not introduced later on during the game. Something I will leave to the second post I will write about the game.
Ibra was there because Barca needed a focal point for offense. Ironically, the midgets’ offense underperformed more often than it worked. Ibra may get sandwiched between Lucio and Samuel in the box. But the likes of Bojan will not even need any of them in the box for the crosses, and one of them will be enough to blow the kid out of the box. Bojan is a lethal forward when it comes to finishing, but he is not a good player for static situations battling for the ball in the box. Not in an away game at least, where the stadium puts immense pressure on the visitors. Ibra’s movement can pull Lucio out of position to follow the striker’s movement to the midfield. Ibra can head passes to spaces upfront for the Pedros and Messis to get advantage of. He is the highway to the box that save the effort of trying to out-pass Inter’s lines and players one by one. Ibra can receive the ball and protect it till Barcelona lines shuffle to the final third. It gives the players the time to catch their breath and reposition properly. And when your players’ form and fitness level is not at the best, you need the highways and pauses. It didn’t work? So as Messi scoring a hat trick and Alves crossing one ball properly. Will anyone demand benching Messi and Alves as well?
Barcelona was not playing against their shadows. They were playing against a quality opponent. Something to take in consideration. Now was it possible to get a better result? That’s for next post.
Read More
My column on Total Barca:
Barcelona 2010, better or worse
The unsung Heroes of Barcelona: Fullbacks
Barcelona’s injury woes; turning Crisis into Opportunities
Previous Articles on Football Mood:
Shopping tour, Cesc, Silva or Villa: Who will join Barcelona?
Advocatus Diaboli: Barcelona youth academy, Overrated.
Scoup Group: Our Football Mood News Agency
Barcelona 2010, Tactical Ramble.
Who score goals for Barcelona?
From Ronaldinho to Ibra, Txiki in number
Follow my Barcelona Champions' league previews on The Offside.
My column on Total Barca:
Barcelona 2010, better or worse
The unsung Heroes of Barcelona: Fullbacks
Barcelona’s injury woes; turning Crisis into Opportunities
Previous Articles on Football Mood:
Shopping tour, Cesc, Silva or Villa: Who will join Barcelona?
Advocatus Diaboli: Barcelona youth academy, Overrated.
Scoup Group: Our Football Mood News Agency
Barcelona 2010, Tactical Ramble.
Who score goals for Barcelona?
From Ronaldinho to Ibra, Txiki in number
Follow my Barcelona Champions' league previews on The Offside.
Posted by Ramzi
on 11:39.
Filed under
pep made the wrong changes imo.
where is the next part ??????????????????????
Next part:within 24 hours. We need to kill time till the second leg, or we will all go crazy :)
i am ej by the way
It's unbelieveable that no matter how Sergio plays the Toure-Busquets debate is always there. At least a few people admit now that Busquets is better at the moment, but only because Toure played a lot less than him, they say. The thing is, it's the reaction of what happened at the beginning of the 2009/10 season. Toure's form dropped significantly so he lost his place as first choice dm. Since then nothing really changed: Busquets performs well while Toure is a shadow of himself.
You can't expect it from Guardiola to use a player just because he's a bigger name or his past accomplishments. It's like demanding Henry instead of Pedro after every game. That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? It's a similar situation(a great player lost his place to a La Masia graduate because of his poor form) with two different names.
Ramzi
Pep was one of my favourite players and I honestly cannot think of someone better suited to be Barça manager than him but if he makes a mistake I feel it should be realised as such so that it is not repeated and not glossed over with the "we must keep faith in the coach therefore not question him" stuff that I see so many self-righteous cules reacting with.
Now, I am not going to belabor any point since you have promised further clarification in your next post. But I will say that I saw a Barça OUTNUMBERED in defence and in attack. Each of the 3 goals saw a maximum of 3 Barça defenders against 3 strikers inside the Barça penalty area. Now if that is not tactical and systemic failure I am not sure what is.
The Ibra question I hope you will deal with. I was happy to see him move around and occupy different positions. Normally I praise him just for doing this. But in this game it lasted only for 20 mins and by now, I am dying to see an honest evaluation of his perfomances which ignores the prejudices regarding whether he should have been bought or not (and here I will say that I am among the first to fall guilty of such). I have only watched since mid-Feb so I am hoping you will deal with topic extensively in your next post or maybe in an altogether separate post.
This is ridiculous. Nobody is questioning Pep's selection of starting line-up. What the bloody hell was he doing holding back two substitution when we were 3-1 down. Miracle from heaven. One more goal there we would have been in driving seat.