How to beat Barcelona, with helpful advice from Bruce Lee, Samuel Johnson, and others.

By Tom Nash

Barcelona have started to dominate European football to such an extent that the drawing of group stages was inconsequential to them being pronounced favourites for the competition. As it is, they are drawn with FC BATE Borisov, FC Viktoria Plzen, and Italian minnows AC Milan. Without being disrespectful to the other two clubs, it’s a racing certainty that Barcelona and Milan will progress, and more than likely that Les Cules will top the group. It’s even plausible to envisage Barcelona going through with maximum points from their games, although they were shocked by Rubin Kazan a few years back, and if they’ve already qualified may field a weakened team in order to keep players fresh for the inevitably long campaign.

Barcelona are the world’s best exponents of the tiki-taka style that is at the moment the pinnacle of footballing sophistication. Pep Guardiola’s side are already at the stage of being regarded as an era-defining team, much like Ajax and Bayern in the 70s, Liverpool in the 80s, Milan in the 90s and Real Madrid of the century’s turn. If their success continues, they will soon be considered statistically if nothing else, as the best club side ever to exist.

So, how on earth do you beat them?

Don’t concentrate on Messi.

“Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory” Bruce Lee; Enter the Dragon. Ol’ Bruce wasn’t just a top-notch martial artist and ground-breaking Asian cinema star; he was also a time-travelling football analyst, as proved by the above quote. Messi may well be the focal point of Barca’s striker-less system, but the heavenly glory Bruce was talking about is provided by the exquisite talents of Xavi and Iniesta in midfield feeding the forward three of Pedro, Messi and Villa. If a team puts a man on Messi for 90 minutes, even if he manages to keep the little maestro out of the game (unlikely) he’ll be all over the place positionally and this will allow the other stars in Barca’s galaxy to shine. Barcelona’s motto may be “Més que un club”, but they’re also “Més que un club un home” – More than a one man club. Thanks to Google for that translation. And all the quotes, to be fair.

Stick a man on Busquets.

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” Wise words from American poet and novelist Henry David Thoreau. A bit of a stretch to refer to Barcelona as evil, I suppose – but I get where he’s coming from. He will have probably called football “soccer”, which is less forgivable. Barcelona may look like a free flowing innovative side, but in fact they are highly disciplined. The midfield playmakers of Xavi and Iniesta (and now Fabregas) may be the ones pulling the strings when attacking, but they don’t do so much of the ball-winning. This is where defensive midfielder Busquets earns his corn. He can’t be described an under-rated anymore, it’s now widely acknowledged what an important role he does for the team – indeed since the days of Makelele and even Deschamps the dirty work guys have been getting the credit they deserve (As an aside, England are have been so poor against top International sides because they’ve lacked a player with this discipline, or not been able to trust one). Busquets will not bomb forward when Barca have possession, he’ll remain at the back with the two central defenders (the full-back are long gone, they spend more time in the opposition half) he gets himself in plenty of space and wait for Barcelona to lose the ball. They very rarely do, and as they pressurise opponents all over the pitch, they force them into mistakes and almost immediately get it back. It’s Busquets who feeds the short balls to Xavi and Iniesta. By denying him the space and time to operate, Xavi and Iniesta will be denied the quick feed, and will have to work harder on the defensive side of their game. There is the problem that he flings himself to the ground whenever anyone gets within 10 feet of him (This is the clue – he doesn’t like people snapping around his heels). For a team like Manchester United playing Barcelona, this would most likely mean asking Rooney to drop back and take care of him – although I can see that ending in a quick couple of yellows due to Busquets’ theatrics; for a team such as Manchester City, Barca old-boy Yaya Toure would be capable of a terrific job on Busquets. Mancini has played the defensive midfielder in a more advanced position, and this would be perfect for snuffing the little shit out.

Have a crack from distance.

“Strike hard, strike fast, strike often” words accredited to William Frederick Halsey, Admiral of the US fleet in the South Pacific. “Bull” Halsey clearly had his doubts about Barcelona ‘keeper Victor Valdes. He’s not even third choice for Spain – Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina and Manchester United new-boy are all ahead in the pecking order for the number one jersey. Valdes is suspect. I can only imagine that Barcelona have a policy of promoting Spanish national, preferably Catalans to the team ahead of better players. He’s by far the weakest link in this epic team. Barcelona are often accused of being a little fragile defensively, but looking at a typical back four team sheet of Abidal, Pique, Puyol and Alves, he stick outs like a sore thumb. Granted, Abidal and Alves don’t do so much of the actual defending – in fact Busquets often drops so deep it’s more like a back three with the full-back becoming almost orthodox wingers – but they do their share by keeping opposition wingers pegged back.

Any player getting within range of a shot must be encouraged to do so. It’s the getting there that’s tough I guess! With the full-backs far away, and Xavi and Iniesta rarely dropping back, it should be possible to get half a yard and have a pop. Valdes won’t like it, and he’ll let one in eventually.

Don’t try and play like Barcelona

“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.” Samuel Johnson. He wrote the dictionary, you know. Arsenal were described as “playing like Barcelona”, until they got beaten by them – dodgy sending off or not. A team in such form, having played together for years in the case of some of La Masia’s graduates, will not be beaten by any imitations. Man for man they have players better suited to the roles, and who are more experienced at doing it.

So in short, watch out for everyone, don’t give them time on the ball, and have the game of your lives. EASY.

You can follow Tom on twitter, or read his blog The Frustrated Footballer

The Libero-Next Tactical Innovation?

They say history repeats itself and it certainly applies for the beautiful game too.As we saw in my last post that the poacher(Read Here) who many predicted that it is certain to die,is enjoying a new lease of life with players like Javier Hernandez.Our generation of football fans never got to see the Libero in action and half of them have never even heard of that position.Strange considering the fact that one of the greatest players to have ever kicked the ball was a highly accomplished sweeper-Franz Beckenbauer.

Franz Beckenbauer

Origin

The Libero was perfected by Italians especially with AC Milan's success in the sixties.But it was an Austrian coach named Karl Rappan who first came up with the idea of playing three at the back so that one of them didn't have any man marking to do and could sweep the balls which were played beyond the two center backs.Rappan's philosphy when he was the manager of the Switzerland national team was that if you didn't have the flair and creativity of say the brazillians then tactics and discipline becomes really important to you.If you cant score many goals then ensure that you dont concede many.This philosophy became the base of the notorious Italian system of Catenaccio.The Catenaccio's main aim was that to stifle the opponents and prevent them from scoring,so here the sweeper or the libero as it was known in Italy was more of a defensive player.He never really left his position and generally used to hoof long clearances down the pitch.

The Sweeper in the 5-3-2

Many teams realized that the sweeper could do much more than just being the last line of defense.He was a free player,he didn't have a player to mark so some coaches realized this potential and gave the sweeper the license to step into midfield when required.This changed the type of player required for this position,they had to be good with ball too combined with their defensive capabilities.Beckenbauer was a prime example of the second more attacking type of the Sweeper.He was comfortable with the ball at his feet and made runs deep into opposition territory.Beckenbauer clearly had extraordinary intelligence,as he could decide with atmost perfection on when to go forward and when to stay back and this was essential for a player in his position.His wonder goal against England in 1970 World Cup when trailing 2-0 suggested that this man was a perfect sweeper if ever there could be one.Whenever the sweeper made runs forward,the opposition was confused on who is supposed to track him and so the sweeper often managed to find space and time and someone like Beckenbauer could utilize this effectively.This was the time and age when the attacking sweeper was considered the most important position.But as the clock ticked,the coaches of the top teams realized that having an extra man at the back meant that you gave up space in some other area on the pitch and there began the demise of the attacking sweeper.The defensive sweeper lived on for some more time as teams lower down the leagues still needed to have an extra man at the back.

The Return?

Modern football teams usually have a flat back four and much hasn't changed,although we have seen many systems come and go usually the flat back four remained the same.The 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 are the most commonly used formations these days,and they only have a single player leading the line which leaves one of the center backs free without any marking to do.As Jonathan Wilson says,

[quote]The history of tactics is the history of the manipulation of space. Space is created – or emerges – for one player, and he begins to have a disproportionate influence on the game. Then a way is found to block him, and in turn space will appear somewhere else on the pitch.[/quote]

The 4-2-3-1 effectively counters any space available for the attacking players,the only player who is free and has time and space in this formation is the center back.So a ball playing center back could be the new libero in the modern game.Gerard Pique of Barcelona is a very good example,he is good with the ball and often goes into marauding runs down the pitch.There are number of good ball playing defenders in the modern game like Lucio,Rio Ferdinand and David Luiz who can play this sort of a role but none of their managers have so far toyed with the idea of making them a libero.You may point out that a couple of time Luiz looked foolish when he went forward with the ball and finally lost it(and the opposition countered),but that was against teams who played with 2 strikers(Manchester United took advantage of this).

Gerard Pique-The Modern Libero?

With most of the top European team employing a holding midfielder(The Makelele role) who is just there to break down play and provide cover(Man United are an obvious exception) the free center back will have the freedom to go forward.Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique do this to perfection for Barcelona(Barcelona seem to be the best example for all the modern tactics).As more and more attacking players are being assigned defensive duties maybe the defensive players will be more of a threat in the days to come.Only time will tell whether the modern libero will be widespread phenomenon,but given the trend of 4-2-3-1 it is sure to be used.As the most defensive position in the team is likely to become an attacking outlet,maybe we will have an another "Inversion Of The Pyramid" as Jonathan Wilson calls it.