Vilanova talks (3): "4-4-2 leads to more problems"

Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova talked in an interview with Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo about the team and the season so far.





It worries the staff that Henry isn't being decisive?
No, Henry had a good pre-season. Generally he's making all the movements we ask him to make in a good away. On the other hand it's true he missed some good scoring chances and the work you're doing is more seen when you score. We think he can adapt to our system and that he could add something to the team. And we're very satisfied with his attitude.

He has dealt well with returning to the left wing when he probably expected to be the centre forward if Eto'o would have left?
I'm sure he'll play matches as centre forward this season, but you shouldn't forget that Henry comes from a team that played the counter-attack which means there was a lot of space for him, just like what happened to Alves with Sevilla. You don't have that space playing for Barcelona. They need to adapt to that but I'm sure they will.

Henry has told the staff that he feels better playing in the centre than on the wing?
He's a player who's not used to playing with wing attackers. It's a tradition in this club but you don't find that anywhere else. But I have to say we're very happy that he's not having any physical problems for several weeks now and that he's training well.

The fact that you now have several players like Henry and Messi who are no pure wingers but still have to play that position could lead to putting aside the club's philosophy and changing the system?
We've already tried a 4-4-2 but if you start a game with a 4-4-2 and you are confronted with a team who is waiting for you in their box and leaves you very little space, like Numanica, you will have even more problems. If the opponent closes everything down, there's no other way to deal with that than to make the pitch long and wide. If you don't do that, it's very difficult to win the game and even more if you're not sharp in front of the goal.


You can read the first and the second part of this interview here and here. Later you'll have the last part of this interview with Vilanova talking, amongst other things, about the choice between Touré and Keita and the position of Cáceres.