Total football!

A game of Total football for a team with killing instinct, that’s the briefing for the game in my books!

Very balanced start up, the Defense we asked for, names and structure, Busquets was the wall as a defensive midfield, and the midfield/offense was a piece of art, why do I combine the midfield with offense? Because that’s how it was for real!

Without Eto’o! Nice one Guardiola!

On papers we started with Xavi and Gudi in midfield, with Hleb on the right, Messi as a striker, and Henry on the left, but how true was that? Switching positions was the tempo of the whole symphony, Gudi tipped his physical presence in the midfield, Xavi orchestrated the show, Hleb bounced back as a third midfielder and enriched ball distribution, Henry was the horse of the race running every where, while Messi was a Messi once again.

Sporting? The predicted start up aside of Ismailov injury but…either the tactics were of a genius so I didn’t understand it, or there were no tactics to be mentioned, May be it was just me but I had no clue what they were trying to do. Paulo Bento, sporting coach, watch Opera may be, or Dr. Phill, but for sure not La Liga, and specially not the game of Barcelona against Getafe, Neither he prepared his team mentally for the game so they were like Rabbets facing the Wolves, nor he made an attempt to complicate things, he made it easy for Barcelona in a day where Barcelona was in the mood, and you know how it goes when the guys are REALLY in the mood!

Goals Conceded, The first one was an unfair call on Marquez, absolutely no handball there and we ended up with a yellow card and a goal. The second was a Marquez-Caceres mistake, But mainly Marquez.

But also, and I know you may not like it guys, our Messi goal, that was brilliant, give me the doubt that the ball was moving when Alves passed it to messi, so there are some questions about this detail, but I need to watch it again.

Valdes had a relatively calm night compared to worst scenarios expected before the game, the first goal was a tricky free kick – as predicted, the second goal was not his fault by any means – and please don’t disappoint me and say it was – though all opinions are respected here. What a reflex, saving that ball in the second half!

Caceres was really impressive! I can note that he will improve his passing and positioning with time, but the guy showed why Barcelona paid lot of cash to get him, for his young age and relatively little experience he is really a player to count on for the long term.

Marquez was the experience in Defense, it wasn’t one of his best shows, and he is the most responsible for the goal conceded, but his presence created balance and organized the backbones of the team.

Pique played a good game, covered Alves when the Brazilian moved forward, and it was a confident display in general, just some more focus.

Alves: A very balanced yet explosive performance mainly regarding his contribution offensively, Little by little he is showing the Sevilla Alves whom I wish to see against sevilla.

Busquets: I can guarantee that Moutinho will definitely have a Busquets nightmare when he sleep after the game, if he slept, the Athletic Barcelona product (Barcelona B then) Scanned the midfield back and forth for any hunts through out the game, and in so many ways I consider him the man of the match, but that’s only me.

Xavi: the immortal maestro, holding the game strings between his fingers he knew what and when and how, not a stunning show and we missed his goals, but if you don’t notice how important his presence is, wait till he is not there.

Gudjohnsen: one thing in common between this guy and keita, they know how to position themselves defensively in a way that prevent the opponents to move the ball from their side, so as I mentioned in a previous Article, they may not be seen as often, but you just can feel their impact. I think he had to go more into the box than he did, but generally was satisfying, and he tried to pass the ball as often as he can to Bojan in the box, a very decent sign.

Hleb: He is gradually coming back, I can expect some complains about his performance, but he started to show his skills while contributing in ball distribution, its almost confirmed for me he can become Xavi perfect assistant in midfield, but on the wing? Still need time to show how he can perform.

Messi: Dribbled when needed, passed when needed, burned just as much energy as needed. Another game with Messi impact and stamp, in brief he was a Messi, you have all the reasons to label him man of the match.

Henry: one of the best performances for him in the first half, covered for some miss passes by a huge effort all over the field, whenever he moved in the middle he created the danger, message received.

Bojan: you gave me a heart attack with that penalty shot! His moral is back, the game served him well.

Pedro: I like the pressure he made on defense and Goalkeeper, not a huge impact but another good experience.

Keita: helped controlling the game till the end, I wish if that shot found its way to where you wanted.

Guardiola: another master piece, the starting up, the tactics, and the substitutes.

I will apply Guardiola trick and save some energy for the coming events.

Ramzi Tanani