Crush the Bus!

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Every Barcelona fan nightmare, a game against a defensive wall, where the opponent play that new tactical structure only implemented to face Barcelona Fc, the 9-1-0, and if its more adventurous it turns to 8-1-1. Alright, not literally, but you know what I mean.

Guardiola was aware of this issue since the moment he was hired; the first thing he called for was a big, ok I mean REALLY BIG Striker! A giant in the box! He wouldn’t care about the striker technical abilities when it comes to dribbling three players in a millisecond; he already has the Argentinean wizard for that, who is much more than enough. Guardiola wanted a Skyscraper!

Now, According to Wikipedia list of tallest buildings and structures in the world, “Burj Dubai” is heading the list (under construction); the total budget for the 707 m height building is about $4.1 billion. Which means that, every 1 meter slice of it costs around 5,800,000 $, I will get to the point, patience.

Don’t get so shocked by the crazy cost of the project… If we take in consideration the two meters (more or less) strikers Barcelona had on their short list, and the price demanded for them, you can easily conclude that Barcelona had to pay for a tall striker, relatively, four times the cost of the tallest and most luxurious building in the world including all what you can imagine to find in that luxury Building.

PLAN CANCELED AND NO REGRET!!!!

Still let’s not fool ourselves; being reasonable has a tax as well. Every time we play against a “Two Rows” Defense, we will get stressed till we hunt the first Goal, and then LET THE SHOW BEGINS! But that’s not the worst news, What’s more stressing is that this scenario will not happen every once and while, but every time our guys run out of the tunnel to play a game, they will be the ones to kick the ball for the game to start, because the other team will not have enough players the midfield to do so, all cemented back.

We believe that the tall striker would have been an added Value in that manner. Yet, there is a reasonable question to ask about the original plan aiming to switch Eto’o for a Skyscraper; will the Skyscraper win us more games than Eto’o?

Knowing that it’s too late to seek answers for that, that’s a question for transfer periods, and we will discuss it soon, so for now I think the most fruitful question is: Can Eto’o plus the systematic group offense, cover up for the lack of “Skyscraper striker” model? Or is it a problem to live with, but not to solve?

In my opinion, that’s not a mission impossible, I believe there are three interrelated methods we can Apply to solve the “Two Rows” defense problem, and unlock the game, if it worked, then we will know we just earned the impact we were welling to pay crazy to get, without selling our best striker, and most importantly without changing our offense style, because that skyscraper will definitely has a bad impact on the fluid Offense we play and enjoy.

Through what I will mention below I will not be inventing anything, but I will try to apply what is considered as “Alphabetic of football” using the hefty resources we have in our squad.

1. Total football

Guardiola is injecting this system in the tactical structure in doses. Total football is not just to switch positions, but also to have that “Water- like” structure, that reshape itself based on the opponent resistance, sometimes its 4-3-3, with two wings and a striker, then in one second it turn to become 4-3-1-2 where Messi play the free role behind two strikers – Henry-Eto’o, then its 4-1-2-2-1 with Messi moving to play as a striker with Henry and Eto’o Behind, without ignoring Alves contribution going forward and the way his runs reshape the tactical structures we draw on papers.

This approach shake any Defense, no doubt, because the way you set your defense to stop Eto’o in the box will not work if you face Messi instead, or even both. Monitoring Xavi as a sole playmaker turn useless when Messi Move to play that role as well, and so on.

We can really count on this Strategy, especially against teams that apply Tie Man-to-Man Marking. But we all wish if it was that easy, right?

In modern football, the man marking is a “Last option”, because every coach expect that key players switch positions, so everyone is applying a Zone marking now, you mark the player closest to your territory, what’s more boring is that, actually some coaches tend not to apply any kind of man marking at all, they simple close their area creating a crowd, closing any spaces to their box regardless of how the opponent move, and here, the total football –as mentioned above- lose lot of its advantages.

2. Let the sky rain crosses to the box:

One of the standard options: no need to penetrate with the ball, instead of being a fighter sniping your target, act as a bomber and rain the opponent box by crosses and one of the balls will hit target. But to do that efficiently, you need the right players in the box, having only Eto’o there, means you are actually sending greeting cards for the opponent defense to enjoy, let’s shake and redistribute our cards then!

The receipt for this plan is to have good flanks to cross the ball, and players with physical presence in the box to knock it in, so let’s move the shorts back and the monsters forward, I mean Xavi move to play the pivot role, while Yaya move to play on the edge of the box, not permanently because then we will lose the power of surprise, let it happen every time the team switch from total football to crossing set up.

Two critical comments will face this suggestion:

1- Xavi is the best Play maker in the world and you want to pull him out of the operation Zone?! And the answer is simple, I believe being outside the crowd will make it easier for Xavi to dictate the system, whenever there is a big mess just play the ball back to the unmarked Xavi and let him generate a new wave forward. The other respond is that I am aiming to create a “Two Poles” playmaking this way, Xavi out and Messi in, instead of having them both on the edge of the box closing more space than the crowd-y defense already sealing. Why not? Lets have Xavi out – Military operation usually work from outside the battlefield for a reason- and Messi do a playmaking role upward where his skills can help him to dribble, make a Mess, and earning fouls for Alves on the edge of the Area.

2- The second Critic will be, Yaya is better as a defensive midfielder than Xavi, but I wonder if the opponents can cause more threat than Xavi plus three Defenders behind can handle, and still being crowded in their Box. I just can’t see that happening.

So making this switch means having enough depth and potentials defensively to slow down counter attacks, plus having two distinct playmakers which will increase the fluidity of the ball, and we will also gain a 191 cm guy on the edge of the box who will only need milliseconds to penetrate and head the cross to the net.

One monster rolling to the box is not enough to seal the deal, the movement of Eto’o in the box is important dragging them to the near post opening a gap, and also one other player movement is important based on who will be the forward beside Eto’O and Messi, and who will be the third Midfielder beside Xavi and Yaya.

To cover the options without making the article long, I think the following presentations will serve the need:

(Click the image to enlarge)	(Click the image to enlarge)

I cant say the first selection is better or the second one, It depend on whom we are playing against, their weakness and strength.

3. Let the wind bomb shots to the box:

In short, we have three missiles launchers in this team, Yaya, keita, and Alves. The trick to switch permanently from “Crossing Method” to “Shooting set up” is Messi switching positions with Alves who run to the edge of the box through the path created by Messi sprint wide to the right dragging his markers.

This set up will create a lot of confusion for the opponent, they know the three players are there to shoot, and with the physical characters of the shooting players, it will not be enough for the opponent to apply one-to-one Marking, Alves is too explosive for any one marker to handle when he run, cross or shoot, while Yaya hm…you know…! But at the same time parking more than three players to face the three threats will definitely create gaps on the sides for Messi and Iniesta/Henry to penetrate to the box through the flanks.

This set up inspire lot of predicted scenarios, starting from a fake shot attempt and playing an assist instead to Eto’o in the box, but mostly to the guys penetrating from the flanks behind defense, to the scenario of penetrating to the box with the ball (at least Yaya and Alves can do so), while Eto’o move out pulling Central backs out of position, and much more.

It will only work as a Mix!

As I mentioned from the start, one method alone will be too predictable to be efficient, switching from one set up to another during the match force opponent to surrender, but lets clarify one thing, its not easy to reach that level of understanding, lot of training needed, lot of tactical lectures, and lot of concentration and mental awareness.

Ramzi Tanani