Fast analysis: Lyon-Barcelona

The result is good; A draw with one away goal is a very good platform for the second leg.
Regardless of pre-game warm up, Lyon is a good team and Lyon fans must keep their head high for a great performance where they were a better team in most of the game periods.

We will go further in the Competition, It will not be easy for Lyon to win in Catalonia, I will not go for detailed analysis about the game, you guys already did. So i will only discuss three topics that always take place recently "fatigue, Squad quality and depth, and living examples of what I mentioned before about what we need to upgrade to hope hunting the title"

No need to panic, its a good sign that the team win even while passing through a bad period. Something we missed in recent seasons. So I am as calm as I was in January, and as excited about the season as I was when it started. Still, there are always things to improve, in the team and in the way we evaluate it.

We need to stop promoting our guys as sissies! We are still in February and if the players knees started to shake because of fatigue then how will it be in the last 100 Meters in the season. There are other clubs playing football and if you browse all around, Barcelona is the team use the “Fatigue” term mostly. Beside, how can we consider drop in form as a result of being tired when the team always performs better in the second half than the first half? We can be philosophical about it, but when it happens all the time and with all the come backs we witnessed, there has to be some other more realistic reasons than feeling pity of how tired the guys are. Fitness level is not THE deciding factor, not yet anyway.

Last night, I was watching Barcelona game and recording Man Utd on the DVD, but only for the first 15 Minutes. Then I switched to watched Man Utd then watched the recorded Barcelona game later on. Don’t blame me; I wanted a more mature game to watch live.

Here a benchmarking that may be little useful:

Man Utd were outstanding, their coach made them unbeatable in this game. “Special one” who? Are you kidding me! He was outclassed, smoked, crushed by a genius tactical approach. Man Utd players were like horses in the game as well, it felt as if its their first game of the season, why weren’t they tired? Played fewer games? Have more depth?

Here I drop some Calculations based on data from Espn about Barcelona and Man Utd players’ status (plus Cup selections of Barcelona from pep blog). You can have more data there about who played in every game if needed. But this is a list of 13 players we will not argue that they are the skeleton of each of the two teams, and the number of games each of the players started in all competitions so far. They might not finish every game they started, but they also played games they didn’t start so its in a way balanced enough for a general conclusion.

Man Utd (Premier league + Carling + CL + FIFA Clubs World Cup)

Nemanja Vidic =31
Dimitar Berbatov =24
Cristiano Ronaldo =29
Rio Ferdinand = 27
Patrice Evra = 23
Michael Carrick = 20
Darren Fletcher =21
Wayne Rooney = 23
Ji-Sung Park = 18
Carlos Tevez = 22
John O’Shea = 22
Ryan Giggs = 15
Paul Scholes =12

One player played less than15 games (Scholes), 3 players played 15 to 20 games, 6 players played 20 to 25 games, 3 players played more than 25 games


Players selected in the league already, 20 Players:

Nemanja Vidic, Dimitar Berbatov, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher, Wayne Rooney, Ji-Sung Park, Carlos Tevez, John O’Shea, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Rafael, Jonathan Evans, Anderson, Wes Brown, Nani, Owen Hargreaves.

Fraizer Campbell Started one game before moving to Tottenham

Barcelona (League +Cup +CL)

Xavi = 28
Samuel Eto’o = 24
Daniel Alves = 32
Eric Abidal = 20
Carles Puyol 19 4 3 = 26
Thierry Henry = 23
Lionel Messi = 24
Gerard Pique = 25
Gnegneri Yaya Toure = 22
Rafael Márquez = 23
Andrés Iniesta = 19
Seydou Keita = 17
Sergi Busquets = 21

3 players played 15 to 20 games, 7 players played 20 to 25 games, 3 players played More than 25 games.

Played selected (played) in the league already, 20 players:

Xavi, Samuel Eto’o, Daniel Alves, Eric Abidal, Carles Puyol, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Gnegneri Yaya Toure, Rafael Márquez, Andrés Iniesta, Seydou Keita, Sergi Busquets, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Alexander Hleb, Martín Cáceres, Víctor Sánchez, Sylvinho(1 game), Bojan Krkic, Pedrito.

Based on that, I can’t see where Barcelona players were over-selected/used compared to Man Utd. Man Utd had more intensive weeks to go through (playing midweek delayed league games). They had to travel to another planet to play in the FIFA Cup world cup, and their CL group was more exhausting than ours. Yet they are fresher? If that’s true, then I will point a finger toward Pre-season preparations, but I think it’s more a mental thing, so I will point a finger toward that department in Pep staff instead. But again I think its not the case.

Sir Alex needed some years before earning the first Title for Man Utd. Pep is running for the first title in his first year (Regardless of the teams each coach inherited). So its not fair to be over critic and demand perfection from a coach who is tackling his first season on the highest level as a coach. We need to praise his objectivity for understanding that CL may not be a hunt for him in the first season even though he will try his best to win it. That’s one of the reasons why he didn’t drop the cup. And now its more obvious how smart he was selecting his realistic targets.

There are still the little things needed to have the “Know how” in order to win Champions’ league. Especially in this football cycle where lot of the big clubs are passing through a good cycle, unlike the previous situation when Monaco played Porto on the final.

Some little things:
I know I need to brief so I will only say, if Sir Alex was the guy in France last night:

1) He will make sure to keep winning cards on the bench, because its more important in an away game to do so than to throw everyone on the field and pray. I am an old follower of the old guy and he always does so. I can insure you that he would have at least kept either Henry or Eto’o on the bench, started a forth midfielder instead with a striker and a Messi. He knows in the CL it’s not Attack, attack and then Attack. It’s the midfield game, dominate it and feel no worries. Against Inter, He played a modifiable 4-2-3-1 that turn to 4-1(Carrick)-4-1 and was able (with no surprise) to generate more threat than Barcelona did playing the 4-3-3 against a club of less defensive quality like Lyon. Is it the first time I say it’s not the number of forwards that make you dangerous?

2) When you are 1-1 in an away game, and it’s the last 5 minutes, and you are already satisfied with the result, and you have two more substitutions in hand, USE THEM! Is it a silly remark? Well that kind of numerous details decide collectively if you are a team to compete for a title or a team that can actually win. Watch the last minutes of the game where the ball was all in our half.

There are Facts that we need to start to take them as they are:

- Henry is a threat when he gets into the box, on the flank as a pure wing he is not useful and never been. If you can’t create a system to make him move into the box more often then don’t start him. A wing need to be able to smoke his marker in a 1×1 battle cutting into the box and creating chaos, Iniesta do it, Henry cant. He is the perfect guy on the left WHEN he plays as a fake wing/Virtual striker.

- Puyol is a perfect third CB when Abidal is not there. But he is NOT a left back. Against espanyol we used Puyol to do Sylvinho role. Against Lyon he moved forward more than Abidal originally does.

- Barcelona style suck lot of energy, no depth squad can give you enough fuel to keep playing that way all the time, you need to be more selective in the games, when to play attractive high pressure possession game and when to play more tactical and direct tactics. The Champions’ league is not a show business, its a Mission to make possible.

- To go far in the CL we need to be able to slowdown the opponents counters, filling the space behind our offense operation Zone. Whenever we lose the ball the opponent counters seems to be so fast as if sucked through a Vacuum tunnel from the first edge (opponent box) to the other edge striking our defense. One Yaya to act as a tunnel cork is not enough, and when he join the party upfront then even that Tinny cork vanish.

I still hope we improve and that Pep and Co will be fast learners. But that’s more an emotional hope, while in the back of my head I know, our realistic hunts for this year are the League, and the cup.


Ramzi Tanani