Roads Leading to Rome (part 2)

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Ramzi ContributionsRoads Leading To Rome, Part1Messi Free, Winning Dynamics RoadMap to titles,Trible? Part4:Do we buy? Fabregas Part3:Do we buy? DefenderPart2:Do we buy? GoalKeeperPart1:Do we buy?Transfer GuidelineCrush the busChampion's Luck CL Draw:Inter One More down, next?el clasico the essence of Spanish footballEl Clasico, what’s beyond Kicking the ballBarcelona and laws of powerFacing The BatsGuardiola's favorite not fans'Lets march to victoryTotal FootballFinal CountdownA kick on The KneeA Trap in The shadowWill December be The decider?Barcelona vs Basel,The perfect result!A Ramble in BaselDAVID VS GOLIATH?A new Day has come 3A new Day has come 2A new Day has come 1Adrenaline!!!Call me crazy!The Ramzi report: Espanyol

When we split “Roads Leading to Rome”, we were aware that long articles make readers panic. But at the same time I can’t avoid sticking to my objective behind writing on the blog. I do not aim only to describe or predict Barcelona staff approach, but more to create a stage where Barcelona fans can express their own ideas, and share general football knowledge through the gate of discussing Barcelona issues. I believe this may lead to more understanding of the game in depth, so we all come out with something new after every debate. This is the only way that makes spending time reading long articles and commenting on it profitable.
After "Roads leading to rome, Part 1" I would like to introduce this part with some general yet crucial remarks for the subject we are discussing in this article.

Not only in Barcelona Orbit, but it’s something you can find in so many debates within the football universe. There are some mixed terminologies that we take for granted even though in real they point on completely different areas. Clearing up some of the concepts may serve our understanding to the Champions' league Mission Barcelona aims to accomplish. So here we go!

My Humble Criteria to evaluate a tactical structure:

First of all I only believe in one tactical methodology, and it’s called building a balanced tactical structure starting from offense. In general, this is not the trend of nowadays tactical schools where most of coaches start from the back and up. And that’s why most teams’ performances are more practical than adventurous. Starting with defense drag you to hand the game to the opponent, then hunt a win. Starting with offense while keeping in mind the need to create balance, put you in the position of “I will kick you hard, and I know what you are planning but it will not work, I already prepared my boys to deal with that as well!”. Yet, even when we demand attacking mentality, we must not judge tactics offense share by counting the number of attackers in the game. Offense tactics means five things for me:

1) Dominating Possession. when you have the ball you are the king.

2) Opening spaces in and between the opponent lines. It’s easier to penetrate through tunnels you open than breaking down the walls you face.

3) Generating attacks. The ONLY offense attempts I count are shots on target, plus the number of times you succeed to get your players to opponent area in a scoring position, so the “Roaming around stuff are called build up operations” (point#1), not offense.

4) Keeping in mind that the most dangerous players are those who come from behind, not the ones who camp upfront. The players who position themselves high are easily contained, while the players who move forward from deep unsettle any defense for being less predictable. You can predict they will make a move, but you can’t guess when and you can’t guess how. “Be a surgeon not a butcher” That’s my favorite Slogan for this trick. The Knife cutting the Butter is smoother than a hammer smashing a rock, at least you sweat less! It leads you to build up your offense based on strategies, not only on tactics.

5) And its as important, to create a strong defensive backbone so the players who are doing the offense Mission feel secured and completely focused on offense without the need to keep looking backward being over concerned about what’s happening behind their backs. Four players completely focused on offense are more lethal than six players who need to burn half their energy on transition. This is not a basket ball field, its football, and the transition here cost a lot. When my players are surrounding the box, I want to make sure to keep them there as long as possible, because when they bounce back they will need time to set offense again. Time is the only thing a team can’t afford to waste if it has the winning mentality based on offense ideology.

The tactics that support the five principles the most is the tactic I will recommend to apply. Being able to get the ball into the box is as important as having enough players there to score. And Vise versa.

In World cup 1986, they asked Maradona about the tactics applied by Argentina, he answered:” we play like a sponge, we absorb our opponent then we bounce to offense!”, I am not sure if he was only explaining the national team methods or he was effected by playing in Italy. I wouldn’t recommend this tactic for Barcelona as a standard, but no one can complain about Argentina performance in that world cup. When you score three times against Germany in the final, that’s an offense sign as well.

If the number of attackers in a tactical structure has a direct impact on the offense power, Barcelona would have definitely played the Pyramid tactics (2-3-5) or the (1-1-8) applied originally by England against Scotland in 1872, Scotland was more conservative back then and played (2-2-6). At least we will find at least one team in the world still applying the 4-2-4 structure.

Cruyff Dream Team played a 4-4-2 Diamond – some people mix it with the 4-3-3 applied now- but when you watch the team performance you can barely figure out who move forward and who cover in that total football style.

The new football tactics are getting closer to the 4-6-0; Man Utd played a stunning offense game striker-free last season. They inherited that idea from Roma, after 2007 CL game between the two clubs. Roma played the most offensive-attractive football in Italy striker-free. Well I know there is no translation for the world attractive in the Italian football dictionary but still.

Attractive Vs. Boring Styles:

The most sarcastic joke I heard in the last few years was the news of Real Madrid Sacking Capello for not entertaining the fans. Chelsea did the same naïve step later on sacking their special one, even though champions’ league failure was the direct reason back then. All what I can say is:”Poor coaches never got the fair treatment in the world of football” .

Calderon wanted to look as Attractive as Laporta. We can argue who is more handsome based on looking and age, but one thing for sure is that:
A squad of : Pablo García, José María Guti , Thomas Gravesen, Emerson, Mahamadou Diarra, David Beckham, Raúl, Robinho, Ruud van Nistelrooy. With a fat Ronaldo, and not well adapted Robinho can NOT play the game Deco,Iniesta, Xavi, Eto’o, Messi and lead by Ronaldinho the great can perform. The italian coach can design a tactical structure to win using the names mentioned above, but not to intertain.

The attractive football is more attached to the players quality in the squad than to the tactical structure performed. Tactics has an impact, but if Chelsea applied the Barcelona 4-3-3 with the kind of players they have, don’t expect a show. Mourinho actually applied a 4-3-3 to some extend. The same as, even if Barcelona played the Catinaccio, you will still have the beautiful passes of Xavi and the fantastic penetrations of Messi and…and…Hey I am not promoting it by any mean, just so you know!
Its not whats right or wrong, but whats available and possible.

Active Vs. Passive performance:

In my opinion, This is the most valid method to evaluate a football team performance. Clubs pick the suitable tactics, whether attacking or defensive based on the squad nature and opponent. But what makes the output positive or passive is the objective behind the style. You can play Passive offense or passive defense. The same as you can play an active defense or passive defense.

Keeping in mind that a defensive game is out of Barcelona dictionary, we need to keep in mind that even the Offense highly possessed games could be labeled as a passive performance as well, when it’s aimless, fruitless, and lack productivity.

That’s exactly what I meant when I said in the first Part:” Sometimes and after we score only one goal, we become over obsessed to turn each and every game to an attractive carnival of passing and dribbling skills”. I was talking about the passive obsession that seems like “Hey! Look how nicely I can pass the ball”, “Lets see how many passes we can play without losing the ball”, that’s a passive approach in my books. I enjoy the passing skills when it’s a build up for a direct pass to the box, when it open spaces, when the players pass the ball with an eye on the opponent defense, not when they pass the ball just for the sake of it. It happened before, and we paid for it. This season you can see how the guys keep focusing on scoring another goal directly after they score the first; it’s a clear instruction from the bench. That wasn’t the case in previous years, and it show pep is aware of this rooted bad habit.

Attractive performance Vs. Titles:

It’s really beyond my understanding to figure out how to put the two gains on two different scales. For me winning titles is a part of over all show. The same as a show without titles is a joke. This is not a free-style football. And more over, this is Barcelona. “Just show a good performance” is a slogan that fit –with all respect – teams like Villarreal, Sevilla, Espanyol, Napoli, Aston Villa and the list is long. Barcelona success needs titles. Barcelona progress needs titles. Barcelona financial, Marketing, and Image need titles. And most importantly, Barcelona attractive performance needs titles to survive. Only when the team win, the players feel confident and pressure free to perform. Only when the team win champions’ league, it will have enough budget and attraction to sign the most attractive players in the world to extend the sexy life cycle the fans enjoy and praise.
And to win titles you need to be less predictable tactically. There is no perfect uncontainable tactic. Coaches of the other teams are not playing cards in their free times. They are studying the teams they will play against. The more your tactics are stable, the more it will be unlikely for you to catch an opponent by surprise. Against Sevilla we played a perfect second half when we changes our offense and midfield structure. Against Real Madrid it was our worst game tactically, we played as Juande Ramos predicted.

I understand that Barcelona fans see Barcelona club as a beautiful sexy woman, they whistle and flirt. But I don’t want Barcelona to be a woman you would love to date but not to marry. That’s why the best Barcelona is the Barcelona that is Beautiful AND Smart.

Barcelona can play 58 games per season in the league, Champions’ and Copa del rey. If 18 out of 58 needed a more tactical less open strategies to keep the team in the hunt for all the titles. Then don’t be greedy, 40 games of sexy performance per season plus titles are more attractive than playing only 45 or 50 sexy games in the season with only one title or non. Being too demanding will make your woman break up with you, just so you know.
Again, I am still calm about this one. From what I saw up till now, Guardiola and co are working on more than an alternative. Unlike previous seasons, I always find lot of remarks to write on my notebook after each and every game, positive remarks and new ideas I see and like in each and every game. Not only at the start of the matches but most importantly the tactical changes during the game. But its all still in its primary stages. Thats why I mentioned in the First Part, that time is needed to reach where we can say we have a perfect situation to win the champions'.
I will be surprised if Guardiola didnt switch the 4-1-2-3+Alves played at the moment, to 4-2-1-3+Alves when we play at home the big games of the season. Or even a 4-2-2-2 with iniesta and Xavi in midfield. This is a quality squad, so no need to squeeze our options. Better Barcelona is possible!

I wish to believe that good performance alone is satisfying enough for Barcelona fans even with the lack of results. Even after winning 4 consecutive leagues, UEFA cup, and Champions Cup, a copa del Rey, a European Super cup, and three supercopa de España. It only needed two seasons without a title to give Cruyff a boot even though he reached the Champions’ league final before losing to Milan. From there and on, a long game og “Hire and sack” took place and drove the club into a dark tunnel.

And why digging that far in history, remember the reactions after the first two games in the league and you will know what the current performance hide. Things look perfect only when the team is winning.

If we need more titles in Europe, we need to improve our football approach, from leaning completely on Individual brilliance and luck-as it happened two years ago- and instead creating a more balanced mix between individuality embraced in a tactical coat, and systematic structure that get advantage of gifted players but also offer more stability and balance.

When the season started I said I will give it a chance till January before hunting for defects. I defended Guardiola options all the way up till now in the ups and downs. I still believe in this project. But while the whole world shower this team by praise, some need to step in and make the balance keeping Barcelona feet on the ground, digging for things to improve and things to install. I am in! But dont worry I am not going to confuse the team, Guardiola smsed me that he is too busy lately to read my articles *cough/Joke*. So it’s more a fan-to-fan chat.

Ramzi Tanani