The aftermath Season Ramble-Defense

The aftermath Season Ramble-Defense

By: Ramzi Tanani

The Transfer Market Flu!

I think the talks about future transfers is the topic that pump the hot blood to the heads these days. Even though in this series I am basically evaluating last season, but it’s important to take some notes based on the discussions on the blog regarding transfer targets:

1) Calm Down. No need to get crazy about Barcelona approach while dealing with transfer market activities. We will end up being the only team in football history (since I started to follow) that buy as many players as we will after winning a treble.

2) Related to the previous point, We already have a squad that’s considered as the best in the world. With the same players we have at the moment we can make another run for next season. So it’s important not to compare the transfers activity of an accomplished team like Barcelona to that of some other teams who make a string of Panic buys.

3) It’s completely unfair to doubt the board quality. Its nonsense! If this board doesn’t satisfy the fans needs after winning a treble, then the fans are too spoiled to be satisfied.

4) Straight to the point, it’s easy to get Kaka if you are ready to pay 65 Millions. Really.(or £80million For C.Ronaldo?). But would that be a good deal? No, not even if he is Ibrahimovic. We were able to get Ibrahimovic last week. Based on rumors we only needed to offer Inter Eto’o Plus 40 M. To make reasonable deals you need more time and effort. And all what we need is reasonable deals. We are not desperate. We have our great players. If we can get some more quality for the right price then great, if not then we have to start the new season with the squad we have. Where we will only count on:

- The best Keeper we can get.
- One of the best Right backs.
- The best center back for Barcelona (Pique, as I will explain later). Added to Puyol, Marquez and co.
- One of the strongest left Backs defensively. Which is exactly what we need.
- One of the best Defensive midfielders.
- The best play maker in the world with no one to even come close (Xavi).
- The Most Versatile player in the world and of the best quality (Iniesta).
- One of the best utility Players. (Keita, believe it, it’s true).
- One of the most promising midfielders (Busquets).
- The best Player in the world (Messi).
- The Record smasher goal scorer Eto’o.
- The best striker in the world in the last 10 years, and still he is when he play in position. And one of our best performers in the season of treble. (Henry)
- The best youth talents in the world.

I know we are unlucky, that’s all what we have. Wrong. I think we are in a luxurious position. So we can only calm down and monitor how things will go. Any additional player is a plus to the lethal arsenal we already have.

Now back to the Season evaluation:

Carles Puyol:

I admit, He proved me wrong. After a notably continuous decline in form and performance as seasons passed by, I thought the countdown is starting to tick. I was wondering how will Pep Guardiola establish Puyol transition from being a key member to become a squad player(we do not want another RAUL story at Barcelona). Puyol felt the challenge. He raised up to it. Before euro 2008, he requested the assistant of a group of specialists who analyzed his game and recommended a training program to Improve his overall attributes. This season he showed more tactical awareness, more positioning discipline (though it’s not one of his natural gifts), and an extraordinary fitness level compared to previous seasons. One of our star performers.

Gerard Pique:

Since the day Matthias Sammer retired, There was no other Centre back who impressed me the way Pique did this season. We can create any excuse for Sir Alex Fergusson for letting this huge talent leave his team, but honestly the only thing I can conclude is that no matter how huge your name is as a coach, there will still be some players who may have a very strong presence that you can’t gamble letting them unsatisfied. I am talking here about Ferdinand. Because Pique is not only a better defender, he is a different class. For sure, he improved a lot this season, but the only reason was that he played more. Pique proved this season that the more you let him feel you are counting on him, and the more responsibilities you hook on his shoulders, the better he performs.

There are three things I always appreciated in German football: Their Machine-like style, determination, and the string of unbelievable Libero players they provided in the world of football, from Beckenbauer, to mattheus, to sammmer and lot of little less interesting ones in between. But since a while we never witnessed a talented center defender of that brand, but more an Italian-type, strong yet with absolute defensive attributes. Pique is the Ancient German type of libero, defensively strong, but at the same time he is a play maker, and a goal scorer. He created more threat in five minutes against Chelsea when he moved forward than the whole team made in 90 minutes.

Without any doubt, quality wise, he compete with Alves for “The 2008 best transfer” Crown. Quality vs. price, he is the best signing Barcelona made since Ronaldinho.

The best part? He is just warming up. If he keep improving on the same rate, he will be a corner stone for Barcelona future.

Rafael Marquez:

Proved being a good card for Guardiola to use. He lacked consistency and failed to impress from time to time. But his overall performance was solid. His presence also proved an impact on pique improvement as well. Their partnership proved being successful. His most concerning weakness is his adventurous tackles inside the box, which usually come after late positioning. His strength is being so fitting to Barcelona where defense need to have the quality of passing the ball around. His Over-seas passes is a world Class as well. After some doubts last summer, Guardiola reassured him he is needed. This summer there are no doubts that he is staying.

Gabriele Milito:

I still hope it’s not another Jorge Andrade case. Regardless of his future in this club. Let’s keep it simple, we can’t sell him now. No one will buy. So let’s hope he bounce back at least so he creates more depth in defense. Or maybe we loan him out with an option to call him back. We can be creative with suggestions, but as long as we don’t really know enough details about his injury, we can’t really make a clear opinion.

Just let me point out that –in his original form- he is a quality strong defender. We can’t compare Barcelona defense performance while he was playing to the defense performance now and jump to wrong conclusion. Remember the performance of the team as a whole back then, and compare it to this season output to have better conclusions. He created a great Partnership with pique when they played together at Zaragoza (pique was still learning back then). He was very solid at the beginning of the season for Barcelona when Puyol was injured back then, till the whole team collapsed.

If we believe the rumors that Barcelona are looking for a new Centre back, it may be a sign that Milito future is far from being certain with the team. But I still believe he will be a Barcelona player next season.

Alves:

A four in one package. Right back, Right wing, Play maker and goal scorer. Barcelona won the final without him. But it’s hard to tell if they would have reached there without him. The way he express himself is somehow irritating, So if you are not a Barcelona fan, you will hate him. But for the Blugrana, he is just a perfect news. Alves changed the offense structure of the team. Its just amazing how that right back position turned from being an Oleguered, Zambrotized Curse to become an Alvesed bless. Defensively, he may not be the best Defender in the world. But his defense contribution is underrated or may be just overshadowed by his offense contribution. Beside his own qualities that he installed in the team, he made his teammates perform better. No need to glue Messi on the right flank anymore. With Alves making the right flank his own, Messi was released to hit the opponent defense from any spot that prove being soft. With Alves stretching the field from the right flank it turned more appropriate for Henry to cut more into the box without shrinking the field from the two flanks the same as it would happen with only Messi on the right cutting inside while henry plays on the left. But most imp[ortantly, Alves was born for barcelona style where players need to press the opponent defense in their half trying to earn back the ball.

Stamina, explosive runs, Unlimited fitness tanks, Brazilian techniques mixed with Italian Grinta. Thats what you can call, a perfect signing.

Martin Caceres:

This guy is a living sample that show the difference between playing for a Huge club as Barcelona, and playing for a normal club. Specially if you are a defender. At Recreativo He had to defend at a team that play deep, applying zonal marking in their own area. He had teammates around him, so positioning-wise it wasn’t that hard to figure out where to camp his feet to create cover and close spaces. Then as a defender, all what he needed to do is to get rid of the danger invading his territory. Clear the ball as far as he can counting on his teammates pace to translate the clearance to counters.

He came to Barcelona where three defenders need to cover the whole area in front of the keeper till the halfway line. Which creates more challenges to figure out how to position yourself so you are closer to all the spots of predicted threat in that wide field. Not only that, but there is also another challenge. In Barcelona, the defender role is not to get rid of the threat, but to earn back the ball and generate attacks, nonsense clearance is a sin. If you monitor Caceres performance when he played, it was obvious that the mentioned challenges were the reason why he failed to adapt fast. Positioning, and passing.

But make no mistake, this gut has the talent and is a quality for the future. But need more polishing. We will discuss pep role in delaying his progress later on. But I’ve been watching him on international level, and I still believe in him as a prospect for the future.


Eric Abidal:

I remember how risky it was to defend this guy last summer. We, a minority of Barcelona fans had a hard time explaining that his presence creates a needed balance in defense. And after signing Alves, Abidal presence became more vital. I can say with lot of confidence that Alves success with Barcelona was-Beside Alves Quality- a result of having Abidal on the other flank. They complete each other. People complain about Abidal weak contribution offense wise, compared to Alves. But let’s compare Alves contribution in defense compared to that’s of Abidal.
For two elements to complement each other they must not be identical, they must be something like that Adidal-Alves combination.


Sylvinho:

It’s as difficult to hate this guy as it is to love Pepe of Madrid. And Football God decided that this guy deserves the best Exit. Not only he won a treble, but played his final game with the team in roam and to contribute in achieving the historical glory for Barcelona. A Model professional to follow. A need for any Squad. And a player you always feel comfortable to have in your favorite club. He had a great impact this season. I was hoping that he gets a coaching/player contract for next season. So we keep him involved in the squad without counting him as a need for the selection. But the decision was different and we need to respect that. Uncle Silvio will be missed, no doubt about that.

Victor Sanchez:

Being a versatile player is a plus. It will help him to earn more starting opportunities in the future. Showed some quality, but still far from being a definite gain for the future. I think it’s better to loan him out to create a space for the other youth to get a chance. We can’t have too many youth in the first team squad. First because it will shallow the team depth and secondly because this will lead to spread playing time opportunities between them in a way that none of them will get enough time to play that makes his presence in the first team worth. But it will all depend on the future signings. If we signed no Right back, Victor may have a chance to stay.

Muniesa:

One of the main reasons that I recommended Loaning Sanchez out. Since 2002’s Iniesta debut against Club Brugge, no youngster impressed me as fast as this boy. Iniesta back then did nothing extra ordinary. No assists, no goals, nothing special. But while evaluating a youngster, we must not give lot of attention to the “successful attempts” but for the “Original intentions”. That’s the key for the right evaluation.

The mental engine is a quality. The physical characteristics are ideal. Muniesa during his few minutes on the pitch screamed his talent loudly. He reads the game perfectly. He can predict opponents intentions as a veteran . He understands offside trap, when to set it and when it’s too late. And he has a hear of stone. That tackle where he got suspended showed lack of experience. But at the same time showed the signs of dominance. Something Defenders need to guard by soul. This guy is a quality. Pep will test him during the preseason preparations, great move! Then he will evaluate the risk of keeping him in the first team squad, or letting him patrol between the first team and Barcelona Athletic for one more season. The second option is usually more recommended. But if this guy is as good as the first impression shows, then Pep will keep him for himself in the first team squad. He will not be a starter, but only for a while.

Botía, Córcoles, and Montoya(though it’s too early for this one) are good options as well. But I think it’s better to swing them between the First team and Barca Athletic for one more season.
Adding the youth guns to the already accomplished star we have in Pique, and the selective signings of Caceres and Henrique, I believe Barcelona can look forward to the future with lot of excitement. Not only because it’s a normal thing to have the best young midfielders and forwards in the world, but also because we have the best group of young players to guard our defense for years to come.

Signings by priorities:

1) It seems that Caceres is yet to prove himself on the flank, and even if it happened, he is not a wing back but more a left defender/left back. Maxwel of Inter is a good option, so as Filipe (Deportivo). I may add Ivan Marcano (Racing to that list).

2) If Milito situation became more complicated, and especially if Henrique needs more time to be trusted, Then a Center back will be a priority over a Right back. Because getting a Center back will give Pep an option to use Puyol as a right back when needed. He already proved (specially against Man Utd) that he can perform on the right better than most of the transfer targets we can buy for that position. Getting a center back creates more depth both at the center and on the right flank. The 190 Cm tall Bruno Alves is a good option.

3) Right back: We can’t count on being as lucky as last season. A cover for Alves is a need, either by using the resources already existed in the squad or by importing a new player.

By saying so, it’s important to note that I am not expecting that the team will buy three defenders. I am only pointing out the priorities of where to buy first. But still, the availability of options rearrange the priorities sometimes. So, This is more an initial observation.

To Be continued...