FanPost

Does He Need A Pep Talk?



   I got thinking (something I do often, which can only mean I have way too much time on my hands) about what makes this team so good. What is the secret that every fan wants to know, which makes a good team great. I'm sure, there are many of you who have been more profound and asked yourselves "How does one define a great team?" There would be the option to use statistics or trophies won. We could also talk about the talent a squad has.

  FC Barcelona's current squad, however, is more than that isn't it? It's more than just the trophies. It's more than just the individual talent. God knows on paper Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi are by far the best players in their respective positions (not just on paper though), but we had a similar squad before 2008. If anything, a squad that includes, both, Ronaldinho and Messi must be considered greater than one that has only the latter right?

  I dont doubt that squad, but since 2008, we have been phenomenal. 10 trophies out of a possible 13! We have been compared to every great team from every era in the history of football.However, there was a change in 2008 which came by the name of Josep "Pep" Guardiola i Sala. That fine line was crossed, one that made a good team, truly great. Pep came in and brought in a new order. He started an era, but it's easy to say great things about him. What I wanted to attempt (I hope, you, as the reader, can help me with this) was to try and breakdown the dynasty that was built by this manager that we all respect and love.

  I want to be able to clearly explain his mistakes as much as his victories. Now, that is not easy. How do we, as Barca fans, find fault in a manager that has without a doubt, almost single-handedly, brought about the greatest era the club (that we worship) has ever seen?

  I figured, the easiest way would be to take one of the three years Pep has been manager and hope to find a fault as well as a change that he's introduced which has helped improve the team. I decided on last season, 2010-2011, for various reasons, few of them being :

  • Although we know that his first year as manager/coach was his most succesful with respect to trophies won, I didn't choose it because I believe that the element of surprise was a major cause for the season to be so successful. Opposition teams, although familiar with Barca's formation, were simply not prepared for the sheer discipline that Pep brought along with him. We continued to play beautiful football but the aggressive pressing (when defending) and discipline were new.
  • The 10/11 season was the year that the footballing world realised that 08/09 was not a fluke. People thought that Jose Mourinho had figured us out by beating us with Inter Milan (09/10). Sure, we won the league but we were stopped where it mattered the most right? Champions League is after all the most prestigious of trophies (not in my opinion, I believe the consistency required to win a league title is a better way to judge a team, but the general consensus is that the champions league is the most important of trophies)
  • There wasn't a single team that wanted to face Barca last year. However, every one of those teams were mentally preparing themselves for exactly that. My point being, every team by then, had already accepted that we were the best and managers in Europe were probably scheming day and night to find a way. The legend, that was Barca, had sunk in and Europe wanted to destroy it before it was too late.

  Last season was the true test in my opinion. Imagine my predicament when i got it into my head that I wanted to find a flaw in the manager that won us the top two trophies on offer in a season of football.

 

  Having recently received my Ph.D in procrastination and the obvious fear of failure, under the circumstances, forces me to first talk about some of the better aspects (and there are so many of them) that Pep has introduced into the team (tactically).

  Now, I should tell you that the following is my opinion and I am not going to back it up with statistics or numbers. This is what I have seen as a Barca fan and I'm no expert so, here it is:

 

  Considering that we are already the best team in the world, the improvements shown from season to season has mostly been minor variations in playing style or an increase in efficiency while executing certain aspects of the game. With the bold move of playing La Pulga as a false 9 (or withdrawn forward) in the 09/10 season, Pep finished his master piece, so to speak. However, in the season gone by, Messi has improved. I'm sure I speak for all of us here when I say that scoring 53 goals and 24 assists in a season is probably a once in a decade experience. Pep has shown last season, more than ever, the significance of  "training like you play". Messi moving deeper to help retain the ball and make space was the whole idea of playing him as a false 9. The fact that he does it so seamlessly is the amazing part. A role that he has grown into last year.

 

  Another part of Barca's style of play that has continued to improve and was at it's peak last season is defence. Xavi is, in my opinion, the first line of defence for the team simply because he does not lose the ball! The idea being, if you hold onto the ball, your opponents can't score. Xavi might be the fulcrum but Pep (genius that he is) has made the whole team improve by increasing their awareness and positional sense when 'OFF' the ball.

 

  It is extremely difficult for an amateur like me to truly analyse this team and put it down on paper because Barca, with Pep leading them, seem to attack and defend all at once. They in actual fact, defend by keeping possession and attack even when they don't have the ball. Let me expand on that, when Messi has the ball, keep a close eye on the players around him. It seems like a synchronised act. Everybody is trying to make space, to either receive the ball or distract the opposition's defender.

 

  Sure, that "little fellow" (to quote Rio Ferdinand) has all the skills required to take on the entire Real Madrid defence but except for that goal in the semi-finals, if you watch one of Messi's runs, you will see just how much the players around him help by making threatening diagonal runs, thus giving the defender two things to think about. Like it isn't enough that he has to handle Messi, he now has to worry about a pass to the next dwarf in the Barca colours that has a knack for scoring. This particular component of Barca's game, has seen a marked improvement (in my opinion). Kudos to Pep for somehow managing to make the world's most dangerous player even scarier to opposition teams simply by getting his team mates to run in a certain direction

 

  Onto a more specific tactic that, I believe, Pep has introduced only last year and-I'm quite certain- plans to use more often: set pieces or in this particular case, freekicks. To even the less astute of fans, it is quite obvious that Barca don't really treat set pieces as a direct route to goal. Although, Messi has the talent to curve a ball into the top corner of the goal (when required), most times, they generally make a short pass. The rule book on set pieces for this team seems to only state "place the ball, pass the ball, quickly". The keyword being 'quickly'. They don't wait. Arguing with the referee is usually restricted to the Clasico's-thanks to 'por que' Mourinho's tactics- and the idea is to catch defenders out of position.

 

  In the champions league final, however, I noticed a slight change. A premeditated free kick (akin to the corner that led to a goal from a towering header by Carles Puyol) which was a more direct approach to the back of the net than a short pass to a player and getting back to the possesion game. In that final, just by the expression on Pep's face, one could see that he had put in a lot of effort into researching how Manchester United dealt with set pieces and we would have been celebrating Guardiola's genius (again) if it had led to a goal.

 

  With Barca winning a free kick a few yards outside the box, on the left and two players (Messi and Xavi) standing over it, I expected a direct shot at goal. What Xavi did next, truly caught me by surprise. Pedro who was standing alongside United's wall and Busquets with a group of players (belonging to both teams) looked innocuous at first. What came after would have been referred to as a perfect method to execute an indirect free kick (if only it had led to a goal). A short, quick pass to Busquets who, with his one-touch expertise, redirects the ball onto the path of Pedro (he had, by this time, cut inside the United wall) who would have been through on goal if not for the pass being slightly too quick for his liking (and slightly misdirected).

 

  It was new, bold, quick and had Pep's name written all over it. I have, earlier, claimed that this team was tactically rigid (in a post named 'is fcb tactically rigid?') and I guess in a way, hinted that Pep was inturn, stoic when it comes to tactics. I realise now that -like many times before- I could have been wrong. Barca, with Pep at the helm, has a certain 'chaos theory' feel to it. In what looks like random movements by players, Pep -in his infinite wisdom- has managed to infact, hide the order that belies the beautiful football our team plays. That free kick (if only!) was his way of showing it. The mark of a great manager, if you will.

 

  We can rest assured, that Mr. Guardiola has all the tools necessary to make this team even better this season but now I'm forced to move on to the dark side (in my Barca induced haze, it was not easy to find a flaw).

 

  Just like I give a large part of the credit to Pep, for the team's conquests, as leader (read manager/coach), he has to take some of the blame and criticism. Two instances, that were a source of worry, were the two losses that come to mind when I think of last season (which really fuse into one bigger source of worry):

 

  The first was the away loss to Arsenal F.C. in the Champions League. It must be mentioned that although Barca has a rather questionable record in away games in Europe's premier tournament, this particular loss left me with a feeling of frustration. It wasn't because we weren't upto mark but rather because, we believed in our superiority way too much for comfort. Complacency is a worry for any team but more so because of our style of play (which I will get to later). After scoring first and truly dominating the game, I was hoping for an easy win only to be disappointed by two quick counter-attacks that were perfectly executed by the gunners (Robin Van Persie and Andrei Arshavin being the goal scorers).

 

  In what will be etched in my memory for a long time due to a friend (who is a huge fan of Arsenal) giving me a hard time after the game, I couldn't help but feel disappointed by the team (something which is hard to do as a Culé because we don't lose that often). By now, I would have thought we know how the opposition plan to play against us! Usually, it involves soaking up pressure and then a lightening fast counter attack. We cannot afford to make that mistake this season with Madrid snapping at our heels.

  So here is that other part that I said I would get to. Our team's attack and defence, as I'm sure all of you know, mainly involves keeping possesion for large parts of the game. In the second loss we suffered, that will go down in history (more for the fate of the trophy than for an exciting match), was our defeat to Madrid in the Mestalla. The Copa del Rey, isn't really an important trophy, besides the fact that we would have won the treble if  we won it, our opponents being 'the enemy' was the real reason we wanted to win.

 

  That game really, left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I was surrounded by Madridstas (seriously, you don't need enemies if you have friends like mine) and Barca were in a bad spot. Although, I hate to say this, Mourinho came out with a game plan. He executed it well enough and the Gods decided that Madrid deserved the win. The plan itself, involved playing Pepe as a destroyer (and boy did he destroy) so as to break up Barca's passing game. Once Madrid had the ball they used what Mourinho believes, is the perfect strategy, meaning :- "Horizontal, Vertical, Horizontal, Vertical and goal". So I can't take credit away from Madrid but I think the real reason we lost that game was again complacency.

 

  In the very few times Barca finds itself in a position where the opposition doesn't let them play their game, our team has a tendency to pass the ball with no end result. The ball stays somewhere between the back line and midfield and is moved around in that area long enough to put me to sleep. In those rare instances, the danger of complacency setting in increases ten fold. That passing game -that we are so proud of- becomes the enemy. A sort of self-induced trance sets in, wherein the team looks hypnotised by the intricate short passes that otherwise, would have resulted in a goal. Oh and that is exactly what it is, because that's when team's like Madrid catch our defenders sleeping and all the prayers in the world won't matter when you see a player of Cristiano Ronaldo's (ugh! seriously, I don't know why I hate him but I do) talent running at your goalkeeper (who, by the way used to be infamous for his lapses in concentration, although he has improved in recent times).

 

  So if I were to say that Pep has made a mistake or two tactically, it would be that, sometimes, our style of play has a tendency to be our enemy. Allow me to take a minute and regain my composure. Finding faults in Pep is not one of my favourite hobbies. All in all though, I dont have many complains. As a die hard fan, it is close to impossible to have an issue with Pep Guardiola after he gave us the league and the champions league (again!), but if I were to give my opinion on how Pep can improve this team, it would be to increase levels of concentration during a game. To somehow prevent that trance-like stage we enter when the game is not going our way.

 

  Anyway, that's all I've got for now but can you think of any other areas we could improve in?

<em>This does not represent the views of Barca Blaugranes or SBNation</em>

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