Not for the first time this season Barça have suffered the detrimental effects of an international break. There have been four international breaks so far this season and with one exception Barça have played very poorly in the following game. In Semptember Barça drew 0-0 in Osasuna in one of the worst games of the season while in October Villarreal ran all over Barça to win 3-1.
The one exception was in November when Barça beat Recreativo 3-0 at home, and now we have seen another lousy performance against Sevilla. Barça were missing both Deco and Zambrotta due to injuries they picked up in the Italy-Portugal friendly, and we definitely suffered the consequences of the Italian’s absence. However, this is meant as an observation more than as an excuse. Barça are a massive club and we should have good enough players to replace anyone who is missing.
What worried me more about the Sevilla game was the tactics used by Frank Rijkaard. I can accept that 4-3-3 is Barça’s style and it has been discussed previously whether this tactic works without Samuel Eto’o to pressurize the opponent’s defence. What concerns me more is the decision to play Leo Messi in the middle. This was also tried at times during the games against Athletic and Osasuna with very little success. I appreciate that Thierry Henry may be more effective on the left, and this is fine if we have Eto’o or Bojan to play in the middle, but in their absence surely Henry is the best suited to play centre forward. Messi is so much more effective receiving the ball wide and cutting in, as this means he is running towards goal. On Saturday he only got into the game near the end when he was playing on the right.
At the start of the second half Ronaldinho was brought on for Edmilson which left Barça playing 4-2-4 with Henry still on the left, Ronnie and Messi in the middle and Giovani on the right. Perhaps Ronaldinho should never have been brought on, but to give him a chance he should have played on the left with Henry in the middle. When Gudjohnsen came on for Henry, Giovani moved to the left to make room for Messi on the right, but Ronaldinho continued to look lost in the middle.
The other detail that worried me was the decision to have Iniesta to track back when Dani Alves came forward. Presumably this was supposed to give Henry a chance to get in behind Alves, something that never happened in the game. So on the Sevilla goal, Iniesta had to chase across to try and catch Alves while Henry who was in a better position to run back, stood watching. As Iniesta was behind Alves, Abidal had to come across to cover, this left an enormous space for Navas to run into. Where was Edmilson at this point? Surely it is his job to cover such space. Instead Milito had to come across leaving all the defence out of position. It’s true that Thuram and Oleguer were slow to react but the mistakes came earlier.
Of course it is easy to say with hindsight, though I did mention in the match preview that Messi and Ronaldinho should not be played in the middle. With Eto’o’s return against Zaragoza in doubt we’ll have to hope that either Bojan or Henry is played in the middle. And let’s also hope that it is our wide forwards who are given the job of chasing back with the opposition’s full backs.
9 responses so far ↓
Hilal // Feb 11, 2008 at 16:42
I agree with absolutely everything you have to say Nic and while we do have many injured and missing players you are correct when you say it is no excuse. We have good enough players to cover the ones that are missing if only Rijkaard played them properly. His tactics are usually way off base!! Messi down the middle is such a waste and so infuriating to watch, I can see what he is trying to do I just do not understand why he is doing it. He wants everything to go down the middle, when we should be using the wings and cutting in. In my opinion he should have played Henry in the middle, Messi on the right and Ronaldinho on the left.
Just out of curiousity Nic how do you feel about Mourinho as a replacement for Rijkaard at the end of the season? I hear a lot of people saying he is not the right person for Barca but I am not sure that I agree.
Nic // Feb 11, 2008 at 18:23
Hilal - I think Mourinho is a top class coach who would probably be capable of getting more out of some players. However, he doesn’t do it with all players - Shevchenko and Ballack to name two. Would all the Barça players get on with him? Another big problem with Mourinho is whether he would get on with the press. I used to think this wasn’t important but having seen what they did to Van Gaal, who for me was a great coach, I have changed my opinion. As soon as anything went wrong people would start to remember the stuff that went on when Barça played Chelsea and it could be very destructive.
Blaugrana // Feb 11, 2008 at 19:49
Latest goal.com rumours ezequiel garay will sign this week a tranfer of €14.2m, i realy don’t know this guy but i hope he is as good as they say he is.
Nic // Feb 11, 2008 at 20:19
I saw a bit of Racing’s defeat to Atletico on Sunday. Garay made a mistake on Forlan’s first goal. Also he takes pretty good free kicks, but we hardly need another free kick taker. We do need to sign a defender though and it seems a lot of big teams are after Garay so he can’t be too bad.
robert // Feb 11, 2008 at 23:34
no we do not need defenders we have gabi milito who is alrigth RAFA who is on top form and they have been saying he is one of the best defenders in the world this moment and puyol top class……. we do need A rigth defender and we shoud bring dany alves or someone like him
Gobba // Feb 12, 2008 at 0:09
I don’t understand why Rijkaard does not give Gudjohnsen a chance to start. He has been sharp but has got too few minutes. Deco is not fit enough but Guddy seems to be in good form. We need fresh feet and clever mind.
pep // Feb 12, 2008 at 10:54
I agree with Gobba: why didn’t Gudjohnsen play? But in my view we could have used him as center forward, with Messi on the right. Strange that Barça bought Gudjohnsen as back up for Eto’o and now they don’t even consider anymore playing him there (while I think he would do better than Henry or Messi there).
Barca Fan // Feb 12, 2008 at 13:08
Rijkaard is crazy…
Hilal // Feb 12, 2008 at 14:09
Pep and Gobba……i have been asking myself this question since the Real Madrid game when Guddy defiitely should have played ahead of Deco. Only Rijkaard can answer that question but to be honest I do not think he really knows what he is doing…..Deco ahead of Guddy, Messi in the middle, Henry on the left, Iniesta all over the place, it just all seems a bit lost and confused and it shows in the way they have been playing. They look very disjointed. Frank needs to go, he tries all the wrong things and they seem to be blowing up in his face over and over. Personally i cannot get over how he thinks playing Messi down the middle is a good idea…..any coach that can take a player like Messi and make him ineffective is clearly inept!
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