I don't profess to have read Inverting the Pyramid, don't study the Guardian Chalkboards intensively, and just about know what a false number 9 is. However, I think its a good idea to just have a general tactics thread, where some of our resident nerds can endlessly debate the merits of having two DMs, inverted wingers, the wonky etc.
My first question is regarding tonight's El Classico:
In the last five or so El Classicos, Real have beaten Barca just once, and that was hardly a comprehensive victory. Tonight, Madrid set up with two DMs in Lass and Pepe, who (despite the cheating) performed very well - breaking up most of Barca's attacks with the remainder dealt with fairly well by the defence.
However, in terms of attacking threat, the only joy that Madrid had was when Ronaldo was attacking down Dani Alves' wing. When he switched to attacking Barcelona's left hand side, he was nullified.
Real Madrid had two strikers in Benzema and Higuain who had almost nothing to do the whole game. Surely they would have been better putting another winger/creative player in, instead of Benzema, and trying to attack Barcelona down the wings, where arguably Barca's full backs are excellent going forward, but not so great defensively?
Anyway, my question is this (before I digress too much) - how the hell do you beat Barcelona??
I am aware this thread is very FM-ish, but thought it might be interesting
My first question is regarding tonight's El Classico:
In the last five or so El Classicos, Real have beaten Barca just once, and that was hardly a comprehensive victory. Tonight, Madrid set up with two DMs in Lass and Pepe, who (despite the cheating) performed very well - breaking up most of Barca's attacks with the remainder dealt with fairly well by the defence.
However, in terms of attacking threat, the only joy that Madrid had was when Ronaldo was attacking down Dani Alves' wing. When he switched to attacking Barcelona's left hand side, he was nullified.
Real Madrid had two strikers in Benzema and Higuain who had almost nothing to do the whole game. Surely they would have been better putting another winger/creative player in, instead of Benzema, and trying to attack Barcelona down the wings, where arguably Barca's full backs are excellent going forward, but not so great defensively?
Anyway, my question is this (before I digress too much) - how the hell do you beat Barcelona??
I am aware this thread is very FM-ish, but thought it might be interesting