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Best analysis I've seen of what Barcelona do

He's the only british tv pundit to actually do research beforehand.
I remember in the World Cup, I think it was England vs Algeria, and when Alan Shearer was asked for his analysis of Algeria he basically said he knew sod all about them and offered zero insight. Embarrassing. Couldn't even be bothered to spend five minutes on wikipedia to find a couple of facts about their players.

Say what you like about Sky and the way they hype things up, but their football coverage tinkles over the BBC.
 
I remember in the World Cup, I think it was England vs Algeria, and when Alan Shearer was asked for his analysis of Algeria he basically said he knew sod all about them and offered zero insight. Embarrassing. Couldn't even be bothered to spend five minutes on wikipedia to find a couple of facts about their players.

Say what you like about Sky and the way they hype things up, but their football coverage tinkles over the BBC.

Shearer knew fudge all about Ben Arfa when the Barcodes has signed him. Shocking
 
all barca players have the technical ability to play the ball, but beyond that :
- the calmness to not resort to tunnel vision under pressure; and
- the confidence to take on players
- the understanding that there's always someone nearby to help

i'm sure they love playing their football, and like the pressure of taking the best on to humiliate them.

and its their coach that made the difference.
i wonder if he would employ the same philosphy if he inherited our lot of players.
 
Seeing that a Barcelona thread on here is an inevitable weekly occurence (and sometimes more often than that) quite apart from the fact we have the Spansish Football thread and the idiotically titled general football thread already -

I think we should create a sub-froum to SnV much like the Vice Den and erect a permanent Barcelona shrine for all followers to congregate and post their daily links, findings, Messi pics, wishings, stas, tactical analysis, general propaganda, supremacist media links, semi-retarted blog articles from 'supporters' who are less likely to know the correct spelling of their stadium name better yet give 'analysis' of their game, overhyped quotes, toss-bank material, etc. and leave the boring reality of SnV to its won peril. Perhaps also consider Gary Neville as mod.

O:)
 
Wait a moment....... I'm probably reading too much into it.......... But I'm getting a slight impression that you're not Barcelona's biggest fan! :-k ;)
 
Wait a moment....... I'm probably reading too much into it.......... But I'm getting a slight impression that you're not Barcelona's biggest fan! :-k ;)

He's an Ultra Madridista that's why, anything to do with Barca is like red kryptonite to him.
 
F#ck me, Barca are suicidal at the back. The Neviller has exposed them. =D>

Seriously good analysis though, and a point Ive never seen made ever before....How the hell hasnt Jose picked up on this yet? Its a trap!!!

This is not something new. Mourinho obviously knew about it and tried to exploit it in the very game Neville analyzed...

But part of the analysis is towards why they weren't able to exploit it.

Barca take risks at the back, but they do so consciously and well aware of both the risks and benefits.
 
Barca playing it out from the back with centre backs 50m apart is hardly the reason why Contrao lost Fabregas on that late run.

He was generally talking about how playing the CBs so far back, so early on is like a red rag to a bull, and by midway through the 2nd half, teams legs go. Yes Contrao was unlucky in his intial challenge, but the fact he had a 70 yard run to make up, with no one to help him is quite telling.

Their passing is amazing in tight areas between xavi, cesc, iniesta and Messi who also happens to create magic and finish most half chances, this to me is more of an explanation of 'what they do'.

Yes. A bit like saying "A Ferrari is very fast". Neville more pointed out how the petrol gets to the cylinders though....a little less obvious, and the job of a pundit, not to sit there and say "Barca pass it well".


Under Guardiola, Barca fight as hard as anyone to retain possession when they lose it, doesn't mean their players are tired after an hour because when they get possession again they rarely waste it.

I dont think he said Barcas players were tired after an hour. Or did you mean Reals? They were f#cking legless. I dont get this point.


Neville is a runt and an average right back in his day. Perfect for Sky.

To be fair, his analysis tinkled all over your's
 
all barca players have the technical ability to play the ball, but beyond that :
- the calmness to not resort to tunnel vision under pressure; and
- the confidence to take on players
- the understanding that there's always someone nearby to help

i'm sure they love playing their football, and like the pressure of taking the best on to humiliate them.

and its their coach that made the difference.
i wonder if he would employ the same philosphy if he inherited our lot of players.

someone else brought this up (what neville was talking about), think it might have been diego or UKSP or bankrupt, but the reason it got brought up was because the way this has come about is due to the fact that they train the same system throughout their academy, from the ground up all ade groups are taught to play the same way. this is why the transition is easier to make for their youth into the first team even if the youth player is not that great.

the thing is that their philosophy was there BEFORE guardiola took over, and this 'barca' style is made possible by the existence and seamless understanding of responsibility between two players, XAVI and iniesta, merged in with a top class closer in Messi. Xavi and iniesta though are the main reason why barca are able to keep doing what they are doing...very few in the world can do what they do as consistently as they and as high a level as they can....no matter opposition. which goes back to another point, those two have been playing together in this barca system / philosophy for quite some time...i.e before Guardiola took over

though this barca team has done unimaginable things, the barca team under Rijkaard was also devastating and played a similar 'style' of football. it would be interesting to comparre some basic key sats between the barca team with ronaldinho , etoo , messi , deco , xavi , iniesta with the one that is here now. players contribution, average gosals per game, total pts/goals scored/conceeded etc

however i do believe that guardiola would TRY to instill something of barca in the next team he coached. but you need players to make things happen..him coming here wont do anything to parker or sandro as fas as thier pass and move game goes...he's more likely to recruit leon britton to play the holding / playmaker role and then start to build his philosophy through those means (buying the right personell)
 
This is not something new. Mourinho obviously knew about it and tried to exploit it in the very game Neville analyzed...

But part of the analysis is towards why they weren't able to exploit it.

Barca take risks at the back, but they do so consciously and well aware of both the risks and benefits.

agreed with this.
 
Seeing that a Barcelona thread on here is an inevitable weekly occurence (and sometimes more often than that) quite apart from the fact we have the Spansish Football thread and the idiotically titled general football thread already -

I think we should create a sub-froum to SnV much like the Vice Den and erect a permanent Barcelona shrine for all followers to congregate and post their daily links, findings, Messi pics, wishings, stas, tactical analysis, general propaganda, supremacist media links, semi-retarted blog articles from 'supporters' who are less likely to know the correct spelling of their stadium name better yet give 'analysis' of their game, overhyped quotes, toss-bank material, etc. and leave the boring reality of SnV to its won peril. Perhaps also consider Gary Neville as mod.

O:)
What a conspiracy love fest reacharound. Shockorama. Pessos.
 
I think their pressing to win back the ball high up the pitch is also crucial, in fact Arsenal do this exact same tactic against the poorer teams knowing they can win the ball back easily. Especially in the English game a player would be thought to knock it out of play or boot it upfield if he was under pressure, it is quite simple to turn over possesion.

They dont take many goal kicks upfield as they have quite a small team, something we should also consider as many times you just give possesion away against the more physical teams.

I also think how they constantly pass the ball so every player is involved is quite important, it keeps everyone switched on and involved you rarely see them attacking on one side only. I think of us playing when Lennon is out, just leaving Walker to take on players on his own and its something we could improve on.

All of this is quite obvious, but it is done so well you wonder why we dont try to add more to our game from theirs.
 
They dont take many goal kicks upfield as they have quite a small team, something we should also consider as many times you just give possesion away against the more physical teams.
To be fair, since Robinson left, our keeper (first Gomes, now Brad) nearly always rolls the ball out / passes the ball out to a defender rather than kicking it long.
 
I think their pressing to win back the ball high up the pitch is also crucial, in fact Arsenal do this exact same tactic against the poorer teams knowing they can win the ball back easily. Especially in the English game a player would be thought to knock it out of play or boot it upfield if he was under pressure, it is quite simple to turn over possesion.

They dont take many goal kicks upfield as they have quite a small team, something we should also consider as many times you just give possesion away against the more physical teams.

I also think how they constantly pass the ball so every player is involved is quite important, it keeps everyone switched on and involved you rarely see them attacking on one side only. I think of us playing when Lennon is out, just leaving Walker to take on players on his own and its something we could improve on.

All of this is quite obvious, but it is done so well you wonder why we dont try to add more to our game from theirs.

its funny that but to me it loooks like they clearly favour their right side to attack
 
They dont take many goal kicks upfield as they have quite a small team, something we should also consider as many times you just give possesion away against the more physical teams.

That is part of the analysis Neville did. They have defenders that are very good on the ball (at least for defenders), and all their central midfielders are excellent on the ball (even for midfielders). We don't have that. Most teams can force us into playing long balls by putting pressure on us with two players. If they put pressure on us with 3 players we will punt it long even if we have VdV and Defoe up front. Our only defender that is good enough on the ball to play out from the back thru pressure is Ekotto. King used to be in this bracket, but these days he doesn't really move freely and as a result he isn't as good on the ball as he once was. Meanwhile Barca get put under pressure by 3 players and still pass it out from the back.

its funny that but to me it loooks like they clearly favour their right side to attack

I agree. They lack a real wide man on the left. Alves provides excellent width for them on the right, but especially with Abidal out and Adriano (I think his name was) out or not good enough they have no real outlet on the left and so they play more on the right than on the left I think.
 
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