How Barcelona could be defeated

(1) The most appropriate way to cause Barcelona real problems is counter their system. First of all there must be a particular man-marking plan in the midfield. Lass or Khedira pick up Xavi, Pepe picks up Messi and Xabi Alonso picks up Iniesta (it is generally acceptable that Iniesta is the least defensive minded midfielder of Barcelona meaning that Alonso will be having decent time on the ball). In defence, a regular Real plan would do (even so if Coentrao is comfortable right he is the right man to pair with Marcelo as full backs). Further upfront, on the left there would be Di Maria, Real’s most hardworking winger with the ability to be more defensive-an effective strategy against Dani Alves- and in the right wing Benzema (who is more offensive)could get into the box exploiting Abidal’s less attacking approach. And finally, Ronaldo with a false nine role to come deep and enforce the midfield but also at the same moment give Busquets someone to mark and therefore effectively restrict everyone of Barcelona’s ball-playing midfielders from having too much space for a good pass. Busquets was the man to keep Barca having their usual dominance in possession by being unmarked. This way there will be no-one and so Barca will struggle to keep possession (simply the most fundamental step to stopping them since this is the way they come up to dominate their games).

(2) Barcelona enjoy such success and effectiveness in an unconventional system like this because of three factors: a) pace (could anyone name just one Barca regular who is not that quick both on and off the ball?) b) teamwork (Barcelona’s players play for each other and the team as a whole doesn’t depend on just one, two or even three players-everyone completes each other*) c) communication (no other team in the world has so many players with so strong bonds between them-last year’s Champions League final is the absolute peak of “Mes que un club” motto).

*How interesting it is that when it comes to individual leadership and team dependence at international level Messi struggles whereas in a more teamworking side like Spain all of Barca’s internationals shine.

P.S.: Both are comments written for Zonal Marking's article "Real Madrid 1-2 Barcelona: Real start strongly but Barca eventually find a way through" right here: http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/01/19/real-madrid-1-2-barcelona-tactics/

Return

Hey everybody Tactic Addict is back in action! Expect a new tactical article soon!

Christmas holidays!

Well Christmas holidays have arrived and so Tactic Addict is going to cease posting articles until 7th January. Hope we'll be back with even more creativeness and even better tactical battles! I wish you all Merry Christmas and a happy new year and i'll see you soon again in about two weeks!

Bayern Munich's superior wing-play

Bayern are the main favourites to top their domestic league and cup as well as play a vital role in the Champions League. This year they have everything: a magnificent goalkeeper, two trustworhty centre backs, two excellent full backs with both attacking and defensive qualities (especially Lahm), a great midfield duo (playmaker Schweinsteiger and tackler Luiz Gustavo), a striker with superb goalscoring ability but most importantly they have (probably) the best winger pair in the world, the "Robbery". Ribery and Robben are simply unstoppable when in form. They are extremely fast, with amazing dribbling skills and a variety of ways to threat any opposition. They are players to be feared by any full back in the world and at their best (and being together) they can win their matches alone. To be honest many teams in the world are jealous of Bayern because of this. Of course other factors come in at times: Robben is a regular injury prone and Ribery is extremely short-tempered sometimes. But their quality and contribution is unquestionable. Either inverted with primary plan to score themselves or set in a traditional wing-play position to mostly assist particularly from crossing (also excellent at doing so) they can harm any defence and there's no reason to deny that Bayern's big weapon this year is them and the difference they make against their opponents can be a decisive factor of any match in the german club's campaign.

Contest is now on!

In a try to spark our blog into life and get some readers, i'm setting up a contest. The first five people who will become members of our blog and also comment on at least one article will be the nominees to be choosed as the subject chooser of our next article. The nominee with the best contribution and most interesting view of the issues demonstrated will be the winner. The subject he/she will choose can be about a team, player, manager, formation, tactical advances-evolutions, football philosophy, legend, match (recently played or even a classical one), player roles, positions etc. Any pick is acceptable as long as it is relative and interesting. The winner can send his pick at this email eftychios10omonoia@hotmail.gr and he/she shall get a reply about accepting or rejecting his/her suggestion.