03-13-2013, 02:23 PM
Small margins proved to be the difference between us going through and going out, as even though the final score was extremely disappointing, the difference between us winning 2-0 in the first leg and losing 4-0 last night is all in the details.
Firstly, I have to tip my hat to Barca. They were simply fantastic in the first 20-30 minutes, playing a really quick passing game and pressing us like there was no tomorrow. It's easy to say that they're only really that good because of guys like Messi and Iniesta, but as a pressing unit they have always impressed. These guys give them an edge that other teams don't have, but they're very well drilled.
The first half was all Barca. Scoring a sublime goal in 5 minutes with such incisive play, there was no doubt they were mentally preparing for this match for a while (which would also explain the recent failings they've had). Truth is, we weren't even in the game for the first 20 minutes or so. When we had the ball, we lost it within 2 touches, and defensively we were getting carved open time and again (I'll go into why later). After that period passed, we finally found a little stability and while we weren't looking like we'd be trounced anymore, the details ended up making the difference, as first Niang went inches away from putting the tie to bed (no doubt in my mind that had we scored then, we'd been more confident in managing the match). Unfortunately he missed and Messi scored his second from offside (again, details make the difference).
The second half rolled around and the match continued where it left off. We were still relatively solid, but Barca were putting us under consistent pressure, eventually resulting in Villa's goal. It was at this point we weren't so afraid to attack them and while we attacked without a great deal of consistent pressure, we did create openings that we weren't able to take advantage of. Unfortunately, as is often the case in these situations, we attack but left ourselves open, which Alba took full advantage of by driving up the pitch to take up the space Abate left behind him.
There are a few things about this match which really stood out to me. The first is our psychology in approaching an away leg with a lead. We've struggled to deal with this since probably 2004 at the Riazor. Ever since then, we've always looked rather vulnerable when defending leads in the second leg of a tie, whether you look at PSV a couple of years later, Arsenal last year or this tie this year. I think the club would benefit investigating a little more in sports psychology, trying to get to the bottom of this problem, but also to help in these sorts of high pressure matches.
Another factor to consider is educating our players to consistently press as well as we did in the first leg. What I mean here is that right now the players have to think and work extremely hard about how they press opponents and keeping tactical discipline. This needs to be drilled into players so it becomes natural to them, which is something we've seen Barca do over the past half decade and it's important for two reasons. The first is teamwork is vital in winning in the modern game, as days of when having individually great talents is no longer enough. The other is we won't necessarily build a team of world beating individuals, so the focus should be developing a strong team game, where if we get super individual talents, it's a bonus rather than the rule (i.e. no more pandering to talents like Ibra, who will negatively inlfuence a team balance).
The last thing that really stood out to me last night was that we must learn to manage games better. This isn't the first, and surely not the last, time we've failed to manage the game correctly. Our pressing, mental approach and discipline were wrong last night. Rather than looking to keep control of the game, we fought in desperation
to stop Barca and counter. A perfect example is the action that lead to the second goal. Ambro gets the ball in midfield and immediately tries to burst out for a counter. What results is poor control of the ball as he's getting ahead of himself and Barca score on the turnover of possession. In the first game, we never saw Ambro feeling the need to burst out like that, and when he did it was in relative position to Montolivo and Muntari who cut in to protect in front of defence, whilst in this instance Flamini and Montolivo didn't get the chance. We need to think about managing our game better when in a situation where opponents will desperately look to score. Poor management of the game lead to tension and mistakes on the ball, something all of the players were guilty of at some point.
Tactically, I don't think Allegri was wrong last night. He had a similar set up to the first match and it resulted in errors defensively and up front. Firstly, we missed Pazzini, as while he doesn't have Niang's ability, he is a constant nuisance for defenders. Niang didn't know how and when to press like Pazzini and was often looking lost or isolated up front.
The Midfield was where we really suffered, as we didn't control our pressing, giving Barca too much time to work out their moves, which didn't happen in the first leg. This was as Boateng, El Shaarawy and the 3 midfielders didn't really look to press Barca that much, while in the first leg we would press them as soon as they got near the halfway line. Defensively we suffered as a result as the defenders were often left unprotected.
This was also due to another change that Roura made. Putting Villa in place of Fabregas and instructing him to play across our backline caused confusion and gave Barca a reference up front. It resulted in us defending deeper and left gaps between the defensive and midfield lines which Messi took full advantage of. I mentioned earlier we got carved open time and again early on, and this was why. Almost, if not all of Barca's chances came from the space between the midfield and defensive lines. We reacted by having the defensive line push up more, but the instability had already set in by then.
Ultimately, this result is a massive disappointment, but the details were what made the difference. Had the defensive line not let itself drop a couple of feet deep to leave space in front, Messi wouldn't have had the space he did to create havoc. Had Niang's shot been 5 cm to the right, it would have gone in and Barca would have been in deep trouble. Had Ambro not had a rush of blood with the need to drive forward to start a counter, Iniesta wouldn't have been able to disposess him and attack the gap left behind. Had the linesman called the offside for the second goal, the match may have changed shape. Thing is, we played with many inexperienced players in this match and suffered as a consequence. It will be an important exercise for us to learn from and help these young guys grow.
Players...
Abbiati - A couple of decent stops, but was overwhelmed all match.
Abate - Maybe our best player, but had it tough against Alba
Zapata - The better of the two CBs. He wasn't great, but made some important tackles and interceptions.
Mexes - Never looked fully fit, a little slow and clumsy at times
Constant - Poor match as he was generally looking uncertain and nervous. I don't blame him completely though, as he was often faced up against Dani Alves and Messi both.
Flamini - He earned the start with his recent performances, but became anonymous in this match.
Ambro - Probably our worst player, as he was simply overwhelmed and tactically no where near as disciplined as the first leg. He was poor on the ball as well.
Montolivo - The only midfielder looking close to what we needed in this match, but he still struggled to cope alone.
Boateng - Didn't have the same impact as the last game, but was also forced to shuffle around to try and accomodate our system. Some great throughballs in the match.
Niang - His inexperience really showed. Still a class player, but will need to grow.
El Shaarawy - He struggled, but it seemed it was more as a result of frustration from lack of service early on then actually playing poorly. He had very little to actually work with, although he could have done better on the chance he did get in the first half.
Robinho - Not a good game, but probably his best game of 2013 so far. He added a little more experience in the side.
Bojan - Added some energy and drive late on, which could have resulted in a Robinho goal
Muntari - An improvement to Flamini, adding more stability on the ball than the Frenchman.
Firstly, I have to tip my hat to Barca. They were simply fantastic in the first 20-30 minutes, playing a really quick passing game and pressing us like there was no tomorrow. It's easy to say that they're only really that good because of guys like Messi and Iniesta, but as a pressing unit they have always impressed. These guys give them an edge that other teams don't have, but they're very well drilled.
The first half was all Barca. Scoring a sublime goal in 5 minutes with such incisive play, there was no doubt they were mentally preparing for this match for a while (which would also explain the recent failings they've had). Truth is, we weren't even in the game for the first 20 minutes or so. When we had the ball, we lost it within 2 touches, and defensively we were getting carved open time and again (I'll go into why later). After that period passed, we finally found a little stability and while we weren't looking like we'd be trounced anymore, the details ended up making the difference, as first Niang went inches away from putting the tie to bed (no doubt in my mind that had we scored then, we'd been more confident in managing the match). Unfortunately he missed and Messi scored his second from offside (again, details make the difference).
The second half rolled around and the match continued where it left off. We were still relatively solid, but Barca were putting us under consistent pressure, eventually resulting in Villa's goal. It was at this point we weren't so afraid to attack them and while we attacked without a great deal of consistent pressure, we did create openings that we weren't able to take advantage of. Unfortunately, as is often the case in these situations, we attack but left ourselves open, which Alba took full advantage of by driving up the pitch to take up the space Abate left behind him.
There are a few things about this match which really stood out to me. The first is our psychology in approaching an away leg with a lead. We've struggled to deal with this since probably 2004 at the Riazor. Ever since then, we've always looked rather vulnerable when defending leads in the second leg of a tie, whether you look at PSV a couple of years later, Arsenal last year or this tie this year. I think the club would benefit investigating a little more in sports psychology, trying to get to the bottom of this problem, but also to help in these sorts of high pressure matches.
Another factor to consider is educating our players to consistently press as well as we did in the first leg. What I mean here is that right now the players have to think and work extremely hard about how they press opponents and keeping tactical discipline. This needs to be drilled into players so it becomes natural to them, which is something we've seen Barca do over the past half decade and it's important for two reasons. The first is teamwork is vital in winning in the modern game, as days of when having individually great talents is no longer enough. The other is we won't necessarily build a team of world beating individuals, so the focus should be developing a strong team game, where if we get super individual talents, it's a bonus rather than the rule (i.e. no more pandering to talents like Ibra, who will negatively inlfuence a team balance).
The last thing that really stood out to me last night was that we must learn to manage games better. This isn't the first, and surely not the last, time we've failed to manage the game correctly. Our pressing, mental approach and discipline were wrong last night. Rather than looking to keep control of the game, we fought in desperation
to stop Barca and counter. A perfect example is the action that lead to the second goal. Ambro gets the ball in midfield and immediately tries to burst out for a counter. What results is poor control of the ball as he's getting ahead of himself and Barca score on the turnover of possession. In the first game, we never saw Ambro feeling the need to burst out like that, and when he did it was in relative position to Montolivo and Muntari who cut in to protect in front of defence, whilst in this instance Flamini and Montolivo didn't get the chance. We need to think about managing our game better when in a situation where opponents will desperately look to score. Poor management of the game lead to tension and mistakes on the ball, something all of the players were guilty of at some point.
Tactically, I don't think Allegri was wrong last night. He had a similar set up to the first match and it resulted in errors defensively and up front. Firstly, we missed Pazzini, as while he doesn't have Niang's ability, he is a constant nuisance for defenders. Niang didn't know how and when to press like Pazzini and was often looking lost or isolated up front.
The Midfield was where we really suffered, as we didn't control our pressing, giving Barca too much time to work out their moves, which didn't happen in the first leg. This was as Boateng, El Shaarawy and the 3 midfielders didn't really look to press Barca that much, while in the first leg we would press them as soon as they got near the halfway line. Defensively we suffered as a result as the defenders were often left unprotected.
This was also due to another change that Roura made. Putting Villa in place of Fabregas and instructing him to play across our backline caused confusion and gave Barca a reference up front. It resulted in us defending deeper and left gaps between the defensive and midfield lines which Messi took full advantage of. I mentioned earlier we got carved open time and again early on, and this was why. Almost, if not all of Barca's chances came from the space between the midfield and defensive lines. We reacted by having the defensive line push up more, but the instability had already set in by then.
Ultimately, this result is a massive disappointment, but the details were what made the difference. Had the defensive line not let itself drop a couple of feet deep to leave space in front, Messi wouldn't have had the space he did to create havoc. Had Niang's shot been 5 cm to the right, it would have gone in and Barca would have been in deep trouble. Had Ambro not had a rush of blood with the need to drive forward to start a counter, Iniesta wouldn't have been able to disposess him and attack the gap left behind. Had the linesman called the offside for the second goal, the match may have changed shape. Thing is, we played with many inexperienced players in this match and suffered as a consequence. It will be an important exercise for us to learn from and help these young guys grow.
Players...
Abbiati - A couple of decent stops, but was overwhelmed all match.
Abate - Maybe our best player, but had it tough against Alba
Zapata - The better of the two CBs. He wasn't great, but made some important tackles and interceptions.
Mexes - Never looked fully fit, a little slow and clumsy at times
Constant - Poor match as he was generally looking uncertain and nervous. I don't blame him completely though, as he was often faced up against Dani Alves and Messi both.
Flamini - He earned the start with his recent performances, but became anonymous in this match.
Ambro - Probably our worst player, as he was simply overwhelmed and tactically no where near as disciplined as the first leg. He was poor on the ball as well.
Montolivo - The only midfielder looking close to what we needed in this match, but he still struggled to cope alone.
Boateng - Didn't have the same impact as the last game, but was also forced to shuffle around to try and accomodate our system. Some great throughballs in the match.
Niang - His inexperience really showed. Still a class player, but will need to grow.
El Shaarawy - He struggled, but it seemed it was more as a result of frustration from lack of service early on then actually playing poorly. He had very little to actually work with, although he could have done better on the chance he did get in the first half.
Robinho - Not a good game, but probably his best game of 2013 so far. He added a little more experience in the side.
Bojan - Added some energy and drive late on, which could have resulted in a Robinho goal
Muntari - An improvement to Flamini, adding more stability on the ball than the Frenchman.
..so AC Milan just came to Camp Nou 4-Nothing...?...
