Can we exchange our shirts after the game?

“Inter Milan will park the bus against Barcelona. It won’t be a surprise tomorrow at the Camp Nou, after they played a passive defensive game at home, in Italy. Mourinho is seeking a draw, and he may get it considering the injury crises and lack of form Barcelona squad showed so far.”

My friend murmured these words as being facts that you only repeat as a sign of confirmation, more than being an opinion that anyone may doubt. But isn’t that “the word on the street” these days?

Unfortunately, I do not share this opinion. I think it’s a mix between the inaccurate specification of the so called “Parked bus” added to the fact that we need to analyze the group situation to figure out how far gaining one point in Catalonia will get Inter closer to qualify.

That’s why, it’s important to re-read the first game, played in Milan, before predicting how Inter will play this week. And here, allow me as I usually do, to ramble a bit around the point (The match preview), in a quest to clarify my points.

Inter didn’t park the bus in Milan. There I said it. Parking the Bus happens when a team plays a passive defensive game with no interest to score but only to avoid  conceding. The most radical version is the bus that will not avoid conceding but hope to avoid conceding lot of goals. Now of course even in Bus parking, the team may end up scoring from a counter, but I call it “Scoring without intention”, as it’s not the primary objective. Were Inter parking the Bus with no interest to go forward? Or is it only a matter of interpreting football concepts based on subjective believes? In fact, the same argument can prove that Barcelona were actually more defensive than Inter in that game. I will get into that, no worries. But let me start by saying that comparing our game in Milan to that game against Chelsea at the camp Nou is as close as saying oranges are tennis balls, just because both are round.

Trying to reinvent the wheel, I need to note that football tactical structure consists of three phases: Defense, Build Up and Offense. While defense is the stage where you –obviously- work to avoid getting conceded, and offense is the process where you generate scoring opportunities, the buildup stage is still a bit vague.

The buildup phase is the catalyst that enhances the defense solidity and act as an engine for the offense firework. Defense wise, both teams succeeded to finish the game without getting conceded. Offense wise, the two teams created almost the same level of threat, but failed to score.

Barcelona through possession oriented build up succeeded to keep the ball for the longest period possible, and that’s how they prevented Inter from scoring goals. An approach that’s still underrated by many football fans around the globe while claiming that Barcelona defense is weak. When Barcelona increases their ball possession, that’s defense, and it’s not bad at all.

Inter build up serves the defense by implementing a fast transition to their own half when they lose the ball, closing all the wholes Barcelona players can use to penetrate.

Offense wise, and being a play making team, Barcelona possession oriented build up is based on continuous movement to create spaces in the opponent half to penetrate and score. It’s a sexy approach that’s only applied by a bunch of clubs mainly in Netherland beside some daring clubs here and there in Portugal and Spain.

In the other hand, Inter like the majority of football teams is a counter attacking team. When they do the transition to their own half, they don’t only serve a defensive purpose, but also an offense need by inviting the opponent to their own half and creating a space behind, for their counter attacks to be more lethal. No doubt against Barcelona, Inter were putting lot of players behind the ball. They were playing against Barcelona after all. But the question is whether the ball was squeezing the players behind it in their own box, or the players behind the ball were driving it to Barcelona box.

Inter offense approach in that game was as underrated as the excellent defensive game Barcelona played against Kazan in Russia. There, Pep led an underperforming exhausted team to hunt a very important point in a freezing difficult game, only by selecting the right players who can defend through possession. If you watch Inter against Kazan and Barcelona against Kazan (both in Russia), you will notice that Barcelona showed more defensive quality decreasing Kazan offense threat than Inter did. Not by stacking defenders, but throughout the method of play A.K.A Possession.

So what’s the deal behind this entire ramble? Am I suggesting that Inter will play offense in Catalonia? I will never make an effort to predict what’s in a coach’s mind. But I will be surprised if Inter plays solely for a point. Because most of the group scenarios show that losing or drawing against Barcelona will have the same impact on Inter obligations in their game against Kazan. And because Mourinho Experience against Barcelona tells him that you can’t come to the Camp Nou seeking a point. The situation may get Chelsea-tized and you get a draw, but most often it doesn’t happen.

The reason I bother thinking about how Inter will play, is the memories of Barcelona second leg game against Bayern last season (test how strong your memory is). The team went there with the players’ minds set on breaking the Bavarian bus. To our surprise, they parked neither a bus nor a vespa. They started the game attacking us like pissed off psychos which caught us by surprise. We were running around with no sense and it took us half an hour to realize what was happening.

Against Inter, We must NOT let that happen! Before the continuous discussions about how to organize our offense to break buses and crush cups, we need to set a strategy to contain Inter offense. They know that even to earn a draw, they need to score a goal, especially after the goalless draw in Milan. If we succeeded in containing their offense dynamics, then no worries, we will score once, twice, live your lovely fantasies dreaming of more. If they scored first and dictated their tempo, then … Let’s change the subject…

Inter

Obviously, the team and the fans are starting to recover from The Eve of Eva syndrome. In the league, the team is creating a one team show. The collective work is developing in a decent manner and the moral is high (Putting aside Ballotelli moral of course, the boy is a pissed off freak, I do not know what we –the rest of the world- did wrong!). They come into this game full of hopes. They are in a good form while Barcelona isn’t. Yet, Serie A proved being misleading sometimes.

Mourinho tactical kit

Selection:

Julio Cesar
Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Chivu.
Stankovic, Motta, Cambiasso, Muntari
Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito.

It’s also possible that Mourinho may decide to play Javier Zanetti in Stankovic position to check the flank defensively. This will give more possibilities for Maicon to contribute offense wise. If so, Stankovic may either 1) act as a fifth midfielder behind Eto’o , moving Milito to the bench for the first half. This option may prove vital also if Messi played. It means Muntari has to work defensively with Chivu to shut off Barcelona right flank operated by Messi and Alves. In this case, Stankovic will be needed to contribute in the center to close wholes. Or 2) Play instead of Motta incase Sneijder is fit to start this game as an attacking midfielder.

Defense set up:

Eto’o and Milito dance between Barcelona defenders and the holding midfielder trying to damage the offense build up. Muntari and Motta may put early pressure on Alves and Xavi respectively to prevent them from getting involved in the play making process while the rest of Inter players apply a zone defense. In fact, Muntari performance in the first game was one of the reasons why Mourinho game plan didn’t work as he expected.

Offense set up:

The keys of Inter counter attacks are Maicon contribution from the right flank, Muntari from the left, Stankovic movement into the center and the strikers’ horizontal and vertical moves creating links and spaces. There is a possibility that Chivu contribution in this game will end up being pure defensive. He may act as a third center back beside Lucio and Samuel when his team moves forward. That will give more security for Maicon to do his runs, and more stability for the defense department.

Barcelona

What makes me a bit relaxed is Pep performance in the first game. I can say that, beside the game against Kazan in Russia, that match against Inter was one of Pep’s best. He was completely aware of Inter threat and he worked to contain it. Keita for example, was the unsung hero for Barcelona in that game. Pep selected him over Iniesta for that game- even though Iniesta was in a good form then- to make sure he leaves no spaces in the midfield for Inter counters. He did his job to a great extend.

Guardiolla tactical kit

Selection:

With all the injury crises in the team, I am not sure who will actually be fit enough for this game. Some last minute decisions will be made. But I will hail this selection:

Valdes
Alves, Puyol, Pique, Maxwell
Xavi, Yaya, Keita
Iniesta, Ibra, Henry

(If Yaya can’t start, Busquets will be there. You can blow a panic scream if that makes you feel better).

Yes, you read it right. I hope we don’t start Messi. First because his history tells he needs time to recover from injuries. We do not need to risk. And secondly because I see more advantages in starting Iniesta –as I will point out below- and saving Messi for the second half if needed. When the opponent energy declines they will allow more space for the Argentinean. But here is the news: If he can walk, unfortunately he will start… Anyways …

Offense wise:

The two main changes –due to injuries- are Abidal and Messi. We can talk a lot about how bad it is to miss the two players. Let’s instead try to see the good things about it:

Maxwell: Maxwell may offer us two advantages over Abidal in this game: 1) he is better contributing in the play making process. This may prove vital if Inter succeeded to put pressure as an attempt to damage the offense flow. Maxwell is one of the players who can contribute moving the ball forward. 2) Defensively, Maxwell as an offense oriented full back will be able to check Maicon the moment we lose the ball in the opponent half, rather than waiting him in our half. Yet, we need to treat the defense fragility in our own half in return, where Abidal usually contributes beside the two Center Backs.

Messi: I believe with Alves and Maxwell opening the field on the flanks, Henry will be lethal in the box beside Ibra. Iniesta in return will act more as a fourth midfielder to make sure the offense flow keep on running smoothly even if Inter man marked Xavi tightly. With 1) Iniesta and Xavi in the center and 2)Maxwell plus Alves on the flanks backed by 3) Keita and Yaya (occasionally), the midfield is in safe hands to orchestrate offense and contain possession and close the spaces Inter will be looking for to generate counters from. Ibra and Henry movement in and around the box will guarantee more directness in our game so we avoid playing passive fruitless possession.

Defense set up:

1) Defense to offense: With both Maxwell and Alves moving forward, Yaya must act as a third Center back with Puyol and Pique. Keita end up being our holding midfielder behind Xavi and Iniesta. One of the most bothering facts about Inter offense- and Eto’o in specific- is the ability to slide into the midfield to create the link with the midfielders. If it Happens, that will leave Milito alone as a forward, allowing Yaya to follow Eto’o into the midfield either to mark him or to hand him to Keita while he –Yaya- in return regain his position as a holding midfielder.

2) Offense to defense: The moment we lose the ball, it’s important to contain Inter Counter attacks by checking the key players who perform it. Henry and Ibra need to put loads of pressure on Inter defense. If we can force Inter to move the ball to Samuel, then we can say that we already terminated 25 % of the counter threat. He is not on the same level as Lucio, Chivu or Maicon moving the ball forward in a systematic manner. Lucio runs forward must be checked by Henry. Maxwell needs to –initially- check Maicon to delay his offense contribution. That will close a very important outlet for Inter.

Iniesta and Xavi must put the pressure on Cambiasso and Motta while Keita plays as a midfield libero vacuum cleaning spaces, creating defensive depth and checking Stankovic when he approach the edge of our box. Read this banner:”Watch out long shots”! Puyol, Pique and Yaya need to contain the two strikers as mentioned above.

We must not be over obsessed by Eto’o determination to score. Or else he will drag us around creating spaces for his teammates. It’s a must to stick to our systematic plan.

Finally, while we are setting offense, exchanging passes, frustrating Inter players, guarding possession and dominating the game in a way that makes Inter players look like armatures, I will only have one little advice for our dear players.

No doubt, the team is not in its most relaxing days. We were suffering from injuries since the beginning of the season. But it was all containable. Recently the injuries crises increased dramatically. A team like Barcelona, where you can’t really have clear cuts between the lines (offense-midfield-defense), is usually more fragile toward injuries than a more direct team. Barcelona players perform a collective job in all departments which requires quality in every position and understanding on every level. Injuries create a domino impact on the general performance. All what we can do now is to hope we get out of this tunnel. If we did, I can see a good U-turn after Xmass. During the current harsh period, the team succeeded to stay in a gung ho status in all competitions. So you can imagine how the comeback will be.

But no worries, after playing Athletic Bilbao, Sat 21 Nov, we can feel more relaxed now. As we only have the following games to play before the X-mass break:

Tue 24 Nov FC Barcelona – Inter M.
Sun 29 Nov FC Barcelona – Real Madrid
Wed 02 Dec Xerez C.D. – FC Barcelona
Sun 06 Dec Deportivo – FC Barcelona
Wed 09 Dec Dynamo K. – FC Barcelona
Sun 13 Dec FC Barcelona – RCD Espanyol
Thu 16 Dec: FIFA Club world Cup UEFA 2009-Semi Final
Sat 19 Dec: FIFA Club world Cup UEFA 2009- Final (If qualified).
Mon 21 Dec Kazma Sporting Club – FC Barcelona (There is a rumor that there are contract obligations to play the key players).
Tuesday, Dec 22: Catalonia Vs Argentina (Six Barcelona starters are selected so far: Five for Catalonia and one for Argentina), Cruyff had already made an interesting comment about it:

The fact is that Barça are due to play a friendly in Kuwait on 21st December, the day before Catalonia may also have a match. According to Cruyff: “It’s one of those complications. The players are professionals and are proud to play with the national team”.

I dipped the words of wisdom in gold /Sarcasm. Thirty two days, eleven games. A game every 2days and 22 hours. If we use the tricky –.99 price tag. It all starts now!

Finally (for real this time!), I hope Eto’o gets a standing obviation. For all what he achieved with this club, we must only remember the good things he delivered, which is obviously much more than the bad little things that pop up here and there. He is a legend for this club, and he must be treated per se.

Thank You, Samuel Eto'o

You see, they don’t just hand out stadium nicknames like bits of corn candy on Halloween – well, unless you’re Guti, whose nicknames aren’t suitable for this PG-13 rated blog anyway. Particularly when the nickname happens to be ‘The Cathedral’. And that’s exactly the nickname for that bit of grass that Athletic Bilbao play on.

It’s a venerable pressure cooker, just not the kind you’d see Gordon Ramsey or Wolfgang Puck using. Add in 22 players, a bit of football, and several thousand sprinkles of fans and you’ve got yourself a tidy way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday night.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Technically a more fitting sporting venue for Saturday’s match.

But over the past several years, Barcelona has acclimatized to the Basque pressure cooker…

Since 1999, Barcelona has notched 7 league wins out of 11 matches at the San Mamés. A pretty dashing record, most would reckon.

However, that pressure will get you in trouble if you’re head’s not on straight. Athletic always promise a lot of attitude and sweat for three points during nights in the San Mamés but it appears Barcelona have devised a reasonable formula to extract points and it largely involves doing the same old ; Establishing their brand of football and being unfazed by the hustle and bustle of the red and white striped men.

Like other stadiums that double as pressurized cooking equipment (see: Sanchez Pizjuan, Calderon, Reyno de Navarra, and The Bernabeu), the key is to not flinch at the surrounding atmosphere and speedy impetus of the opposition because they’ll never forgive you if you do.

But this clearly isn’t a problem because Barcelona are in like Flint when it comes to success in San Mamés. So good that it’s all rather academic.

Sport.es recently posed a query on whether or not Barcelona fans and masochistic Madrid fans who visited the sport journal site trusted Maxwell in the absence of the Abidal – a man who has the perfect physical physique to dismantle many counterattacks but apparently not perfect enough to avoid injury.

A whopping 89% have given the thumbs up to Maxwell for the next three weeks.

After a bit of research, it was identified that the 11% who did not approve of Maxwell were all part of the Abidal family. All of them except for a certain Josep Guardiola.

So far, Maxwell has made 4 appearances as part of the starting eleven in La Liga. Granted, the Barcelona chapter for Maxwell’s career is quite early (or quite late, you truly can never tell) but you do wonder if his offensive fluidity could be put to a bit more use. Especially since Abidal’s offensive toolkit consists of breaking the 40 meter dash time as he sprints to the endline. An extremely devastating weapon if only he’d do it with the ball.

Unimpressed with Maxwell, Josep coerces left back extraordinaire Dalai Lama to come out of retirement for the remainder of the season.

And with key fixtures against Inter and Real Madrid upcoming, one wonders if Maxwell will tactically fit into the tinkering of Josep, who may prefer Puyol as Abidal’s deputy.

But I may be guilty of thinking ahead because during the entire thought process that went into creating this article, all 4 minutes and 33 seconds of it, I could not think of a convincing enough reason for Maxwell to not get the nod for the match at San Mamés, which included ruling out the possibility of successfully genetically cloning a left sided Dani Alves.

Aside from the underused Maxwell, there’s been a minor injury crisis in the locker room, no doubt the work of multi-thousand Irish fans who’ve all recently converted to Voodoo – and it certainly wasn’t to wish a certain someone good luck either.

Ibrahimovic maintains a strain in his left thigh, ruling him out for the weekend and casting a few clouds of doubt on his availability for the critical matches next week. Abidal has become the unfortunate carrier of the H1N1 virus, which may have also maligned Toure, who is suffering from symptoms and a complete diagnosis is expected before the match. This sees Jonathan Dos Santos sneak into the traveling troupe.

Additionally, question marks remain on whether the notorious Henry has the fitness to go three full matches with such regularity.

What seemed like a nice buffet of options to choose from several days ago has turned into a selection that’s noticeably smaller in size, weight, age, but not hair (Thanks, Puyol and Chygrynskiy).

All bets are off on the availability of 16 year old Iker Muniain for Athletic because you should all be rooting for him to recover his fitness and scribble his own name onto the first eleven, which likely won’t be happening. A peculiar player to look out for as time goes on. Iker currently joins Toquero, Llorente and Mikaelsson as the four players who are fitness pending for the match on Saturday night, but Toquero and Llorente may still get the nod from Caparros.

Now, given the handsome recent decade record of results for Barcelona at the Cathedral, most will be reserving their fingernails for the visits of Inter and Real Madrid. Except for Maxwell who may run out of fingernail real estate to nervously bite on by the time Josep names his starting eleven for Saturday night.

Predictions to lose money by:

• The Score: Athletic Bilbao 0 – 2 FC Barcelona
• The Scorers: Messi, ‘Golden Boot’ Keita
• Wildcard Bonus: Thierry Henry with two handball assists
• The XI: Valdes, Maxwell, Pique, Puyol, Dani Alves, Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Bojan, Pedro and Messi

And that someone will be Pedrito, probably, because he wants to show us that he can score in every single match Pep lets him play. And Pinto and his Magical Braided Ponytail (TM), because otherwise he might as well turn fulltime musician. And… and…

International break is a nightmare, people.

Henry and Abidal have already left for Ireland, to make a stand with the French NT in the playoffs, Chygrynskiy has flown home to do the same with Ukraine against Greece, and Touré has left to play with Cote D’Ivoire, even though they’ve already have their World Cup Golden Ticket.

There’s something missing from this picture. Something like... well, players.

And that’s just the official matches. Because yes, then we have the friendlies on the weekend, and even though the players will still be in Barcelona tomorrow, seeing that most of them will be playing on Saturday, I don’t expect Pep to push them all onto the pitch (or perhaps he will; after the last match, I don’t think I can ever guess what he’s thinking).

Five Barça players have been called up for the Spanish NT to play meaningless, injury-prone games, also known as friendlies: Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Puyol and Piqué. One has been called for the Argentinean NT (and their match against Spain on Saturday is going to be a joy to see): Messi. Alves is going with Brazil to play against England and Oman in the Middle East. Even puppy-like Gai Assulin has been called up by the U-19 Israeli NT!

And just in case this wasn’t enough, on the injury list, we have Keita, who will be out for ten days and will thus save himself a trip with Ghana, and our dear Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who hurt himself playing against Mallorca and will not be available to play with the Swedish NT, even if he wanted to, which he is not so sure about.

So, who’s left?

Well… Pep is already calling in the reinforcements from the Barça Atlètic team; Johnny Dos Santos, Fontàs and Oriol Romeu (nice name, but I have no idea who he is, to be honest… wait, the Barça site informs me he’s a defensive midfielder, which is nice) trained today with the big boys, and there are more youngsters available, if need be.

Bojan is, I assume, ready and willing to take part in what was traditionally (meaning, “as of last year”) “his” competition and try to steal back the spotlight that Pedrito has been basking in lately. Maxwell and Márquez are staying home too. Jeffren can play rightback… oh, wait, no, he can’t.

Bojan’s attempts to convince us he’s tough enough to play might work better if he didn’t look like a kitten starved for attention...

And I wouldn’t mind seeing Guardiola in shorts and a blaugrana shirt again, to be honest. What’s that you say? The rules say no? Damn…

So, Pep’s list is: Valdés, Pinto, Puyol, Piqué, Márquez, Fontas, Alves, Maxwell, Romeu, Dos Santos, Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedrito, Messi, Bojan and Jeffren.

And my proposed line-up reads like:

————————-Pinto————————–
–Alves—-Márquez—Fontás—Maxwell—-
—-Busquets— Dos Santos—- Iniesta—-
———-Pedrito——Bojan—–Jeffren——–

With Romeu making his debut in the second-half if things are going well.

Pep, in the meantime, has been saying that we must “play with maximum seriousness” (he doesn’t want no smiley people out the pitch, y’all!), and, as optimistic as usual, has warned us that “anything can happen” and that the first round of the Copa del Rey is “always very dangerous”.

Perhaps he should tell this to Cultural Leonesa’s goalkeeper, Diego Calzado, the man with the unenviable duty of keeping Pedrito from scoring, who has said (in news that Google Translator has turned into a hilarious piece of surrealism), that they will play Barcelona “with respect, but without fear” and that he thinks that the final score will be 2-1. That’s right, Cultural’s own goalie think they will lose; I know they’re not Alcorcón, but couldn’t he at least aim for a draw?

Me, I think we’ll win. 3-0, perhaps (Pedrito, of course, will net a goal, perhaps two, and let’s say Bojan follows Thierry’s footsteps and scores too).

Your predictions?

We need another Zaragoza victory. We need to watch our team play and marvel at the pretty (and I don’t just mean Piqué), instead of seething over missed chances, wasted passes, and crosses that a few someones ought to be nailed to. We need to gather our wits, regroup, set a new plan and shake off the memory of the recent unfavourable results.

And Real Mallorca are coming for a visit. Tsk, tsk…

Sorry, guys! Nothing personal...

Last season, we played four times against Mallorca. The first leg, when they visited Camp Nou in January, was favourable to us by 2-1. Then we played the Copa del Rey semi-finals against them, beating them at home 2-0, and then getting away with a 1-1 draw when we visited Mallorca (thanks to Pinto and his Magical Ponytail). The last time we met them last season, we were nursing our Triplete hangover and allowed them to get away with a pretty meaningless 2-1.

Real Mallorca have won in the Camp Nou, though, more recently in that infamous 07/08 season, when they came back from a 2-0 to get away with 2-3 and the three points, thanks to Webo and Borja Valero, both of who will be on the pitch on Saturday.

Mallorca fans have chartered six planes to travel to Barcelona on Saturday; I don’t want to be mean, but I hope they fly back in a sulk.

Real Mallorca have only played in Primera for thirteen years, and they are usually a mid-table team, sometimes plummeting to flirt with the relegation places, but this season they’ve had quite a good run of form and they are currently fifth in La Liga, just one point behind Valencia and the Champions League places. So far, they have only lost against Sevilla (which is no shame, as Real Madrid will tell you) and against Sporting (which is slightly more puzzling); they drew against Atlético de Madrid and Villarreal, and have beaten Liga-newcomers Xerez and Tenerife, and also Getafe and Valladolid.

They have a quiet, unassuming goalkeeper who just happens to be quite good (Dudu Aouate), a striker who doesn’t get any headlines, but who consistently scores goals (Webo) and a solid, hard-working team. Just the kind of set-up we’ve been stumbling against lately. They also have a patient manager who has managed to rebuild his team time and after time, after his key players have been lured away by bigger teams, and who only spent an amazing 400,000 euros on signings this summer (even less that new-boys-on-the-block Xerez; I’m not even comparing it with our own or Real Madrid’s spending, because I might cry); for more information on the admirable Gregorio Manzano, read this article and marvel. The man himself said this morning that they are “not going to go for the individual marking” and that “Barça can win without playing well” (may the Gods of Football, fickle creatures that they are, hear you, Gregorio).

Pep wants to hypnotise you into forgetting these last few days and his recent questionable decisions; or he’s become a zombie; or he’s trying to stare down the mic. It’s hard to tell with him.

So, what should we do, I hear you ask, throwing your hands up in exasperation. Well, I have just the thing. Leave Xavi on the bench. Now, don’t scream like that, I can hear you from here and you sound like little girls who are having their pigtails pulled. Listen to me: Xavi is tired; Xavi has been playing too much; Xavi is not playing at his best level and that reflects on the overall quality of the team (which doesn’t mean I blame him for anything, mind you). Without Xavi on the pitch, the team will have to reorganise themselves, get a bit more involved in the midfield, and will perhaps get out of the rut they have fallen into.

And it’s not as if we’re lacking quality in the midfield, even without Xavi. Super-Yaya has been, well, superb all season, and hat-tricking Keita is not a slouch either. Now that Thierry Henry and Bojan are both available to play on the left, Iniesta can step back and try to impersonate Xavi instead of Messi (he might need a few UV-ray seasons first, though).

I would keep Messi on the pitch, though, even after his underwhelming performances lately. His problem is not that he’s tired, and making him unhappy by benching him is not going to help with whatever is bothering him. Let him play and try his best; in the worst of cases, he’ll stun the Mallorca defenders by running into them repeatedly, and free Ibrahimovic to do his thing.

Is that Pedrito’s name you’re muttering under your breath? Yes, I know, he’s been fantastic so far this season. But I’d rather bring him in as a sub for whatever striker is achieving less during the second half; he tends to shine in those situations, and let’s not forget that he’s probably going to have to play a full match on Tuesday, on our second Copa del Rey date with Cultural Leonesa.

So, my proposed line-up is:

——————Valdés———————
–Alves—-Puyol—-Piqué—Maxwell—
——————–Toure——————-
————–Keita——-Iniesta————
—-Messi—-Ibrahimovic——Henry—

With Bojan to play for Henry if our Frenchman is still not feeling up to playing the full ninety minutes (honestly, we need to play Lil’Bo more in Liga matches), and Pedrito to come in during the second half to regale us with a goal or two, if he is feeling generous.

Like it? Think I’m insane? Is your faith on Perfect Pep wavering? Want to give up on football and take up knitting as a hobby? Unwind in the comments!

You can feel the lack of satisfaction between Barcelona fans this season. It’s basically a result of high expectations. The satisfaction stocks rise and fall on weekly bases the same as the team performance varies. Every game has its own story, but still there are common denominators between all the matches Barcelona played this season, that is rooted to the team performance last season as well. This post is a preview for The Champions’ league game against Rubin Kazan. But make no mistake, it’s linked to the performance since the first Liga game and will have an impact on the fans expectations for the rest of the season. That’s why I will start with a general overview and the more I approach the end of the post the closer I will get to the mission in Kazan as we will end up with a solid base to evaluate the current situation, starting line ups and tactics. Besides, I hope it will help in setting criteria to measure performance regardless of the games results which has to do a lot with luck sometimes, and the opponent’s quality as well.

Back to the future

That was the most popular selection for last season. Messi sliding more to the center opening the flank for the Brazilian train to move forward acting as a right midfielder/wing. Iniesta, in order to avoid sandwiching Xavi between him and Messi, slips a bit to the left to link with Henry and give him the go to cut into the box and get advantage of Messi and Eto’o movement leading to destabilizing the opponent defense. All that turned to get the best out of every player and created the destruction machine we’ve witnessed and enjoyed.

Yet it was not all roses, even though the season success makes it a bit whiney to note the defects of the past. But to serve the subject, I will brief some of the last season unpleasant bugs:

1) Whenever we were desperately in need for a target man in the box, we failed to fulfill that need. Eto’o for all his goods is not the medicine. Henry is much better, but there was no possibility to play him as a striker because Eto’o can’t really operate on the left flank nor it was possible to bench the Cameroonian or substitute him when needed because there was always the risk of destabilizing him–>the dressing room–>the team performance during the season.

2) Alves and Xavi dependency was not something we suffered simply because they played almost all the games without sweating. But we always had the anxiety of the “What if” conditional nightmare.

3) Lack of rotation: At the beginning of last season while the expectations were as low as the moral after a disastrous campaign, Pep was open for adventurous attempts. He introduced the unknown Busquets, made tactical innovations and applied the great rotation policy which made all Barcelona fans confused and unable to predict who will actually play and who will be benched. He even inspired Barcelona transfers blog to start a competition between the fans to guess Pep selection, and it was too hard to be won- at the beginning. The team enjoyed a great string of victories against the strongest rivals and broke the scoring record on weekly bases boosting the expectations and the demands. That’s when Pep started to think twice before deciding a selection. He cut down the rotation mechanism and started selecting the obvious options that the majority of the fans label as being the strongest. Fatigue became the daily subject, we dropped points like a waterfall and we pushed the starters to the edge to an extend that in the match we played against Man Utd – the last match that worth to mention- we had to reengineer the selection to fit the players available. I was hoping that this game will be enough for a lesson. If Sylvinho can play against Manchester the way he performed, then he can play against at least half the liga teams. He didn’t. And we can say the same about Caceres if we take his international career in consideration. Hleb is doing well where he is now the same as he performed before he moved to Barcelona. Will that make him a key player at Barcelona? Not necessarily, but at least he could have played against Almeria. After Hammering Bayern at the Camp Nou, it wasn’t suicidal to use Keita instead of exhausted Iniesta, right? Hopefully the point is clear by now.

4) The vacuum tunnel. Each and every time we played against a team that can generate quality counter attacks we had troubles. The problem starts when Alves, Iniesta and Xavi advance to the edge of the box backing Messi, Eto’o and Henry. In return, the three defenders position themselves along the half line. That leaves a wide landscape for Yaya to patrol through. Yaya for all his goods is not a natural Defensive midfielder, but more a central midfielder who is always tempted to contribute offense wise rather than sticking to the basics and priorities of being a midfield libero in the first place then thinking of how far he can contribute in the offense operations. He positions himself closer to the top of the vacuum tunnel to support the offense rather than the middle to balance his offense contribution with his defensive coverage role. The moment we lose the ball the opponent generates counters, slide through the midfield and create threat. The quality of Yaya helped most of the time recovering the fragility of the system, more than avoiding it. Also he earns the credit of improving his discipline as he is no more dribbling through the opponents and loses the ball in dangerous positions. If you watch Yaya performance since we signed him till January 2009, you will notice a massive improvement (that’s one of the reasons I always demand patience when it come to Busquets). But still, even a supernatural defensive midfielder will not be able to close the Vacuum tunnel alone. More about that later in this extended ramble.

5) I can list more remarks like Delayed or unused substitutions for example, but I will only focus on the points I need to link to the current season, and the following game.

Are we better or worse this season?

This summer, we solved some of the defects but still struggling to overcome some other challenges.

1) We bought a player who can play in the box and on the flank as well. Henry will enjoy a great season if he remains fit. He will be seen in the box more often, and if last season he scored for fun though being there occasionally, this season he will buy an apartment right there facing the keeper. Ibra in return will be able to create more wholes in defense by stretching it to the left pulling the defenders one after another using his dribbling skills and accurate quality crosses and assists. Henry-Ibra switches will play a deciding factor this season, If it happened.

So far it didn’t click well. As a new player, Ibra needed time to understand his teammates as well as they needed time to understand him. His understanding with Messi went smoother which forced Henry to stay wide on the flank while Messi and Ibra operate in the middle. That’s not the best role for Henry. But it will only need more time and fewer injuries.

2) We also brought a player who can solve –at least partially- Alves dependency. Maxwell is a quality player and the best left-footed-cloning Alves I can think of and we can afford. In principle, Barcelona system needs an offense oriented fullback. Two offense oriented fullbacks at the same time cause a Giovani-Belletti mess. Without any offense oriented fullback we turn containable. Using Abidal and Puyol together as fullbacks has lot of advantages, but the tax is high. With Alves or Maxwell on the flank, we don’t only open the field wider, but they also create more headache for defense as they can always cut to the edge of the box and shoot. Even when they don’t do it, the opponent will be always aware that they can. When was the last time Abidal took a shooting attempt? Adding to their accurate crosses (Not lately for Alves), Maxwell and Alves are also good being involved in the playmaking and offense build up. It’s not only a matter of receiving and passing back. It’s the movement and flair, ideas and creativity. Neither Puyol nor Abidal can match the two Brazilians in that department. The playmaking chain that contains Messi-Xavi-Iniesta-Alves/Maxwell creates an automatic width behind Henry/Keita and Ibra and drives them into the box. That’s why when Alves plays, Maxwell must not. But when Alves is not selected then Maxwell is a must. Unless if the fullbacks will operate defensively and give a chance for the rest of the selection to do the offense job. To be continued…

Xavi dependency is still there as well, and we are not doing any attempt to overcome it. It’s a corner stone the opponents use to contain Barcelona, and I believe we can solve it with some bravery, creativity and patience.

3) Talking about lack of rotation moves us closer to Kazan game. Lack of rotation was the key factor for us losing the game. Barcelona plays a kind of full-court-press that demands astronomic fitness level. The quality of pressing gains us the ball closer to the opponent area and vice versa. That’s why the impact of fatigue on the performance declination raises exponentially both defense wise and offense wise. When the team mechanism decline, it allows the opponent to break through the initial pressure Barcelona players apply to gain back possession and if the opponent defender was able to play a single pass without being under any pressure then he can put his teammate in a clear position to penetrate through the vacuum tunnel without any resistance as Yaya will be a step behind when he is not fresh enough for his impossible mission to cover a China-size land. To recover, Players like Xavi, Iniesta, and Alves will need to do defensive transition more often running back all the way toward Barcelona defense territory. It happens too late most of the times as they are too tired to catch the tempo. Moreover, such kind of transitions back and forth turns to become a distractive process for the already exhausted players. The result is something like Alves gets injured while the rest are on the waiting list.

4) The Vacuum tunnel issue is a common point I mention every once and while. One solution is to ask Yaya to play more defensive than his taste. Pep already did so during the process of improving Yaya qualities as a defensive midfielder. But I believe the Yaya we have at the moment is the best Yaya we can demand. His offense qualities are too tempting to terminate just to secure defense. That’s why instead of modifying Yaya role we need to modify some of his teammate’s roles to create more efficiency and reliability for the tactical structure. To analyze this point it’s useful to analyze Rubin Kazan second goal against Barcelona. The direct responsibility was hooked around the neck of Marquez with some blames on Yaya and Bojan. But if you watch the goal again, it’s actually Abidal positioning and decision making that must be blamed in the first place if there is a single player to pick. Secondly, it’s a result of both a systematic error and a fatigue impact that’s happening quite often and leading to many identical scenarios:

Bojan playing a bad pass and Barcelona lose possession (Pause the Video at 0:03). Kazan had two players in the Vacuum area each on one side of Yaya. Abidal being in a weird position that we would forgive if he made a fast transition when we lost the ball, but instead he hesitated and prayed that Yaya get back the ball and save him from an exhausting run backward(0:003 to 0:06 Watch Abidal), something he wouldn’t have considered if he was fresh. If he would have made his run toward our backline as he should the moment we lost the ball, Kazan wouldn’t have scored. Yaya in return did a fast hopeless tackle (0:006). Those who played defensive roles in football can tell you what this tackle means. It’s the feeling that “it’s now or never!” the belief that:” I can’t get closer to the ball than this!”. And it happened in the opponent half in an unlikely successful position. And it happens where Kazan player needed to run while controlling the ball while all what Yaya needed is chasing him and then eat him alive. If Yaya was fresh he would have tracked the opponent and picked a better moment to tackle. He chose to tackle than to run. Abidal positioning and late response added to Yaya poor decision making and fatigue put the two Kazan forwards in a superior position against the two defenders we left behind. The rest was history.

Pause it at 0:06 for a moment to check the players positions then play it till 0:08 then pause again. You will notice how Kazan player was able to outrun both Yaya and specially Abidal with a diagonal move while Pique is marking the other player and Marquez creating depth and cover as he should while hoping that Abidal will track the second player. Marquez couldn’t put early pressure and expose the space behind him. He was in an impossible situation and carries a very light responsibility for the goal conceded.

Kazan game and the recipe to beat Barcelona.

How will Kazan play against Barcelona? For a Barcelona fan, this question is derived from the concerning question: “Is it possible for Kazan to beat Barcelona… Again?”

The common strategy to face Barcelona is to create a wall in front of the keeper and generate counter attacks. But even last season, I labeled this strategy as an “Avoiding loss” rather than “Seeking victory”. It will work when Barcelona players are not in their day, tired, and out of form. This Barcelona team that we have now can turn any team that park a bus into ruins in a good day. Especially after signing Ibra and after Keita finally got enough love from the Barcelona community for Pep to select him more often without the risk of loss-crises claims-Dressing room disturbance-bad cycle.

Wining against Barcelona needs a more daring approach:

1) Having the courage of playing two forwards to put pressure on Barcelona defense and defensive Midfielder (Yaya). Osasuna way.

2) Marking Xavi out of the game. (Chico way).

That may prove vital to pull Barcelona forwards a bit toward the midfield away from the offense third.

3) Generating counters through exposing the Vacuum tunnel by already planed and directed clearance from defense to midfield. And then redirecting the offense based on Barcelona selection. If the defense line consisted of Puyol-Marquez-Pique-Abidal then avoid the flanks and strike through the center or between the fullback and the Center Defender. If Alves played on the right then that’s where you need to attack. This way you will pull one of the center defenders out of position and secondly you will drag Alves back rather than making him feel secured going forward. It goes the same if Maxwell played on the other side.

Will Kazan Apply this strategy?

I mentioned after the game against Kazan that I was disappointed by their performance. They parked a bus in a very organized manner which is not a bad thing. But they showed the intention of avoiding big loss rather than trying to surprise. Ironically the surprise came without their intention. The nonsense ball clearance and unclear offense strategy was not something I predicted from the Russian champions after the good impression the Russian national team and clubs made on the European stage.

But it worked for them. So there is no wonder if they did the same again. Especially that they know Barcelona needs to win. If they can hold Barcelona for a draw in the first half, Barcelona will risk more going forward, and that’s when they can generate counters and steels the game.

If they can take the weather and field conditions to their advantage and played a bit more adventurous, they can win this game. If they parked the bus then a strike from the likes of Ibra or Keita will take advantage of the wet grass and open the game early. And then, it may become a scoring circus.

How will Barcelona beat Kazan?

Based on what I mentioned so far, we need some fixings that depend on the selection we start.

In this kind of selections I want to believe that Marquez will move forward to play as a holding midfielder covering Yaya and leaving Puyol-Pique-Abidal behind. This scenario means that Iniesta can open to the left and Henry can cut inside the box beside Ibra while Messi stretch the Kazan defense from the right. Marquez stay in the backline only if either Puyol or Abidal made a run on the flank while the respective forward (Messi/Henry) cuts inside. Abidal and Puyol must not contribute offense wise together at the same time leaving Pique and Marquez struggling with the opponents’ counters and pace. And if Kazan had a lone striker in the area without sufficient support then it’s enough to have one fullback with pique to mark him while the other fullback move forward and Marquez play a holding midfielder role. It’s more dangerous to have three defenders behind an open space guarded by a single player (Yaya) than having two defenders sandwiching a lone striker who will get no ball or service from his teammates because there are two holding midfielders closing the way.

It’s an expected selection but I am not a fan. First because none of the fullbacks is offense oriented as mentioned before, and there is no midfielder who can act on the flank decently to give the opportunity for Henry to penetrate into the box more often. The only trick is the switches we can see between Ibra and Henry with Keita assistance on the left as far as possible.

Good selection and with massive options. Ibra may move to the right while Messi cut to the center and Keita run into the box. The only problem is that having Maxwell in the selection may prevent Marquez from playing as a holding midfielder as he will stay behind to secure the defense. And If Kazan showed enough teeth then Keita will hesitate to move forward and will focus more on covering the offense rather than contributing in. We will have lot of possession this way but scoring goals will be another issue. I like the Iniesta-Ibra-Messi combination with Keita behind when we have Pique-Abidal-and Puyol in the back line. That’s when Iniesta can balance the flanks with Alves, and the defensive trio will have the pace and understanding to command the area even when one of them (pique) moves slightly forward.

My Favorite selection for this game:

 Puyol-Pique- Abidal-Maxwell-Yaya-Keita-Xavi-Henry-Ibra-Messi

a) Puyol-Pique-Abidal can secure the area infront of Valdes.
b) Maxwell can do the Alves job from the right left flank motivating Henry to penetrate into the box. We all know what happens when we get both Ibra and Henry into the box and deliver the ball to them right?
c) We will have the tactical flexibility to change gears based on Kazan form. If they showed enough potentials to label as dangerous opponents we select the third Gear with Abidal-Pique-Puyol playing as static center defenders behind Yaya who will be supported by Keita as needed. That will be more than enough to keep Xavi-Messi-Ibra-Maxwell and Henry focused on scoring a goal to hunt the game. And with Kazan showing the intentions to attack the mentioned five players will have enough quality and space to score. If Kazan were less daring offense wise by playing a lone striker then Abidal and Puyol can mark him while Pique cover behind Yaya leaving Keita for his offense role. Cross the ball from the flanks into a box where Keita, Ibra, and Henry exist and you know what will happen next.

d) Ibra can still move to the left where he has the understanding with Maxwell or to the right when Henry and Keita penetrate into the box and Messi cuts into the center getting advantage of the spaces created by his teammates positioning rotation.

e) Marking Xavi will not lead to blocking our offense flow as it will be directed more toward the flanks through Maxwell and Messi. Ibra and Henry can act as stations and outlets while Keita and Yaya support the ball flow.

The reason why I prefer this selection is its directness. If the weather was not suitable and the field was not compatible to skills and techniques, only a direct style can put you through. The likes of Henry, Keita, Ibra, and Maxwell can guide the team in that manner more than the partnership of Xavi and Iniesta, or the offense with Iniesta and Messi on the extremes.

Alves will be available for this game as well, but if he is not fully fit, then it’s better not to select him as he may not have enough immunity against injuries in such a physically demanding game.

No need to turn it to an endless thesis. So here I publish it hoping that my following comment will be congratulating the team after a needed win.

But remember, one of Lord Pep’s maxims is that you can’t trust anyone. Perfect strangers in the shape of Russian teams can come to the Camp Nou and beat us. Last year, an ickle Segunda B team knocked Real Madrid out of the Copa del Rey, Iker Casillas notwithstanding, not to mention that it was an ickle Segunda B team that yesterday beat Real Madrid 4-0.

So, we’re taking this match seriously. And, to demonstrate our commitment to give a good show and make every team we face feel important, we’re only leaving home a few guys: Leo Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Gerard Piqué. I don’t know whether you’ve ever heard of any of them, but if it helps, I was told that Piqué is the guy who made a series of ads for a jeweler’s.

What do you mean we’re *not* taking this match seriously? Absences? What absences?

Yes, yes, of course it’s understandable. Messi, for a start, needs a rest after the chaos of internationals and giving his all against Rubin Kazan and Zaragoza. Ibrahimovic still has some pain in the knee that an Albanian knocked. Puyol was complaining about his ankle in the second half against Zaragoza. Piqué and Xavi have played virtually everything for both Barcelona and Spain, and need a bit of a rest. And Iniesta is picking up the pace after his injury.

What do we have instead? Well, the list of players Pep is taking reads like this: Valdés, Pinto; Benítez, Chygrynskiy, Márquez, Fontàs, Abidal, Maxwell; Touré, Jonathan dos Santos, Busquets, Gai Assulin, Keita; Pedro, Jeffren, Bojan and Jonatan Soriano. Yes, five boys from the youth team, and one of them will have to watch the match from the stands, though, since we can only enter 16 players for Copa del Rey matches.

Our main problem is the right flank. With Dani Alves experiencing a serious injury for the first time since he joined us, and Puyol having a bit of a well-deserved rest, we’ve had to reach into the spring of young players that is Barça B in search of a solution. And found that they’re also having problems covering the right flank. So we’ve dug deeper and came up with a young man called Iván Benítez (no relation to Rafa, I hope), who usually plays fullback but can adapt to fill in Dani’s big shoes. Pep’s other option, of course, is to take one of the two very talented men we have running on the opposite flank and make them change sides, but to be honest I’d rather have a young one giving his all, than Maxwell or Abidal trying to get used to the new position.

OMG! It’s Pep Guardiola. He’s talking to me. He’s touching me! He knows my name! Breathe, now, Iván, breathe...

Elsewhere, we’re flush with talent. Bojan, who was vital in getting the Copa last season, is back from injury and itching to play; Pedrito can come in anytime with his providential, oh-so-elegant goals; Jeffren got a few minutes’ play against Zaragoza in what seems a move designed to prep him for this match. Touré, Busquets and the Man of the Week, Keita, can lend some gravitas to the midfield. Rafa Marquez and Chygrynskiy can get more time on the pitch to recover their form after their respective injuries. Maxwell and Abidal both have done well and more than well playing on the left.

My predicted line-up?

————————–Pinto————————-
Benítez—Márquez—Chygrysnkiy—Maxwell
————————Touré————————–
——————Busquets—Keita———————-
—————-Jeffren—Bojan—Pedrito—————–

With Fontás to come in if Rafa or Dima get into trouble, and possibly some experimenting in the midfield, according to how willing Cultural Leonesa are to roll over and play dead (my guess? Not much). Gai Assulin or former Espanyolista Jonathan Soriano can sub in for any of the strikers.

Now, what do we know about our rivals? Preciously little, to be honest. They were delighted to be drawn against us, and promptly hiked out the price of the tickets to their seat, the Reino de León stadium, and sold them out. Their star player is Barcelona born-and-bred Jito, who is a declared fan of our local enemies, Espanyol; he’s a nice, effective striker who has scored 9 of the 9 goals the Cultural Leonesa has on their tally this season, and I bet he’d love to put one past Pinto.

I couldn’t find a bigger picture, but look at them! They’re dressed in white! Isn’t that enough for us to want to beat them?

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa was founded in 1923, as a result of joining Gimnástica and La Victoria, two smaller teams of the city of León. In 1926, it won the fifth-tier championship, and made it into Segunda by 1927. Their biggest achievement so far has been to play a whole season (54-55) in la Liga as we know it, although they couldn’t keep up with the big boys and have dithered between the lower tiers since then.

So far, this season has been poor for them. They are sitting 17th out of the 20 teams of their group in Segunda B, with only two wins, four draws and four losses to their name; their goal average wouldn’t keep anyone awake at night. However, Josu Uribe, their manager, thinks that “victory is possible”, but also that “a draw here in León wouldn’t be a bad result”.

Pep, on the other hand, has made clear that we are taking the match seriously and that Barça “never gives away anything. Not a match, much less a competition”; he acknowledges that having a return leg makes things easier for Barcelona, but also reminds us that last season we barely got past Segunda B team Benidorm at this stage (Pep, always so optimistic!).

Me, I’m happy. Sunday’s match against Zaragoza quelled any doubts I could have harboured about the team. I’m full of confidence in the young ones, who are going to try their damnedest to impress Pep. I predict a comfortable 0-3 victory for Barça. And you?

This, sensation…I’ve never felt it before…it feels like the exact opposite of pleasure.

Unless. . .

WE START OLEGUER THIS WEEKEND!

And he will do the Oleguerinha. The skills. The death defying tackles. The goals. Maddening. Alas, he plays for Ajax now, and is too busy winning games for them. But that’s okay, because we play Zaragoza this weekend and look to rectify the mistakes of our yesterday. Thierry Henry, the aforementioned Alves, Milito, Chygrynskiy are all recovering from their respective injuries.

Since we played all of our big guns against Rubin Kazan and lost. I would go deeper into this, but it has already been excellently covered and any further commentary will be nothing but repetitiveness in a less glamorous display. Kind of like watching Barcelona play, and then tuning in the next day to watch an Arsenal game.

I’m sure Pep, who has been greatly humbled this past week is out to prove everyone that he is going to show us all how to get it done. La Liga, to some, is more important than the Champions League (I don’t know which one Pep holds in higher regard). Me thinks he has yet to fully grasp that the eleven starters on the field he puts out there are not the same players that FIFA 10 may have you believe, even though on some occasions we may put up FIFA type scores. And although those much cursed FIFA internationals are over, the lads are still feeling the affects of them, having only been back with the squad a week. I like to keep my previews short, so I shall delve right into the nitty gritty of the fixture.

Pep will play all of the big guns, but I, like Ramzi, think that Xavi needs a rest. He has been nearly absent, showing signs of fatigue. And if Alves’s overuse (granted, we all thought he could be abused physically and take it) is any indication, without some R&R&R (rest, relaxation and rotation) of our biggest stars, we’re going to need a nurse on a more consistent basis. Alas, I can hope Pep will use all of his resources available (Keita, midweek anyone?) to put a dent in the “oh-no-we-haven’t-won-in-two-games-the-world-is-coming-to-an-end” swirls that the media is having a circle jerk about. Alas, my predicted line-up for this weekend:

Valdes
Puyol – Marquez – Pique – Maxwell
Toure
Iniesta – Keita
Messi – Ibra – Bojan

Alves is out with injury of course, which means that our stalwart behemoth of Catalonia will occupy this right flank with his various forays up the pitch. This leaves the woefully out-of-form Marquez in the Middle with DJ Pique! in the center, and for our attacking options, of which we will need in the absence of Alves, Maxwell to start to give Abidal a break. Also, we hardly saw any attacks develop from the left against Kazan, without the dependability of Henry in making those runs we falter easily, and without Abidal’s uncanny ability to disrupt counter-attacks we would be in deep shit a lot more often from that side. Puyol is adequate in getting forward, so this will provide some nice balance for us.

The steady hand, or fist of Yaya will control the middle as always, allowing for Iniesta and Keita to attack! to their heart’s content. Keita especially we’ll need to get in the mixer in the box, as his delayed runs are most effective, especially with the opposition always looking at Ibra and Messi. He also brings that grit, rough and tumble attitude to the midfield, something we’ll need for the physical play Zaragoza are sure to bring. This is also a chance to give Ghostface an opportunity to play Xavi’s role of distributor and facilitator. I know I know, he’s the slashing darting one, and he will do that, but he will do so will great effectiveness me thinks.

Get Bojan, our wee lad some action. He needs to be consistently involved for him to have confidence, which we have already seen to be occasionally lacking. Motivation from the competition of Pedro and Jeffren makes me think Bojan will put in an inspired performance if given an opportunity, a goal? We shall see. Big Bird in the middle will do his thing, as will Messi. Messi to be taken out in the second half though in favor of Pedro, so he can get some rest, as he has looked jaded recently as well. This will happen of course, after he scores a goal similar to this one:

Our opponents, Real Zaragoza sit currently 13th in the table. Their marquee signing of the summer, Jermaine Pennant is also going our chief concern defensively. I have always rated him to be a good player and look for him to give us some trouble down the wings, especially with Maxwell’s, well, how shall we say. . .problems defending? DJ Pique best be on his toes ready to help at a moment’s notice. Also, a member of the old guard, Roberto Ayala (yes he’s still around) is keeping watch over his team that he captains, and Javier Arzimendi, the 6 foot 3 inch counter-part to Ewerthon (I like this guy, but he usually comes off the bench, had to get a mention in) will be ever dangerous from corners, and he also drifts out wide, only to dart back inside, a potential area of concern for us. DJ Pique’s great positional awareness though I’m confident can neutralize Arzimendi. We can look to a starting XI for Zaragoza to look something like this:

Carrizo
Pulido – Ayala – Pavon – Paredes
Pennant – Gabi – Aguilar – Babic
Arzimendi – Ewerthon

Ponzio picked up a red card in the 2-2 draw against Racing Santander, and thus will be unavailable. Racing also like to empoly a 4-5-1 with two holding midfielders, so that is also a formation we may see used this weekend. I think both are equally likely, but 4-4-2 being the standard formation of the world, I went ahead with this here one.

All in all, I expect us to carry the day, with goals from Bojan, Keita and Messi. A 3-1 margin is in order I believe, and we’ll get the proverbial monkeys off our backs for the time being. Most everyone will get a much deserved rest as well during the week with the Copa del Rey starting, so there is some promising news to look forward. Visca Barça!

If I say that once upon a time a nation fought for independence and for protecting its unique culture. You will say Catalonia.

If I ask you about the Capital of that Nation, you will say Barcelona.

Now if I will say that the mentioned nation had to face an extreme regime, you will say that’s  Franco’s.

You may be right, unless if we are talking about Tatarstan, its capital “Kazan” And their determination to be independent of Russia, with all what they had to stand against during the extreme regime of USSR.

My native country

I walked so many roads, I’ve seen the world,

And tender winds stroked my face.

But when I come to you, my native land,

I’m overjoyed deep inside.

When I’m away from you for just a day,

I miss you terribly with all my heart.

Without you, my dear native land,

It seems like there is no life in this world.

When I’m away from you for just a day,

I feel as if I am an orphan.

You are the beauty of this endless world,

The graceful light that shines bright at night

That’s a translation for Tatarestan National anthem. Or at least what my research lead me to.

I am not a historian nor I am in place to judge whats right or wrong. But its easy to see how the cultural bases of the two clubs concur.

Without going further in that endless ramble, lets focus on what will take place at the Camp Nou few hours from now. The game between:

The Catalans and the Tatar.

How will Barcelona play?

Allow me, for a change, to tell you how I wish Barcelona to play, rather than predicting the automatic selection and strategy which will get enough supportive discussions here and there and everywhere. Through my approach, I aim to inject some controversial issues between the lines. Such “issues” I believe will be more decisive for the club this season than this specific game.

I vote for a radical rotation.Which may sound as popular as garlic, and as healthy.

Defense:

Maxwell on the left doing the usual Alves role but on the opposite flank.

Puyol as a right back: playing the usual Abidal job that we know. Acting as a third center back when Maxwell activate his Alves moves forward, and contribute offense wise as far as his basic defensive role allow.

Pique and Marquez as Center backs. Yet if Rubin barely had any player to bother our own half, and at times when Puyol stay behind, one of the two (Marquez or Pique) has to move up to act as a second holding midfielder leaving two Center backs behind.

Midfield:

Busquets as a holding midfield. Yeap! You read it right. He has been disastrous so far, to say the least. But I still believe in him for what he offered last season. Lets put it this way: No offense to Rubin, but a player who carried his responsibilities successfully against Manchester United, May 27, deserve another chance . And lets admit it now that he cant read this preview: We need him to be back and in form, especially if we did no X-mass shopping.

Then…Yaya: Its time to see what he can do in a more offense oriented role. If we ignore his Valencia performance when he tried too hard to be effective while moving forward, I am a believer in his offense qualities since the first time I saw him playing. Having Yaya in the same selection with Busquets is an insurance card. If Busquets started to show his drunk-y moments we will always have Yaya to move back to his original position, or at least to support there when needed.  Finally, Having Yaya and Busquets in the midfield may save the third midfielder energy as he may not need to track back as much. Something we need for the third midfielder I picked for my weird selection.

Iniesta: Xavi need a break. As simple as that. And the team need to adapt playing without Xavi in the midfield, or else it will be a ticking bomb for the whole season. We need to take the brave step and launch the Midfield-Independence-Movement (MIM), a transition out of Xavi dependency.There is no better time than now.  Unless if someone believe that its better to do it while missing Yaya and Keita? During the last stretch of the season? Nah…now or never.

How does the selection sound so far? Well I am just warming up.

Offense:

Pedro on the right  1)to stretch the field, 2) Contribute in gaining back the ball through his quality in pressuring the opponent while Barcelona are in the quest to gain  back possession. And of course, 3) to score another crucial goal if he felt like doing so.

Ibra as a “9”. Or you thought I will go as far as using Valdes there?  If Ibra is ready, then he is a must.

Bojan on the left but not exactly on the left. Maxwell runs forward will give Bojan the chance to cut inside and act as a second striker around Ibra. That’s the perfect role for bojan if you ask me. If he plays there he will do an assist that Ibra will translate to the net, and he will score a tap in that he will get no credit for.

Having Puyol, Marquez, Pique and Busquets to do the essential defensive work creates a secure backbone to build our game strategy on. Iniesta and yaya running the show generate more possession time where Iniesta quality in holding possession and Yaya quality as an outlet and a ball winner will make Rubin midfield struggle. This due can execute the ball circulation perfectly, can make assists into the box, Yaya runs into the box will shock and shake the Russian defense. How can they defend against two towers like Yaya and Ibra in the box? And Finally, With pedro and Maxwell stretching the field and Bojan roaming around Ibra in and on the edge of the box, we can finish the game in the first half.

If it didn’t click, don’t forget that we have an Argentinian game changer on the bench who can attack the exhausted Russian defense in the second half, and we have a keita for any tactical fixings. Without forgetting Xavi and Alves of course. A quality bench that we can use wisely in the second half and finish the game as being the victorious team without burning all the calories we have.

Now how will Pep actually play? If we start the guessing game, we will never end. Alves +Maxwell and two holding mids? Or the best selection possible to seal the deal in the first half then do the substitutions? All sound good, and Whatever Pep will do he will do it for good reasons, at least from his own point of view. The same as I have my reasons for the selection I suggested.

You are lucky boys, its not me who decide. But I cant avoid asking the question: Will you prefer a 2-0 win using my selection or a 7-0 win starting all the big boys?

How will Rubin Kazan play? Well I have a bad news and a good news for you. The bad news is that my doctor forbids me from following the Russian league as its too cold for my rheumatism. So no rambling here. The good news is that Micheal, a Rubin Kazan fan agreed to give us his thoughts about the game. I sent him “The 101 questions about Kazan” And he kindly gave the following feedback:

“Rubin Kazan is in Russian premier league from 2003, where they finished the league in the third position. In 2004 Rubin Kazan was in UEFA Cup, and finished in the tenth position. After some “normal” seasons, in 2008 Rubin won the Russian tournament, the big  day was the 2nd November 2008, against Ramenskoye (1-2).

Rubin is very different from the western Russia. I mean, it’s the pride of Tatars and his mentality, the way to play is different from CSKA, Zenit etc. Rubin is more concrete than beautiful to see. We can say that Kazan’s culture it’s similar to Barcelona’s one when it come to respecting the own state.
Rubin is in a bad mood at the moment, after losing all the advantage from the rivals in the league. The defeat in Kiev has started everything, because Rubin in August was very very strong. Not beautiful to see like I said, but concrete and expert in Russian borders. After the 3-1 against Dynamo, Rubin has drawn in Siberia against Tom 0-0 and Inter at home,and lost with Amkar Perm and Lokomotiv. Only last Saturday they beat Khimki, though not a fantastic team after all.

Rubin plays this way:

Rhizykov
Kaleshin – Cesar Navas – Sharonov – Ansaldi
Noboa – Semak – Sibaya
Dominguez – Karadeniz
Bukharov

I don’t know if Bukharov will play tomorrow because he was substitute for an injury against Khimki.

Kurman Berdjev is the head coach of the team from 2001. He’s from Turkmenistan. He usually take in his hands a Musulman Coran when he’s on the bench. He doesn’t speak very much in matches, he’s more silent than excited

I think that the key performers are Semak, captain also of the national team, Ansaldi, a great Argentinian winger followed also by Barcelona, Dominguez, former Zenit player who scored the two goals for Rubin in this CL, and Bukharov.

I think also that is too early to evaluate its performance in the CL. Its even unrealistic  to make expectations. Rubin is in an impossible group. We drew against Inter. Barcelona played better against Inter, but like I said before, it’s a difficult group for everyone, so it’s important to think match to match.

will Rubin offense cause troubles against Barcelona? I couldn’t watch Valencia-Barcelona, but reading in the results of the games I watched, its obvious that Barcelona defenders are fantastic. 0-0 against Valencia and Inter, 1-0 with Almeria 1-0 Shaktar 3-0 Bilbao 2-0 Dynamo Kiev etc. So I can’t find any weak point in Barcelona…also with a Rubin at 100% it depends on Barca mood to decide how the game will go.

Barcelona can hurt Rubin with its forwards. I mean…Rubin defenders are not excellent…and Messi can go trough them without any difficulties.
But even if Barcelona succeeded to mark Messi, Barcelona will not depend only on him as they have a lot of other fantastic player.

I hope in a less damaging defeat…1-0?”

That’s all what we have for today folks! If you wonder how would anyone suggest something similar to what you read here, may be the fact that I wrote this one while traveling from the freezing weather of Sweden to the warm weather of Lebanon these days is the one to blame as its dangerous for the brain, even a brilliant one like mine.

So take it easy with this poor thing. Enjoy this one before you start whipping:

* The “Bez Buldırabız!” that I used as a title is The unofficial Tatarstan motto and it means: We can!

Update!

To add some more spices while covering the game, enjoy this interview with Marat Gilmutdinov, one of the administrators of F.C. RUBIN KAZAN group on facebook.

- Can you give us a brief historical background about Rubin Kazan?

Until the 90’s Rubin were not a big team on a national scale, in fact their ‘new era’ started off in 1996 with a change in management. Since then Rubin has shown great progress. They moved up to the top league in 2002, and are now one of the leading teams in Russia. The club’s infrastructure and management has also been improved recently.

- Is it a team that s as attached to the Tatar culture as Barcelona to Catalonia? Where do you see the similarities?

Rubin is the only big football club in the Republic, all other football teams play in other divisions. In some ways I think that the team is some sort of a symbol, that makes people proud. But on the other side only one local player is listed in the first Rubin squad – Buharov. Also Kazan has other good teams, which are very popular. Our ice hockey team AK BARS, volleyball ZENIT and are champions too. Basketball team UNICS are in the top three of the Russian League. So I would not say that Rubin is the main team in the Republic.

- How can you evaluate the club performance in the league so far, specially for the past few games?

The last couple of weeks Rubin players were involved in a lot of games, including the national team qualifiers. Players may be a little tired mentally and physically, which is why the coach let most of the first team players rest in Saturday’s league game against Khimki. In general the team’s form is good, apart from an injury of Buharov, which he suffered in the last game. Recent games have shown that some of our young reserve players have good potential, and may be able to show it on Camp Nou on Tuesday.

- How can you describe the club style of play?

I would say that the style of play is flexible enough to adapt to the opponents tactics. But generally our team prefers attacking style of play. In some ways it is similar to Barca’s style with a mixture of short and long passes, fast wingers.

-   Who are the key performers for the team?

In my opinion all players are important, but Dominguez  and our goalkeeper Ryzhikov are vital.

- Where are the most concerning weaknesses in your opinion?

Lack of experience of playing in big tournaments and facing superclubs.

- How do you evaluate the team performance in the CL so far?

I think we played good enough in both games, but lost concentration in the end against Dynamo. The game against Inter proved that we have enough quality to succeed.

- How do you evaluate Barcelona performance from a Kazan fan point of view?

Barcelona have only started the season and I think now they are only playing to 2/3 of their real potential. They are usually better in the play-offs.

- Where do you feel Barcelona are soft enough for Rubin to expose?

Barcelona has a great choice of defenders, but at the moment the left-back position is weaker than the others.

- Where do you think Barcelona can hurt Rubin most?

At Camp Nou today.

- Do you think Marking Messi is the most important priority for Rubin? How can Rubin stop Barcelona?

All of Barcelona’s players are top quality, and most of them are able to create chances and score. But, obviously marking Messi, if that is possible, is very important. We hope Ansaldi will play his best and use his physical ability to stop Lionel.

- What are your predictions for this game?

Barca 1 – Rubin 2

Now to Business. It’s our first Champions League game and destiny wanted Eto’o to come back to Our Cathedral, but destiny can wait a few weeks while we visit Italy to see him there. There has been tons of hype for this game, primarily around the Eto’o vs. Ibra matchup at the front and the Guardiola vs. Mourinho matchup on the sideline. That’s all good and interesting but I don’t think that’s gonna win the game, the game will be won in midfield where Xavi and Ghostface will have to outclass Sneijder and Zanetti, and BigYa will have to outmuscle Muntari/Stankovic and Motta.

This matchup should be a great test to see how we can actually do in Europe after a strong start against less illustrious competition (no offense to Getafe and Gijon).

The good news: Ghostface should be healthy enough to start and Ibracadabra has been getting his goal on recently

The bad news: Puyol and Pique both left practice with “muscular discomfort” which now means that our only healthy CB is Chygnasty…oh wait, he can’t play in Europe…shit. And Marquez still isn’t healthy.

So the Starting XI looks like it’ll be
———————Valdes———————
Alves–Piquenbauer/ElCapitan–BigYa—MaxwellHouse
————Xavi—-Keita—-Ghostface——–
—-Messi——–Ibracadabra—–Henry——

Usually I would’ve gone with Busi2.0 in there instead of Keita, but Keita’s playing beyond expectations and he’s earned that starting spot. One of the two CBs will have to get better by game time or we might be in trouble, Abidal could cover that spot but I can’t even remember the last time he played CB for FCB. Aside from that I can’t imagine someone having an argument for a different front 5.

Hasta la Victoria! Barça!!

Starting XI (predicted):
——–Valdes——–
Alves–ElCapitan–Piquenbauer–Abidal
–Xavi–Busi2.0–BigYa–
-Henry–Ibracadabra–Messi-

Look for Pedro, Bojan, and Keita to make appearances for Ibra, Henry, and Busquets. Henry just turned 32 and he’s going to have to have a solid replacement either late this season or next season no matter how well he’s playing now. Bojan is still good, he just needs his confidence back and Guardiola seems to understand that (remember he’s only 19). Keita will go in because Guardiola likes him…oh and he does the whole support role freakishly well too.

I have no inkling of how Shakhtar will play but if the last time I saw them is any indication, then Puyol and Pique better be extra mean (I would say the same about BigYa, but he does that anyway) because the Orange and Blacks will come out swinging.

My Prediction: 2-1 Victory. Goals by: (unpronounceable Ukranian name), Messi, and (AT LAST!!!) Ibracadabra. We’ll get a come from behind victory that confirms our team’s character.

Hasta la Victoria! Barça!!