A Brief Study of Barcelona’s Formations and Happy Anagrams: MIRTH, ZAP ME

By: Isaiah | July 24th, 2007

There’s little else Barcelona fans seem to be discussing these days and with a couple of requests to do so myself, I’ve decided to weigh in on the weightiest of issues: the roster. It’s fat, it’s probably not all that happy, and it’s supposedly working harder than ever towards the six trophies they were supposed to win last year, but didn’t. In fact, only one player on the team starts the year as a defending champion of anything domestic and that’s newly-arrived Eric Abidal (Ligue 1 with Lyon).* Not only that, but several of the new players on the squad (Bojan, Gio, and Olmo) are fresh off of being relegated to the Tercera, which is the Spanish equivalent of the Nationwide Conference, if I’m not mistaken. That Barcelona B was so disastrous last season is hardly indicative of what those particular players will offer to the first team, but it is indicative of the state of affairs in the Barcelona academy. [I’ve written before, briefly, about the academy, so suffice it to say that I am not happy with it.]

As for how the new faces (Thierry Henry, Gabi Milito, Eric Abidal, and Yaya Toure) will fare is mainly up to the formations and playing time Rijkaard elects to go with. Naturally. I doubt many people reading this were unaware of that fact, but despite its elementary nature, that is the entire issue. Who plays? Here is the entire lineup, in case you’d like to make your own permutations of the starting 11:

GK: Victor Valdes,
Def: Carles Puyol, Eric Abidal, Gianlucca Zambrotta, Lilian Thuram, Gabriel Milito, Sylvinho, Oleguer, Juliano Belletti, Jesus Olmo, Rafael Marquez
Mid: Xavi Hernandez, Yaya Toure, Edmilson, Thiago Motta, Andres Iniesta, Deco
For: Eidur Gudjohnsen, Bojan Krkic, Giovanni Dos Santos, Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry

No doubt most people are pushing for the star-studded lineup of ZAPMEMIRTH**:

Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Messi, Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Henry

Few seem to be suggesting something other than this. I understand the sentiment, but Barcelona’s failings from 2006/07 were not based around a lack of goals (as has been pointed out by astute readers, Barcelona scored the 3rd most amount of goals in European domestic competition with 78), but rather on the inability to keep opponents pinned in. The best example of this might be the Espanyol game when the league was lost, or what I think of as the truly decisive point: Betis’ Rafael Sobis calmly slotting the ball home to draw the score level at 1-1. The question is not the attacking third or even the defensive third (4th fewest goals allowed in European domestic competition with 33), but rather the middle third, where the things seemed to break down.

In a lineup with so many attackers, who is going to retreat into defense? Certainly not Ronaldinho, Eto’o, or Henry, which leaves Deco and Messi as the ones to track back. Deco does it with enough spirit, if not exactly enough skill, but Messi rarely shows the will to win the ball back if it crosses into his own defensive half. In the Copa America I was surprised to see him hustling back now and again, but it never struck me as something he really wanted to be doing. After all, El Jefecito Mascherano was usually there to save the day. Unless Yaya Toure turns out to be a revelation in defending, then I would expect Edmilson to be the main man for another season in the holding position. Marquez is good there too, so I would expect to see him now and then, with very infrequent moonlighting by Xavi or Motta. Assuming, though, that Toure is worth is €9m fee, then he’ll be able to put in solid performances somewhere along the line, if not immediately.

My perferred lineup would look like this:

Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Messi, Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto’o

The difference is fairly simple: substitute an attacker for a more defensive-minded player. While it relegates both Iniesta and Henry to the bench, they become super subs capable of doing the damage if necessary. This naturally puts Gudjohnsen on the far back burner (to the point where he’d become the new Saviola in a lot of respects: early round Copa del Rey appearances and perhaps a Levski Sofia level CL appearance). The star power of a Thierry Henry is undeniable, as is his talent, but he seems to drift wide, especially to the left, a spot that is already occupied by one Ronaldinho Gaucho. They say he’s pretty good too. And were he to drift right, that’s Messi’s territory. The way it works primarily for Barcelona is a triangle attack, with Deco or Iniesta shooting up the middle in order to direct passes to feet. Henry doesn’t add any significant aerial firepower, despite his size, so what does he provide that no one else can? So far, after too many hours of deliberation while filling in spreadsheets at work (don’t tell my boss), I can’t think of a good reason to inject him into the lineup as it stands (as a direct replacement) or reorganizing everyone to fit him. After all, while Ronaldinho in the middle of the park is a nifty idea, it’s never really proven itself to work and anyway, that would bring up the question of Deco, who is assuredly a better central midfielder than Ronnie. And then if you stick “TH14″ on the right, you encounter the same issue, but with Messi. Dropping any of the front four (Deco, Ronnie, Messi, Eto’o) would threaten to upset the goalscoring machine that is Barcelona. And why bother doing that?

And if you just scrunch Henry in up top, you threaten to open the team up at the back, much like a certain Real Madrid was easily shredded over the previous 3 years. While there is a more veteran core of defenders in the Camp Nou than there was in Madrid prior to this last season, there is little to suggest that Toure or Edmilson would be able to effectively control the midfield while the front 5 were standing around watching. I mean, you actually notice when Ronaldinho or Messi play defense, so that means it rarely happens. And what’s to suggest they would suddenly become end-to-end players? Nothing, because that’s not who they are.

What’s really, really unfortunate about the whole thing is that my lineup anagrams to “ZAP! Dim term.” Dammit.

The great thing about the pre-season and the first 3 jornadas of La Liga is that none of Barcelona’s opponents are top notch. Compare that to Real Madrid’s opening weekend encounter with Atlético Madrid and the lineup of Racing, Athletic Bilbao, and Osasuna will allow for some coddling of the team and a few tactical experiments on Rijkaard’s part. That Sevilla is 4th should force his hand into a static lineup, but that’s not until September 23, a full 2 months after the pre-season opens and a time when Puyol should be back at full strength. If he’s not, the lineups listed above do change, but only minutely as you can just substitute Thuram for Puyol. Another question mark will be Toure, who may or may not be up to the challenges provided by Barcelona and the Spanish league, much less the Champions League, whose first group stage game is September 18-19. So perhaps you also can liberally substitute Edmilson for Toure wherever you’d like, though it does ruin my anagram: Tzar, Dime ‘Em.

Now if Belletti plays for Zambrotta…then there’s an anagram gold mine: A Bet Dimmer, to name just one.

*I’m not in any way, shape, or form disparaging Barcelona’s second-place finish in last year’s La Liga, semifinal appearance in the Copa del Rey or the round of 16 exit from the Champions League. I think I should make that abundantly clear right now, before things really get started. Statistical analysis of the first of those competitions suggests Barcelona deserved to be in the top 2 - and really they deserved the title, but that bitter pill I should just go ahead and swallow because no amount of bitching is going to erase the images taken at the Plaza de Cibeles - and it was a fluke loss to Getafe that dropped them from the Copa del Rey. Liverpool seemed the better team across the two nights and that is that. Losses happen, but in the singular they do not necessarily suggest a greater meaning (suggesting Liverpool is better than Barcelona or vice versa based on 2 games is akin to saying Mexico beating Brazil in the Copa America means the tricolor are the better of the two teams). I am, to be perfectly clear, proud of a second place finish. Disappointed at the same time, of course, but proud and very much looking forward to the new season.

**All right so the I is for Iniesta, but not even anagram builders could come up with words when I put in D for Deco…