Could Roy of the Rovers have the answer to stopping Barcelona?

When I was a kid I used to read the Roy of the Rovers soccer comic and one story in particular stuck with me. Roy’s team were playing in a cup game against a team with a great striker who was scoring goals for fun. They asked one of their players ‘Blackie’ to mark this striker and keep him quiet in the game. As the game went on Blackie kept leaving the striker to try and win the ball elsewhere. Not surprisingly Melchester Rovers went on to win the game; it was after all their comic book.  After the game, Blackie got a grilling for not following the plan, and was asked why he didn’t follow orders. Blackie explained that when he watched the opposition he had noticed that the real threat was the number 6 who got all the assists. He told Roy that he thought it would be easier to cut off the supply to the striker than deal with the striker when he got the ball. What a clever lad Blackie was!

Anyway this lesson stayed with me and here are a couple of examples of how Blackie’s tactical genius might be able to help Manchester United deal with the headache that is Barcelona.

In the 1977 European Cup final Liverpool met Borussia Monchengladbach in what was to be Kevin Keegan’s final game for Liverpool. Keegan was imperious that night and led Liverpool to their first European title. He was able to receive the ball in advanced positions and dictate the play. He ran the Gladbach defence, including the great Berti Vogt’s, ragged for 90 minutes. Keegan ticked and Liverpool tocked and ran out eventual winners.

Three years later, Keegan was back in the European final this time with Hamburg against Nottingham Forest. Keegan was probably playing the best football of his life and had recently been crowned European Footballer of the Year. However the one question mark with him was his habit of dropping deeper and deeper to receive that ball if he wasn’t getting the service the needed.  Forest, under the leadership of Clough and Taylor chocked off the supply line to Keegan and forced him to drop deeper and deeper to gain possession.  The plan worked a treat and Forest beat Hamburg 1-0 in a massive upset.

Now how does that relate to trying to deal with a team that has more than one threat? I have heard that Jose Mourinho believes that the best way to beat a team is to take away the thing they do best, whether or not he believes it, I thinks it’s a pretty good place to start. For me Barcelona’s strength is not the make up of the team, it’s the wonderful rhythm and tempo that they play at. You can’t double Messi and then try to deal with Iniesta and Xavi as you can only play with 11 players.  If you are going to have a go at beating Barcelona then you have to try to take that rhythm away from them. The chances of doing this twice are slim, but in a one game winner take all you have a chance.

The key for me is two fold. First of all you have to stop the two full backs from taking up advanced positions Dani Alves, in particular, spends more time in the attacking third than the defensive third. Secondly when the two centre backs, Pique and probably Puyol, split when they are in possession; you have to stop Busquets from receiving the ball. He drops in and acts as the link to the advanced players.

Now if I was Sir Alex Ferguson, and I’m the first to admit I’m not, here is how I would put Blackie’s plan into play. You can’t choke the supply line as they simply have too many players that can hurt you, however you can disrupt the rhythm. Manchester United work harder than many give them credit for, and in Park and Valencia they have two great athletes who can cover amazing amounts of real estate, combine that with Rooney playing high up between the central defenders, a three man central midfield including Park, and Valencia, Hernandez or Nani as deep lying wide attacking players and United have the personnel to threaten Barcelona, playing in a 4-3-3 scheme.

If they can stop Busquets linking the play and keep the full backs from getting higher up the field then they take away, in my opinion, Barcelona’s biggest asset, which is their rhythm. So, look for a three man midfield with Carrick and Park and possibly Giggs in front of them with Rooney up top and two from Hernandez, Valencia and Nani wide.  I am sure that Pep Guardiola won’t be reading this so as long as he didn’t learn from Blackie and Roy of the Rovers, United have a chance! The strength of Manchester United is their squad and the flexibility it affords their manager.  In the first leg of the quarter final Arsenal played higher up the field and pressed Barcelona and had success. The staff at United will have seen that and you can be sure they will be well prepared.

On a final note, we should all enjoy watching Barcelona as we don’t see this type of team that often. They need to win the Champions League again to guarantee their place at the top table. I haven’t seen a team play such expansive soccer since the Brazilian team at the 1982 World Cup. It’s worth remembering that Brazil’s downfall at that tournament was a well prepared Italian team with a central striker who set the tournament alight in the final stages.  Rooney’s return to goal scoring form could see the pattern repeated. I won’t predict a 3-2 win for United just yet but I will stick my neck out before the game. Whatever the score I hope we don’t have to wait too long before we see another team like this Barcelona team, they are always a treat to watch.

Just a quick reminder, the Lower Island Soccer Associations May meeting will now take place on May 6^th at the Braefoot turf field in Victoria starting at 5.45pm. Many thanks to the Lakehill Soccer Association for providing the fields!