Is Barca on the decline?

Is it over?

One of the aftermaths of the loss to Chelsea was the story that Barca were on the decline.  Guardiola's decision to not renew his contract is seen by some as confirmation of the same.  In my opinion, this idea is absurd.  Let's go through some of the most common themes pervading through the internet:

1.  Barca's squad is getting old.
This one is just demonstrably false.  Here's a link to the respective age of Barca's first team squad -
http://www.footbo.com/Teams/Barcelona/Squad

As you can see, other than Xavi, Abidal, Keita and the goalkeepers, all of Barca's first team squad is in their mid to early twenties.  So, let's count this as debunked.

2.  Barca do not have quality substitutes.
There is some truth to this.  But, it's not because Barca's squad lacks quality; it's because their first team squad is absolutely phenomenal! Let's not forget, Messi, Iniesta and Xavi are three of the top 5 players in the world! Obviously replacing them is never going to be easy.  It's like arguing that United suck because no one can step in for Rooney, or that Arsenal are terrible because no one can replace RVP.  Yeah - it's true - but that's because they are incredibly good players.  It's just a pointless criticism.

3.  Guardiola's resignation proves that he does not see a future for the squad.
Again- demonstrably false.  Ever since Pep took over, he has only signed rolling one-year contracts.  He has been hinting at his desire to take a step away from football since early last year.  Yes, even when Barca had won every single thing they could win.  If he did not see a future for the squad, he would not have signed young players such as Sanchez and Affelay.

4.  No one can replace Xavi, Messi and Iniesta
This is somewhat tied to #2, but I consider it a slightly different point; in that Barca actually do have excellent substitutions for all of the above.  In Fabregas, I believe Barca have a ready-made replacement for Xavi.  And, yes, he has not had the most stellar of seasons; but that is because he has been playing on the right hand side in order to accommodate Xavi.  Once Xavi retires, Cesc will undoubtedly replace him and go on to become the best central midfielder in the world.  Messi is the best player in the world.  Period.  But, Barca actually does have players that can complement him/give him a rest - likes of Villa, Affelay, Sanchez, Pedro and the young Tello.  These are all excellent players in their own right, and can be rotated in for either Messi or Iniesta.

5.  They've lost the desire to win.
Yup - the team that is 2nd in the spanish league and reached the semi-finals of the champions league - no desire.  Stupid.

6.  Messi has grown too big for his boots.
Yes, Messi has a slight dark side to him.  but, for someone who literally has the world at his feet, Messi continues to be a model professional off the field; he's rather Scholes like.  He shies away from the media and focuses on football.  He constantly praises his teammates and famously declared that Xavi, and not Messi, should win the world player of the year.

7.  They do not have a Plan B
I mentioned this in my analysis of the Chelsea-Barca game.  But, although true, this is not applicable to a comment on Barca's decline, because this has been true for years now - Barca only play one way.  They will never be able to boot the ball upfield and score.  It's just that, sometimes, the brilliant plan A gives out. And i would argue that that is okay.

So - for all of you prematurely predicting Barca's demise - please go back into your parents' basements.

The end.  Thank your for reading.

Next up - preview of the united-City game.

Chelsea-Barcelona/Madrid-Bayern REVIEW

Champions league madness! Both games this week were thrilling and nerve-wracking.  As you might already know - my prediction of a Madrid-Chelsea final came undone.  Surprisingly, however, it was not for the reason many predicted.

Barcelona vs Chelsea

Let me start off by congratulating DeMatteo.  The man came into the Chelsea job with the unenviable task of sorting out the mess left behind by the tactical ineptitude of AVB combined with the paranoia of Abramovic.  Let me also denounce all of those denigrating Chelsea's performance as 'anti-football'.  Let's get this straight - NO ONE beats Barcelona playing Barcelona's game.  No one.  Why would Chelsea try and have 50% possession? It means absolutely nothing.  Chelsea had one goal - to get through to the final of the Champions League.  They were not trying to appease the football purists and why the hell should they be? You lot are a bunch of pedantic morons who consider 'beautiful' football to be more valuable than winning.  If beautiful football is all that matters, why exactly do Arsenal fans ever moan? Surely there has to be a balance between beautiful football and winning.  Anyway, I digress.

Once Chelsea were 2-0 and a man down, I was sure that it was game over.  Readers of my blog know how I feel about John Terry.  I am absolutely thrilled that he will not play in the final because he is pound-for-pound the most reprehensible man in football - and that coming from me - a Wayne Rooney fan.  Regardless of what he may have claimed later on, there was no 'accidental lifting of the knee'; that was a blatant disregard of an opponent's safety.

Ramires, my second favorite Chelsea player, scored an excellent goal and Chelsea were going through on the away goal rule.  Although the goal was against the run of play, it was emblematic of the Chelsea's combative performance.  After a good tackle, Frankie Lamps played in young Ramires who chipped the on-rushing Valdez to stun Camp Nou.  From that point on, Chelsea played with all 10-men behind the ball.  Other than Messi's missed penalty and his strike that hit the upright, for all of Barca's possession (~80%), they did not create too many clear-cut chances.  Besides, Cech was smothering all shots from distance and all crosses into the box.  With Pique having gone off injured, Barca were really finding it difficult to find anyone to aim at in the box, and Chelsea allowed them to have tons of width.  The fact that Barca do not have a Plan B to complement their admittedly brilliant Plan A, ended up being their undoing.  They huffed and they puffed, but they could not blow Chelsea's house down.

Although my heart goes out to Ramires for picking up a yellow that will see him missing the final, NOTHING compares to how I felt when I saw Meireles being booked.  That guy, above every single Chelsea player, deserves to play in the final.  He was fantastic over both legs - his workrate, distribution and tackling were a pleasure to behold.  And if I can make a bold prediction, it will be his absence that will lose Chelsea the final.  As a United fan, I am reminded of when Darren Fletcher received an unfair red in the semi-final against Arsenal.  His absence is the key factor to why United lost to Barcelona in 2008.  Poor Meireles - seeing him beg the referee to not give him a yellow almost brought tears to my eyes.  Oh, and if you haven't figured it out by now - he is my favorite Chelsea player.  I'm glad he left Liverpool because now I do not feel guilty cheering for him.

Despite Ramires' excellent goal, the highlight of the night was yet to come.  Although Chelsea were winning on the away-goal rule, there was an anxiety present because Barca were one goal away from securing their place in the final.  Cue a certain Mr. Torres.  As soon as he was introduced, I asked myself (and facebook) whether he would score against Barca.  He sure did.  Picking up the ball from a long clearance, he rounded the hapless Valdes to secure both Chelsea's place in the final and his name into Chelsea folklore.

But - please don't start singing 'He scores when he wants'.  Because that shit is demonstrably and laughably absurd.

Projjol "I'm sexy and I know it" Banerjea 

Shoutout to my good friends Projjol 'muscle-man' Banerjea and his beautiful wife Hickie 'she-wears-the-pants' Chatterjee/Banerjea for these recently acquired pictures from the Camp Nou.  

Madrid-Bayern

Madrid were favorites to go through after scoring an away goal.  And once they had gone 2-0 up with two quick goals by Ronaldo (and some brilliant vision by 'Avatar-eyes' Ozil), it looked like Madrid were going to run away with the game.  When i saw Ronaldo score, I was reminded of how he is often criticized as someone who goes missing in big games; especially when compared to Messi.  He had a brilliant game overall - and despite his eventual PK miss - should be proud of his overall performance.  Mourinho has added a dimension to Ronaldo's game that was non-existent during Cristiano's time at Man United - defensive awareness.  Ronaldo tracked back throughout this game and helped keep Ribery/Robben at bay.

Soon, it became increasingly apparent that Madrid's defense was shaky.  The first signs of it was a bursting run by Austrian defender Alaba.  Alaba tore past three players and hit a great cross to Robben who should have scored against his old side.  Madrid gave up a penalty via Pepe, who was lucky not to get sent off, and Robben duly dispatched the PK into the side netting.

Both Robben and Ronaldo were guilty of wasting some free kick chances in the second half, but the game was fairly even at that point.  The best chance of the game came when Alaba played in Robben.  Robben's first time pass found Gomez and the 40+ goal striker was odds-on to score.  He flubbed his first touch and found himself crowded out before he could get a decent strike away.  I thought Kaka's introduction during the 75th minute would prove to be catalytic - but the brazilian 'star' was at his disappointing best.  Extra time was uneventful and the game was finally decided by the lottery of penalty kicks.

Oh Ronaldo.  The kid never misses penalties during the game.  The kid never scores penalties during a shootout.  Neuer had a good game and Bayern were through - thereby denying Mourinho the chance to avenge Abrahomivic's mistreatment of him.  The final will be a brilliant affair and I look forward to it.

Next up, I will be previewing the United-City game.  Thank you for reading.

How can Chelsea beat Barcelona? (1st leg)

On Wednesday, Chelsea play the most important game of their season so far - the first leg of the semi-final against the mighty Barcelona.  Barcelona may go down ass the greatest club team in football history (and, yes, I'm including AC Milan), but surely they are beatable, right? I would like to hope so.  The following is my opinion of how Chelsea can win the first leg at Stamford Bridge.


1.  Play a flexible 4-3-1-2 formation. 
Assuming that both Luiz and Cahill are missing for the game, the back four will pick itself - Terry and Ivanovic in the middle with Ashley Cole and Bosingwa as the full backs.  The midfield will have to be Meireles, Essien and Ramires.  The reason for Lamps' omission would be that the midfield will have to make continuous tracking runs and Lamps would be found wanting in that situation.  Besides, he may have a huge impact on the game coming off the bench. Mata would play the attacking midfielder role and up-top, I would have Torres and Drogba.  My reasoning for my forward selection will be clear later in the post.  Also, the above formation can be used as a potent counter-attacking option by switching to a 4-3-3.

2.  Accept that Barca will score at Stamford bridge.
Let's face it, at some point, Barca will score.  At some point, Messi will sneak past the defense and place the ball beyond a hapless Cech.  Chelsea should NOT set out looking for a clean sheet, because Chelsea cannot keep a clean sheet.  If deMatteo accepts that Chelsea will get scored on, he can focus on Chelsea's strength; offense.  The Stamford Bridge outfit should be aiming for a win - whether it's by one goal of three - there is no way they will not concede an away goal.  And, that is perfectly okay.

3.  Play a deep-line on defense
As Chelsea have found out earlier this season (refer to the Arsenal game), they are poor at playing the offside trap.  Besides, with the foot speed of the players and the incision of their passing, no one should play the offside trap against Barcelona; it just would not work.  By playing a deep-line, Barca should be able to nullify Messi and Iniesta running behind the defense via chipped/dinged passes played by their brilliant midfield.  The flipside to this will be - it will give Barca a lot more time on the ball.

4.  Let Barca have the ball in their own half + Run Ramires Run
Yes, Barca will have possession.  But, as long as Chelsea pressure in their own half, Barca will find it difficult to feed Xavi.  And Xavi is the heart of that team.  Also, this will allow Ramires to drive at the heart of the Barca midfield.  For as talented as Mascherano, Xavi and Busquets are, they are not particularly fast.  Facing the young, dynamic midfielder will be something different from anything they have experienced in La Liga.

5.  Stop Messi
This one is obvious.  But how? In my opinion, it is pointless to man-mark Messi.  With the exception of Luiz and Bosingwa, no defender on Chelsea's defense can match Messi for foot speed.  And, unfortunately for Chelsea, those two are the team's most positionally unreliable defenders.  So, yeah, no man-marking.  It would be preferable to play a stopper-sweeper formation with Terry sitting deep and Ivanovic playing stopper; distributing the ball to Meireles.

6.  Essien to man-mark Xavi
As mentioned earlier, Xavi (along with Busquets) is the heart of that Barca team.  Essien will have to prevent Xavi from running the show.  For one night, he will need to be the hard-tackling, no-nonsense monster that he was before all his injury troubles.  By playing the ball-winning role, Essien can free-up Meireles to distribute the ball into space behind Puyol, or directly to the target man-Drogba.

7.  Get Drogba on Pique and Torres on Puyol
Both of Chelsea's strikers have found some form recently and will need to be on top-form to score against arguably the best central defensive partnership in Spain.  Pique (for any gossip queens reading this - he is the lucky bastard waka-waka-ing Shakira) has blossomed into a brilliant defender.  His reading of the game and his distribution has earned him comparisons to the legendary Beckenbauer.  However, his one weakness is a physical battle.  That is exactly what Drogba can provide; Drogba should isolate himself against Pique in every dead-ball situation.  Also, Drogba is the best in the world at holding-up the ball (and winning cheap fouls) and this will give Chelsea the chance to get a breather/some possession.

Similarly, Puyol is an excellent defender.  His achilles heel is a slight lack of speed.  This can be capitalized on by El Nino.  As for picking Torres, I believe that this is just the sort of game that he would thrive in.  He is a big-game player and will have a point to prove while playing against many of his spanish compatriots.  Besides, I would argue that the alternative - Sturridge - has a poor work-rate and would not be able to handle the big occasion.  He would be best as a good option off the bench; where he can play without pressure.

8.  Capitalize on set-piece situations
Barcelona are fast in every sense of the word.  However, they also have a lack-of-height throughout their team (with the exception of Pique and Busquets).  Chelsea should be looking at making the most of every corner and every set piece.  Similarly, they should be wary of Barcelona taking short corners, as they will be hesitant to cross the ball into the box.  Also, while on defense, they should leave Mata and Bosingwa at the half-way line.  This will force Barca to stay vigiliant against the counter attack; given Mata and Bosingwa's speed.  And, let's be honest, neither of them can defend corners.

9.  Play narrow while defending
If Chelsea play narrow and force Barca to play wide, any balls crossed into the box would be comfortable dealt with.  Moreover, it would force a certain dani Alves into overlapping positions.  Dani Alves is excellent going forward, but his positional awareness on defense is suspect.  In other words, having Alves in Chelsea's half may provide the best counter-attacking possibilities for Torres and Mata to exploit.

10.  If needing a goal, get Lamps on for Essien, Malouda/Kalou on for Mata and Sturridge on for Torres.
This one explains itself.  Also - only use Mikel if someone is injured.  The guy is pants.


What do you guys think? Anything you would add/subtract from the list?