Major clubs analysis - Part 3: Barcelona

One of the most talented squads in Europe since decades, simply collapsed in a blink of an eye, after two years where they dominated all the fields and all the hearts, the destructive mechanism started to roar and roll like an evil beast ruining everything that once added pleasure for life and football, the downfall reached the bottom that moment when the squad made two lines to cheer for Real Madrid players getting crowned! It will take too long for Barcelona fans to forget that moment, but it was the ring of change, so as in life, a cycle must be closed for another one to start, exactly what happened…
A new coach, new squad; the club was that close to get a new board, even though even the board was hit by the wind of change.

I am planning to write an article about the raise and fall of Barcelona dream team two, but for now lets talk about the future.

For me, Barcelona new squad is one of the most versatile squads in the world, that’s one of their main strength, a fast look on the players roles can show what that mean.

Goalkeepers:

Victor Valdes
Jose' Manuel pinto
Albert Jorquera

Victor Valdes is the first option, no doubt about that, Barcelona fans always complain the board is making no attempt to sign a first class keeper, but to be fair we need to admit that Valdes improved greatly last season, he still have his own dizzy moments, but he saved Barcelona in many games last season.

Pinto seems to be the option two, he used to be on high standards with Celta, and I don’t know why I have the feeling he can put more pressure on Valdes than Jorquera ever did, and that will end up for the best of the team.

Albert Jorquera is the third option, when it was thought that he will leave the club, the board extended his contract, the best thing about him is that he don’t mind to be benched forever.

If it was up to me, I would recommend that Barcelona keep only pinto as a back up, and try to sign a younger keeper for the third option spot, a young keeper who may need polishing before starting to compete for a place, but on the long run that will prove being a good strategic approach.

Goalkeeping has never been the line to be proud of in Barcelona since a while, but it's not as weak as some may think; there is enough depth and certainly its long way over average.

Defenders:

That Section was the most active in the recent two months, for players were bought, one of them was loaned out, and three players left. It was a radical reengineering that if worked, will make a huge impact on the team not only on the short term, but for future.

Barcelona defense was a disaster last season, lot of ink described how bad the fantastic four performed(or three of them to be specific), how disappointing deco was, but having a close look make it obvious that the backline was not better.

Based on the new acquisitions, the defense structure look like this:

Right backwards: Daniel Alves as a first option, Payol/Pique as back ups.

Central backwards: Marquez, Payol, Caceres, Pique and later Milito compete on two positions.
Left backwards: Eric Abidal, Sylvinho as back up and Caceres when needed.
Based on that, its obvious the team has a solid line up plus the necessary depth needed, some may suggest that the team lack natural right backward and left backward as backups for alves and Abidal (considering Sylvinho as too old), which is a good point; but in fact getting two more players for the defensive flanks will increase the competition on Central backs, where Marquez, Payol, Caceres, Pique and later Milito will have no other position to play beside Central backward, and for five players to rotate on two positions will be too much, and may cause dissatisfaction between players which will turn to develop as a snow ball and crush the harmony in the dressing room. In another hand, you can't really find better alternative in the market (aside of Rofinha on the right, whom I doubt will join Barcelona knowing that Alves will be there to keep him benched).

Some concerns must be mentioned regarding Payol and Marques ups and downs in form, beside how challenging it will be for Caceres and pique to raise up to the challenge and meet the high expectations hooked on their shoulders.

Midfield:

Barcelona fans have all the reasons to be optimistic regarding the club midfield. Having Yaya Toure, one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. Xavi who was labeled as the best player in EURO 2008, and Iniesta the player who ,aside of poor finishing, he has a combination of attributes needed to throw him anywhere on the field and he can do the job.

The problem last season was the fact that Toure had no backup, and the midfield generally lacked strength, there was an excess of techniques and skills, but not enough muscles, and there is exactly where Keita acquisition fit perfectly. He may not be a pure defensive midfielder, but he is THAT player who can work between Yaya and Xavi, offering Xavi the chance to push forward.
I read lot of comments about how stupid Barcelona board is to waste money on this guy, for that, I see myself eager to give this transaction enough time to explain why I consider it as "best transfer" the team made this year!
Keita, a player that can rotate with Toure so Yaya dont have to play even when his back is injured the way it happened last season.A player with strong physics, something deferent than the great Xavi and talented Iniesta.A player who can make the balance in midfield mix, the balance between technique and muscles.A player who can be used in CL in away games BESIDE Yaya, because that's what you need to snap (and not just compete) the CL, having Keita and Yaya as two towers in midfield, Xavi & Iniesta in front (Messi free role + Eto/Henry as a striker), and when Barcelona gain the ball, Abidal act as a 3rd CB, giving alves the opportunity to go forward, Iniesta moving to left flank so Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Henry and Alves operate offensively without having deffensive concerns when they have two giants behind them closing space, and breaking any counter attack.The answer was too perfect AND true! Keita!And to add to the joy, he is left footed...so beside Yaya he seems like a second half.And to add to the joy, he also have powerful shoots, we all know how much Barcelona suffered against teams that park their buss in front of their goal leaving no space, Barcelona failed to get a target man to meet the crosses by headings, so one of the rare choices will be shooting from outside, having Keita and Toure, beside Xavi is a missile engine.Why haven't he performed well yet in preseason?first because he need to adapt, and secondly because u cant see his importance till Barcelona play against inter, man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Bayern.....not against second class teams.Why the best transfer? Well because when you judge a transfer you don't only measure potentials, but u analyze how much the player is needed +quality + price, and based on that I say that was the smartest acquisition.Give me another name you can buy for 15M having half what Keita can offer in his position (experience, relatively young and adapted to Spanish league), for me the team can perform well without getting Arshavine or anyone else(Iniesta, Henry, Hleb can cover), but not with only one DM (Yaya)-knowing that Marquez is needed in CB, that's not just risky but insane.

Now for Hleb, if he adapt he can certainly add something deferent to Barcelona game, being a tireless player who play direct football, remember last year fruitless possession? Well Hleb is the kind of players who push his passing forward, looking for an assist rather for a charming passing through out the midfield.

For more depth, Guardiolla still have Eidur Gudjohnsen, beside promoting Víctor Sánchez from Barcelona Athletic.

If Barcelona will have no complains about the defense structure for the coming season, I believe they can be proud of the midfield combination of talents and potentials they have.

Forwards:

Reengineering their forward line was one of the most complicated challenges for Barcelona in the transfer period, and to evaluate the output we have to admit that they failed to do so; when I use the term "failed" I use it in terms of the team objectives when they started the reengineering project and how things ended up, or almost.

The plan was to get ride of ronaldinho and Eto, and buy a left winger and a target man to be the inbox striker whom Barcelona missed dearly last season then they played against the teams that park their busses in front of their posts (defending with the whole squad), in such situations when there were no spaces, Eto and co failed to unlock the situation and score, and being the kind of players who move out/in rather than moving to the right positioning in the box, Eto and co turned to help the opponent to narrow the spaces more. The solution, in Guardiola point of view, was simply to get Adebayor from arsenal, a tall-huge player whom he can plant in the box, and no matter how many players he will have around he will still be tall enough to keep his head high to meet crosses and make it bounce to the net, besides creating spaces for those who come from behind or flanks.
Practical approach, but simply wasn’t meant to be, getting Ade wasn’t possible, not for a reasonable price anyway, neither the other options worked, for a reason or another, so Barcelona ended up leaning on the same old guys, Eto – Bojan – Henry and Messi.

Saying so, I don’t mean that this is a disaster, it will just create the challenge of how to avoid passing through the same situation that happened again and again last season when Barcelona failed to threat a stacked team in their box?

For that, I always wondered why Barcelona have never thought about adding Crespo, so they gain that option that they miss in their offense structure, he is cheap, experienced and a man for the box. Remind me a lot about Larsson role for the team two years ago.

The team will count on Eto as a first choice striker while Bojan will certainly have his saying; while Henry will be deployed on the left wing , or that’s what the preseason tell, Messi will be on his thrown on the right wing.

In additional to that line up, Iniesta will rotate with Henry on the left, without excluding the role of the young talented Pedro, while Hleb may give Messi a break from time to time on the right, plus loads of young Barcelona B players who can take minor roles along the season specially in the cup to rest the first team players.

Signing a natural left winger )and if a winger who can dance left or right) will be an added value, though having promising options in their youth rankings may encourage Barcelona to be more patient and count on what they have for now.

Guardiola is doing a great job till now, aside of the big mess caused by the way he handled "deco, ronaldinho, and Eto" case where two were offloaded for cheap and the third made them look silly while attempting to explain why they decided to keep him after all, aside of that he proved being the guy who know what the team need. But its still too early to judge, knowing that the most significant problem for Barcelona in previous years – aside on man management – was the poor reading of the game, not taking the right decision the right time while the game is going bad, that’s what we need to wait and see how good pep is, to change the game momentum, scenario, and result.

One other challenge for Guardiola will be the size of the squad, he has lot of first class players in his squad competing for limited positions, how will he keep them all satisfied is a question. No doubt this confident charismatic coach has a plan including a certain rotation strategy, but will it work? And for how long? Time will tell...

Barcelona is certainly one of the teams to beat domestically and in the Champions' League, not the only horse in the race, but certainly an exciting one.