Will Barcelona abandon their philosophy?

Will Barcelona abandon their philosophy?

During the mid week game we saw Barcelona play defensive football and long balls. Against Villareal they kept passing it to the fullbacks and hoofing the ball into the box. Is this a change in strategy? Have they abandoned their 20+ years philosophy? Also getting Fabregas, who is a very direct passer seems to support this theory. English pragmatism? Maybe...

They'd need to massively change their team and probably their manager. They have one of the finest crafted squads for a particular system around, can't just switch to hoof balling with a load of delicate footed midgets.

I think they'll stick with it, especially if Pep stays, its ingrained so deep in the club and academy.

they wont change anything, you guys are hilarious.

they dont "need" to change anything, have you seen their squad?

this is knee jerk gold, a little off season and they need massive overhaul? come on

barcelona drew, bring out the torches and pitchforks

jesus christ...

I dont know if your aware of this or not but everytime Pep wins the CL he makes drastic changes the following season and both times they have not worked out for the better.

Last time they got away with it, this time they wont.

he gets bored of winning

Pep is striving for perfection.

I don't blame him

I think everyone can understand exactly why he thought Ibra would work out.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:I dont know if your aware of this or not but everytime Pep wins the CL he makes drastic changes the following season and both times they have not worked out for the better.

Last time they got away with it, this time they wont.

well it's not like you can just sell Cesc like Ibra now

So he changes things so he can lose?

Believe me Nick if it were up to me id sell him for what ever the first offer is.

jibers, Adriano and Alves were LW and RW respectively vs Villareal, we didn't have fullbacks to begin with and then during the second half Abidal and Puyol were the fullbacks.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:So he changes things so he can lose?

Believe me Nick if it were up to me id sell him for what ever the first offer is.

Well, it's an interesting situation you guys are in now, playing the way you do with 3 defenders definitely gives more room for teams to counter. I wouldnt put all your failings this season just down to tactics tho, there are many factors. Injuries, Xavi and Puyol aging, consistency not being the same anymore, mentally it's tougher because you won so much already, it's not exactly the same drive as before. a lot of little things coming together always factor in a bad run. if it doesnt get better, i wont complain . where will Thiago be off to next summer?

Yh your right its all down to Fabregas.

Cabaye-Tiote-Thiago?

Would be a dream but its never going to happen

...........Cabaye..Titote.....Thiago
..Ben Arfa................................Hazzard
.........................Ba............................

Again Josh, your benching a striker we just bought for 9 million

How are Ba and Cisse are going to play together?

4-4-2?

Ofcourse we have been playing it all season long after all

You didn't play like that against Liverpool.

Anyway....I'd argue that with Shola and Ba it works.....but with Ba and Cisse I'm skeptical.

Yh Liverpool was weird, most of season we have played some variation of a 4-4-2.....

Why it wouldnt work?

If anything it should work even better because our midfield will have some movement upfront to work with for once.....

Ben Arfa and Jonas aren't exactly Natural wingers.

Neither can play off the other exactly......

We dont play wingers, neither do we cross the ball a great deal.... Jonas and Ben Arfa are wide midfielders they are used as extra midfielders to help with possession because Tiote and Cabaye protect the back 4 and its very difficult for them to protect the back 4 and start attacks against 3 man midfields....

Fullbacks provide the width( although not very well)......

if you look at alot of Ba's goals very few of them come from crosses.

Long balls...what long balls?

Against Madrid, Xavi did a clearance because the ball was bouncing and he was under pressure..therefore impossible to control...Pique knocked a few long PASSES because again, we were being pressed...

Against Villarreal there was no long balls other than one I remember from Abidal, which was in the last 30 seconds of the game and we didnt have time for build up.

Long balls? Rather bizare.

Also...Adriano and Dani Alves crossing into the box? They werent randomly throwing it in there, they were picking people out.

Nobody had a problem with it when Adriano found Messi vs Malaga and he scored..because they were read and cut out we are "abonding our philosophy"?

Bale to Barca in the summer.

long balls is the only way..