Vertical Passing and Vertical Stripes: The 2014-15 Season Thread, Part II

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I wonder how 'good' the news is of what is being reported about this loophole in our transfer ban...it seems that we can sign players out of contract or buy players without registering them until january 1, 2016. But could we really acquire any top players that way? Would someone like koke or cuadrado or reus want to sit out a half season? I doubt it. Maybe a quality south american, but how many of them are good enough to come over and make an impact right away anyway. The other option is to loan somebody back to the selling team for a half season (if my understanding is correct we can't loan to a third team since we would have to register the player to loan to a third team). But I am not sure what top players want to deal with that awkwardness and what european teams would want to deal with a lame duck player with getting paid a premium.

 

I saw someone else comment on that. I think lucho is building up his arsenal of tactics (and testing out lineups) over the first half of the year, and now he's ready to settle down a bit in the second half of the season and the team will be ready to switch from game to game as needed and be unpredictable as lucho says he wants the team to be. Or at least I hope that's the case!

 

Not sure what is meant by "halfspace", but Phil Schoen from BeIn was stating that Alves was staying back against Depor during the match. I had noticed that Alves wasn't anywhere near the attack in the first 70 minutes, but after the double substitution, he did start to gallop forward. I thought it was interesting to see that.

 

I think the "loophole" is good news. It gives us an option which we can take or not take.

Will top level players be ready to not play for half-a-season? Tough to say, but I'd reckon the player pool we sign players from is big enough to include also the cases where it's not a deal breaker. Couple of months isn't a that long time, and there might be a long-term starter spot at stake (RB), or a change to challenge for a spot in midfield, or in CB. Not to mention salary might raise notably. Not to mention a little more relaxed period of getting to know a new city, new teammates etc.

The first thing we can do to help the matter is to finish high in Liga and CL, to make the prospect of joining Barca even more tempting.

 

Halfspace is the area on the pitch half way between two defined defensive positions (e.g half way between the centreback and fullback). The theory is that attacking players moving in these spaces are more difficult to track because neither defender is sure which one is responsible for picking up the attacker.

 

Yep that is a top tactics site, probably the best since Zonalmarking decided to no longer bother posting anything.

 

Well looks like Lucho has his XI now.

I'm not against him experimenting and changing stuff when things are not working. But they are now, so don't.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2015/01/14/barcelona-3-1-atletico-madrid-neymar-messi-suarez/

 

Well ZM posts one game a week and even then I don't even think that the analysis is quite what it once was before he got hired to write for 3 other sites rather than doing it as a blog of love (and resume for the hiring). But he writes in lots of other places and is still one of the best at explaining tactics to non-coaches like most of us here.

As for Lucho's 11, yes, I too am glad it seems settled but recall that the 11 varied (and will continue to vary due to injuries/availability), and that rotation is still a factor.

Early in the season Suarez was not available, Iniesta and Busquets and Pique were often off form even if not officially injured, and that led to many changes and experiments. Now, with Xavi and Mathieu out with injuries, and Iniesta and Busquets possibly over their own injuries (or possibly not as is reported in Busquets case) it is easy to say GK; A-P-M-A; R-B-I; M-S-N is the 11. But with Mathieu back and Xavi back, Bartra (and Rafinha and Pedro) always ready to play, we are really just one bad game (by a starting player or by the whole 11) away from criticism of even this 'finally selected best 11' not actually being the best.

For instance no one argues anymore that Masch needs to start whether at CB or DM, but might there not be a better core of 3 (2 CBs, 1 DM) than PK, Masch, and Busquets? If all are healthy and focused probably no better but I like Masch at DM, and like Bartra and Mathieu at CB too, is that a ready for prime time big games lineup, probably not, but promising nonetheless.

But even if that remains our big game line up barring injuries/suspensions, we will need to rotate.
I would not expect that lineup to start this weekend for the simple rotation reason (and that CdR is more important

 

I'm still a little afraid of Lucho picking Xavi over Rakitic when CL deciders and Clasico are on, if both are fit.

 

Yeah, that's another great point about whether our best 11 is even decided. Goalie aside it is pretty easy to predict our best 11 and our lineup in tough games when Xavi and Mathieu were injured. You can still make a case for Bartra, sure, but he's young. You could make a case for Pedro too but I think you pretty much need to play SNM so they can gel ans Suarez can find his form in order that we have a shot at winning trophies at the end of the season.

But with Xavi healthy there's a real risk that Raki misses our or Ini misses out, seems like a bad risk IF all 3 are healthy.

So the injury to Xavi has really firmed up the first choice midfield even though Xavi outplayed Ini at times early this season. And likewise the injury to Mathieu has allowed Masch-PK to become more firmly engrained as the best pair, even though I think Mathieu (and Bartra) outplayed PK at times this season, and Masch similarly has outplayed Busquets at times as well.

In a sense the injuries to Xavi and Mathieu have given PK, Busquets, and Iniesta valuable gametime to get back to their best level of fitness and form and to re-earn the coach and fan trust.

 

With no Elche thread yet I'll post this analysis/prediction here, it suggests resting all but one of GK and D (Pique still in), all but Busquets in midfield, but only Neymar (rested) up front. So 7 new faces in lineup last used vs. Atletico and likely used again. Sounds reasonable though I'm guessing the number rotated is slightly lower: http://www.totalbarca.com/2015/news/one-eye-on-la-liga-one-on-la-copa/#more-171478

 

Good to see us play well in the second half of the season for a change.

 

Good series of responses to the chaotic situation not too long ago.

While everyone deserves appraisal, I'd give some credit to Lucho: way to go, keeping cool head, and getting the line-ups and tactics right. Win after win after win after win. Gotta praise him when he does things right to earn a right to judge him when he makes mistakes, imo.

 

Lol that's like begging for losses and draws. I prefer the old "no match is easy" attitude. Especially since February has usually been kinda meh time for us. But yeah, presented like that, many "easy-ish on paper" matches coming up.

 

Yup, I'm not his biggest fan but Lucho has done very well these past couple of weeks. He's earned until the end of the season and if we play like this for the entire second half of the season then he's earned himself another season. Tbh, this turnaround was completely unexpected, especially after the loss to Sociedad.

If we keep playing like this we should be contenders for all three trophies. I really want us to get the CL in particular, I've wanted one ever since that 2012 bullshit. Would be fitting too, to send Alves and Xavi off with one last CL.

I think Zubi being fired and the election announcement also had an impact. The relations between the players and the current board are clearly shaky to say the least. Messi in particular comes to mind.

 

Also potentially two more tough matches against Villarreal in there too.

 

What I dont get is why when things are going smooth with some sane choices he decides to bench Suarez on his birthday in a game against Elche!! Also people who need "rest" is Messi and Neymar not Suarez.

 

Birthday is no reason to field a player, imo. Tough to say who needs rest, as players are different and we here don't really have the data on how physically fresh the players are. Lucho has that data. But I think it's good that we don't go SNM in all matches, and yesterday it happened to be Suarez' turn of sitting on the bench. He knew when he joined Barca that he'd be rotated, and Elche matches aren't that ones that sting the most if you must sit.

 

Can you imagine the boost of scoring/playing on your birthday!? that outweighs the rotation philosophy of Luchito whatever data he has no? I know I would have taken that risk rather than pissing Suarez off.

 

I can imagine the boost of scoring, but I think birthday really means nothing here. I mean I think playing Suarez would've been ok, but this was ok as well. He is professional enough to not be too pissed about this, as it is normal that you get rotated every now and then. We need an extra-motivated Suarez against AM more than we need a happy birthday boy against Elche. That said, I personally would've not subbed in Busq for Masch, but rather Suarez for Ney/Pedro at about 65, 70mins. Either way, it's no big deal, imo.