Barca failure raises questions over playing style
Reuters - Wednesday 25 April 2012, 10:52
The question on many lips
after Barcelona's elimination from the Champions League is how a
team featuring Lionel Messi with 72 percent of possession over
180 minutes of football could fail to get past ultra-defensive
Chelsea.
For all their dominance and pretty passing around the edge
of the penalty area in front of the London club's massed ranks,
Pep Guardiola's side managed only six shots on target in the 1-0
defeat in the first leg and three - to Chelsea's five - in
Tuesday's 2-2 stalemate in the return game at the Nou Camp.
Yes, Barca, whose performance was described as their 'most
tragic monologue' by daily El Pais, were unlucky to be denied by
the goal frame twice in each match and yes, Chelsea goalkeeper
Petr Cech saved his team on several occasions.
However, there is also a sense that if the
soon-to-be-dethroned European champions were less obsessed with
holding on to the ball and willing to hazard more risky passes
into the danger areas or shoot from distance they would now be
preparing for the trip to Munich for next month's final.
Guardiola, who like most of his squad learned Barca's
'tiki-taka' brand of football based on rapid, intricate passing
moves at the club's youth school, said again after Tuesday's
bitter setback that he would remain true to that philosophy.
Yet doubts also seemed to be gnawing at the former
midfielder after Barca's hopes of a fourth straight La Liga
title were all but snuffed out by Saturday's home defeat to Real
Madrid and Chelsea crushed their dreams of a third continental
crown in four years.
"We are not a team that can play in different ways," the
41-year-old, who has led Barca to 13 trophies since taking over
in 2008, told a news conference.
"We have a peculiar way of playing and the opposition
adjusts to that and that's it," he added.
"I was just telling them, attack, attack, attack and we
never stopped but they [Chelsea] also counter-attacked well.
"Maybe this is a lesson I should learn, that we should hold
back and not be so offensive."
POOR SUBSTITUTE
Barca have certainly missed the goal-scoring prowess of
injured Spain forward David Villa and they could have done with
a player with the physical presence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to
unsettle Chelsea's imposing defenders.
The volatile Swede spent the 2009/10 campaign in the Catalan
capital but fell out with Guardiola and was sold to AC Milan.
The introduction on Tuesday of defensive midfielder Seydou Keita
in a forward role was a poor substitute.
Someone who might have made a difference up front in the
closing stages is centre back Gerard Pique, who has occasionally
been deployed to excellent effect as an auxiliary striker on the
rare occasions Barca were chasing a game.
Sadly for the home side, the Spain international collided
with his goalkeeper Victor Valdes midway through the first half
and had to be replaced by full-back Daniel Alves.
One man Barca have always been able to rely on during their
recent golden period is World Player of the Year Messi but the
Argentine failed to produce when it counted for the third
straight game, suggesting the team may rely too much on his
goals and assists.
Contrast that with Real, where strikers Karim Benzema and
Gonzalo Higuain have weighed in with more than 20 goals each in
La Liga and the Champions League to compliment Cristiano
Ronaldo's record-setting scoring exploits.
Whether Guardiola, who has yet to extend his contract beyond
the end of this season, decides that changes are needed remains
to be seen.
Playmaker Cesc Fabregas perhaps unwittingly put his finger
on the crux of the problem in remarks to reporters after
Tuesday's reverse.
"We played a good match, we dominated and we created a lot
of chances," the former Arsenal captain said. "We were the same
Barca as always."