Some thoughts on the Champions League:
That was a COLOSSAL defensive effort from Chelsea. I’ve got to say, Barca really disappointed me though. I applaud their idealistic philosphy on football & all that, but seriously… They played like a team that doesn’t understand the basic fundamentals of football. Chelsea played a very compact system & essentially squeezed Barcelona wide as often as they could, forcing them into positions that they’re not comfortable playing in.
Barca play without an imposing physical presence up front who can attack the ball on crosses, and that was one of their main undoings today. If they could’ve mixed it up a little more then I think they might’ve been able to make their possession count. The one thing that annoyed me more than anything was their complete refusal to stray even slightly away from the ‘footballing philosophy’ that they’re famed for.
Chelsea intentionally set their stall out to take away Barcelona’s forays down the middle. What do Barcelona do to counter that? Absolutely nothing. They repeatedly bash their heads against the proverbial brick wall & show absolutely no creativity whatsoever. I feel like even without a physical presence, the odd cross wouldn’t have hurt their chances. The only players I can remember actually trying something different were Iniesta & Messi, and they were only in isolated incidents. The other thing that annoyed me: the lack of shot attempts when they had the ball in & around the Chelsea box. If you don’t shoot, you won’t score. It’s that simple. With football, all it takes is a slight deflection or lucky bounce & you can get a goalscoring opportunity. Messi finally took the initiative to shoot from outside the box & he was the width of the post away from putting Barca into the driving seat.
It just baffles me watching a team of extremely talented footballers look clueless when presented with a footballing ideology that differs from their own. I personally thought Chelsea played a much better game of football than Barcelona today, as they showed an immense discipline defensively & proved that they knew exactly what Barcelona can & can’t (or won’t) do effectively when they’re in possession. Tonight just further solidifed my view that Barcelona have no plan B.
One of the other things I didn’t understand was Dani Alves play once he got into advanced positions down the wing. Most of the time, it was him faced up one on one with Didier Drogba. As well as Drogba played, one on one defending isn’t his strongest suit. He showed glimpses of weakness when players ran at him with the ball at their feet all game long. Why didn’t Dani Alves even TRY to take advantage of that? Pretty much every time he had the ball in space down the right, he’d play it all the way back out to Xavi/Fabregas/Busquets so they could do exactly the same thing they’d been doing all game & continue to get nowhere.
It’s funny, as I have no real opinion on either Barcelona or Chelsea. I just felt so infuriated watching Barcelona play without even trying to counter Chelsea’s tactics. It’s that stubbornness that can hold them back in European competitions. They can get away with it in Spain, where the footballing culture is so vastly different to how it is in the UK. Teams wouldn’t dream of putting 9 men behind the ball in La Liga in the same way that Chelsea did today. I dunno, I just found it incredibly difficult to watch that second half considering everything that was at stake.
