yesterday barcelona played bayern munich which ended in a humiliation for barcelona . this defeat brought back memories of brazil's humiliation at the hands of germany . i would say that this was even worse for the reason that barcelona just didnt had a game plan other than going wide and trying to whip the ball inside . offense is the best defense and vice versa is true in this game barcelona just didnt had any offense and the middle players were struggling to pass the ball . the reason they were struggling was just not from bayern press but because there was no movement in the front to pass the ball or shall we say that barcelona just dont to play other than playing the ball to messi .they really couldnt pass the ball around just because they just didnt know how to operate . barca midfielders just made one too many touches on the ball allowing the bayern players to close them down. bayern played a high line and messi,suareaz and even vidal stayed just high up the pitch instead of dropping deep. the most important thing was that setien didnt instruct messi or suarez to drop into the hole and then try to release other . both messi and suarez were flat in line and even if one was released bayern could close them down easily.
now barcelona started the game with 4-4-2 formation . while bayern started the game with 4-2-3-1 formation . barcelona started the game with 4 midfielders in the middle while bayern had two in front the back four the three upfront would drop in the midfield and even lewandowski to press . bayern from the very start started to play a very high line . the reason being that bayern coach may had saw that even though there is messi .bayern back four have a decent pace and they can catch any runner even if he is free in the space .secondly they wanted to press and wanted to give barcelona the very medicine which barcelona gives to others . barcelona had four in the middle of the park . they wanted to congest the game because they must had studied bayern tactics . bayern just turn the screw as soon as the ball reaches the final third and they play some good intricate football . lewandowski drops deep to release the wide players beyond the back four . he not only a good goal scorer and header of the ball but also a good passer of the ball .
the most intriguing thing that i observed was that bayern's game revolve around thiago and none of the barcelona idfielders or forwards made a slight effort to keep a tab on him . this is where i am very critical of setien .his job is to spot things and change things . he needs to tell his players as to where they need to improvise and what they should and most importantly he needs to have guts to take any player out of the game who is not performing . he should had seen that thiago is the one through whom the bayern game flows . yes bayern's front players combine very well but its tiago who supplies them with the accurate passes . he is one who spots them in the spaces . even though bayern have two midfielders but goetzka is more of a runner where he is good at getting in the box and scoring goal .his forte is not passing or controlling the game which is thiago'sforte .i was amazed that for the whole game setien didnt tried to atleast hassel thiago . he is one that control's the game and tempo and i think for that i would blame setien.
in the first 15 min i thought that barcelona were going to tear bayern apart even after barca had conceded a goal the reason being that barcelona may had altered their tactics . when messi released semedo in the space beyond the back four he didnt wait for messi to get involved instead he crossed for suarez . barcelona were going to let others combine and messi was going to be the provider . messi even showed alaba as to why he is the best player in the world . alaba tried to take ball off messi and he just left alaba red faced . he released suarez who should had scored . there after barca just couldnt get messi in the game . barca just couldnt work the ball in the middle of the park even when having basically six players in there . the four midfielders and two forwards . this again setien's lack of coaching . he should had been coaching as to how they would operate without messi . they just couldnt pass the ball around and get the ball to the front line .there best line of attack was to pass wide and then cross inside . in the second half i thought they would give a game to bayern since they started pressing and started to bring the ball from back to front quickly and exploit those bayern cracks when they press . but again they got themselves in that slow rhythm and lost the tempo which they had initially at the start of the half .
i had just heard some pique's statement and he had offered to quit the club to rebuilding . setien made a mistake by starting both alba and pique . i mean just look that goals that were conceded by barca . the first goal where on alba going circles around muller . second goal in the box the centre back has to be like the centre forward and he should try to get to the ball first and thats what lenglet lacked which muller to score . the reason i mentioned pique was that just look at his decision making and the number of goals that were conceded from his half . the one that he commands . barca let 7 goals because of pique's incompetency . just look at what he did when perisic scored . he should had gone with perisic when he scored the second goal . his most comical defending can be seen in the fifth goal . davies got the better of semedo who should had never got into that wingchun stance while defending . from that stance you cannot run quickly . fine when davies got the better off semedo . pique is the covering defender for semedo who had stepped up and gone forward to cover davies run . what he does is that he is does is a shame . he is not even covering the straight line which he is supposed to do .he is dilly dallying . please see bayern goals to see as to how hopeless pique is and he should be the that needs to the first one to go .
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