before writing let me tell you that little things make the biggest of differences in football. barca played bayern munich in which they had to win. the destiny was in barca's hand win the game and you get qualified for the second round of ucl . barca had changed their coach in between . xavi had been brough in a bid to stop that slide which was happening when koeman was the manager . in this blog i had already pointed the players that barca needed to change but they stuck with those players and for that they are paying the price . xavi is brought in because he has played under gaurdiola and the club thinks that he can emulate garudiola and coach the team as the was gaurdiola was doing . bayern was the acid test that xavi had to face in his short time as a manager . to be honest i dont think that xavi is going to do any miracles . he should just watch the bayern as to what the short coming were in the game against bayern and he can correct those then i think he can become good but if he keeps on believing that the system that he is playing is going to bear fruits for him then he is day dreaming . a team is like any cycle or automobile which will only function very optimum when all the components function to the best of their ability . most importantly even if when messi or a ronaldo has to shine he needs to have the support players who need to play at the same level as the other . a team only performs very well when all the players contribute not just certain players or else the opposition can read that and can stop the team in tracks and the offense falls apart .
bayern had appointed nagelsman in place of flick as the bayern manager . i think what he had done is that he has tweaked the formation and also he wants to play a very high tempo game and as soon as they receive the ball they are ready for offense . they like to press the opposition and as soon as they recover the ball they just start attacking . they dont waste time in moving the ball and getting the players in position . under flick the bayern used to play 4-2-3-1 but they were doing the same thing as to what they are doing under nagelsman . what naglesman had noticed that bayern were offering too much space in the middle of the park under flick so he has three in the middle plus he has alphonso davies playing a bit high than his natural position . he is more of a left winger than a left back . daives playing high up is brought from gaurdiola's play book who use his fullbacks to move the ball but nagelsman has improvised it . he knows that davies is very fast and can recover quickly . secondly with him bayern has an extra and a very fast player high up the pitch who can press as well as counter very quickly .
while writing about the formation you do have to take into consideration the players that are there cause that is what is very important . i had written about this that for any formation to work the players are the most important ingredient . for defense and offense nagelsman is using very athletic and good technical players . although i have reservation about sane and tolisso . what nagelsman is that he doesnt want the opposition to have time and space on the ball . for that they play a high line and most importantly they press very hard but its just not the pressing they recover the ball and start moving it upward very quickly which puts the opposition on the back foot. the one thing that i want to give them credit is the cohesion that they have in the team . the other important thing is the technical ability of the players . most of them are very good in one on one situations . the most important ingredient is the way the ball is played . just look at the way ball is passed to the feet of the receiving player . it is passed on the most perfect side with perfect weight on the ball . all these qualities had been developed in flicks time at bayern and not they are used by nagelsman .
bayern faced dortmund . win over dortmund would be a stamp on nagelman's tactical acumen . dortmund started the game with 4-2-3-1 formation . as i had said that players make all the differences with their qualities in an average and a championship team. dortmund had emre can and doud in the middle of the park . had emre been that good he wouldnt had been let go by two good sides like liverpool and juventus . his passing and game reading is both horrible . but on the other had the plan that they had to counter bayern was very good and it could be the one that would give bayern the problem in the future . dortmunds plan was to sit back and hit bayern on the counter . their plan was to release halland behind the back three and then the three behind him will support him for the offense . the plan was very good to take advantage of the chaos that is caused when the opposition is back peddeling . once the opponents is backpeddeling it is not able to track the incoming players . but for that you need to keep a high tempo and get as many passes as possible . if the defending can make the offensive team spend time on the ball and slows down its tempo then the whole offense can derail and you may surrender the attack . dortmund had a good plan on counter but at times it was one dimensional . it was like reus to halland who would try to find bradnt .
there are two things that i had said first emre can and mahmoud were poor in the middle of the park . the reason being that when the team goes deep in their half then you should try to press them and try to win the possession back . the front line will press but its the middle line who should try to win the possession .for that you need to have a good game reading . second thing is that you should be able to recycle the possession and should be a threat with your passing ability . both are not that good . their passing ability is just poor . i had said earlier that little things make big changes in the game. munier was joining the attack because the middle was getting congested and he didnt had a direct opponent against him. his decision making is very poor . at times when he should had crossed the ball early he held on the ball which resulted in chances being missed . i had already said that small things make big changes in football and these are the small things . decision making is one of the biggest aspect in football and the dortmund coach needs to improve it . his players make poor decisions .
bayern played barca next and this was acid test for xavi . i had already pointed the flaws in barca's team . they needed to change the players but they had been sticking to those for the last 3 seasons and they had been paying price for that . they needed to get rid of pique who had been hopeless . why dont they change busquestus position and play him forward and play somebody younger in his position . now xavi started the game with 4-3-3 formation but when you play the game you do have to take into consideration the opposition and the type of football that they play . you can really read as to what barca are going to do when they have the ball and the opposition can stop them in tracks . depay coming deep and then trying to play to release one fo the wide players or midfielders but to be honest certain players are given preference over others . while de jong saw little of the ball . gavi was given more preference . he is still young and still needs to develop physically and still has a lot of things to learn . to be very honest some of the barca players are purely casual . dembele's approach to the game is not that good . secondly when you take the ball to the final third or near the opponents box then you need to make sure that you need to be very responsible with the ball . you need to make sure that you need to make the opposition work and try to create chance so that the opposition will respect you . barca were just poor it was like men playing against boys and toying with them . i hope xavi looks at the tapes and makes the necessary changes to alleviate his teams performance .
