Last night, I watched a replay of the Panathinakos VS Barcelona Champions League match. As always, Barca played beautiful passing and provided a great flow towards their play. As I watched on, it suddenly struck me, "This is TOO similar to the City team at Fulham."
Which reminded me of a past blog post by someone analyzing Mark Hughes attempted 4-3-3 with Robinho, Ade and Tevez as the trident tip and the shape of the team being emulative towards Pep's formation. And it has been rumored this was the Shiekh's wish.
Then, I drew back to the Fulham game, the movement of our team is CLOSE to EXACT of Barcelona's. Taking man for man:
-------------Hart-------------
Zaba---Kolo---Kompany--Kolarov
---------De Jong-----------
------Yaya---------Barry------
---Silva----Tevez----Jo----
------------V.Valdes-----------
D.Alves---Pique---Puyol---Adriano
---------Mascherano--------
------Xavi---------Iniesta-----
---Messi----Villa----Pedro---
The movement was similar to Barca, taking Fulham's for example:
Like Alves, Zaba constantly bombs forward, occasionally cutting in for the extra man. Like Adriano, Kolarov again constantly bombs forward, giving the low cross or long shot. We do not have a centre forward of Pique's mould who would play the ball forward creatively, but we have a great defensive lineup.
NDJ and Mash, needless to say, both play the same style. Xavi acts as the passer, which is the role fufiled by Barry. Iniesta is the driving force of the team, playing the advanced role, which Yaya was made to play.
Silva plays very similarly to Messi, always drifting into different positions and provided the creative outlet. Jo, probably not exactly the Pedro role where Pedro is the inside forward, cuz Jo's left footed, but he's still a forward. And replacing Jo with Balo, we have the exact player. Tevez, is just like Villa, 'nuff said.
Taking this all into consideration, is it ACTUALLY the Shiekh's wish to emulate Barca? Am I even right to say we're going to play Barca's brand of football? I dunno, but if that's the case, we have an exciting squad in our hands. What do you Bluemooners think?
Cheers & CTID.
Which reminded me of a past blog post by someone analyzing Mark Hughes attempted 4-3-3 with Robinho, Ade and Tevez as the trident tip and the shape of the team being emulative towards Pep's formation. And it has been rumored this was the Shiekh's wish.
Then, I drew back to the Fulham game, the movement of our team is CLOSE to EXACT of Barcelona's. Taking man for man:
-------------Hart-------------
Zaba---Kolo---Kompany--Kolarov
---------De Jong-----------
------Yaya---------Barry------
---Silva----Tevez----Jo----
------------V.Valdes-----------
D.Alves---Pique---Puyol---Adriano
---------Mascherano--------
------Xavi---------Iniesta-----
---Messi----Villa----Pedro---
The movement was similar to Barca, taking Fulham's for example:
Like Alves, Zaba constantly bombs forward, occasionally cutting in for the extra man. Like Adriano, Kolarov again constantly bombs forward, giving the low cross or long shot. We do not have a centre forward of Pique's mould who would play the ball forward creatively, but we have a great defensive lineup.
NDJ and Mash, needless to say, both play the same style. Xavi acts as the passer, which is the role fufiled by Barry. Iniesta is the driving force of the team, playing the advanced role, which Yaya was made to play.
Silva plays very similarly to Messi, always drifting into different positions and provided the creative outlet. Jo, probably not exactly the Pedro role where Pedro is the inside forward, cuz Jo's left footed, but he's still a forward. And replacing Jo with Balo, we have the exact player. Tevez, is just like Villa, 'nuff said.
Taking this all into consideration, is it ACTUALLY the Shiekh's wish to emulate Barca? Am I even right to say we're going to play Barca's brand of football? I dunno, but if that's the case, we have an exciting squad in our hands. What do you Bluemooners think?
Cheers & CTID.