The Grand Collapse of L'Estadi Camp Nou?
Will the axis of global football as we know now start shifting post season? While it's easy to say that Messi did have a rare night to forget, we must also understand the post-match ramification and the underlying factors behind.
Firstly and foremost, has a certain Massimilano Allegri shown Jose Mourinho on how to exactly stop Messi? If the reports are to be believed, Signor Milan might have taken a leaf from the basic concept of zonal marking. In short, it's all about manning an expansive defence in order to facilitate devastating counter attacks from the middle park. In short, it's pointless to counter attack from the deep because Italian footballers in general are NOT known to welcome this very idea.
Catenaccio is all about defensive organisation built upon ball possession and creating a limited zone of defence will defeat such a purpose. And by such a standard, I'm talking about what Signor Milan has done here: Zona Mista. Or in the words of any certified hardcore Italian fan, Il gioco all'Italiana.
Ironically, a chronic inability to counter the concept of Total Football via a pure Catenaccio system has to be Italy's greatest show of football innovation until ages later on...
So is there any major difference between San Siro and L'Estadi Camp Nou?
The onus of strategy has been all about how to counter Lionel Messi because Barcelona as a team has always been one built around El Chico Pequeño himself.
And there in lies the catch: How do you stop Messi when he has the ball?
Signor Allegri would have none of that nonsense as a certain ex-PM can easily testify here (and just to set the record straight, this said ex-PM did clarify that he was joking upon commenting that "Allegri didn't know a **** about football until San Siro itself managed to go 2-0 up.").
In short, everybody has been asking the WRONG question. The correct (counter intuitive) question should be "How do you stop Messi from using the ball?"
In short, dominating the game via minimal possession advantage was Allegri's intent all the while. Messi can have the ball for all he wants, but if there's anything to go by, Senhor Mourinho has this to say:
In short, Messi is a player thriving within a given zone. A limited zone within the 30 yard space and nothing beyond. Senhor Mou has stated here that Messi is quintessentially a 9/9.5, i.e. a centre/inside forward. For me, I'll say Messi is far more of a 10.9/9.10
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| Note where is no.9 and 10 respectively |
Simply put, is Messi a scorer? Yes, but ditto for Cristiano Ronaldo as well. Is Messi a provider? Possible, but we need to know that players like Xavi and Fàbregas exist for a reason while Los Blancos do possess the type of once-in-a-lifetime German player named Mesut Özil, i.e. Germany is probably the closest footballing cousin to England due a common link in ethnic ancestry.
And hence comes the most damning moment...
Similar tactics and strategy, but with a different player. In short, Senhor Mou's approach IS exactly the same with Signor Allegri with the key difference being a different team in a different league, i.e. continental competitions =/= domestic competitions. If the latter case was all about being clinical, the grand collapse at L'Estadi Camp Nou was all about a far more patient approach. Because Los Blancos as a team is a team still firmly steeped in ball possession play.
Case in point: Signor Allegri isn't of Iberian ancestry, but Spain and Portugal are the two major countries within the Iberian Peninsula.
And how should we see this defeat?
El Clásico is El Clásico for a very good reason. It's NOT just a mere football rivalry made most famous. Above all, this is something going way before professional football exists as we know it.
Madrid=La Dictadura
Cataluña=La Libertad
Madrid=El Asiento del Poder
Cataluña=Orgullo y Pasión
Madrid=Los Blancos
Cataluña=Blaugrana
I can assure all you Los Madridistas that seeing your El Gran Enemigo losing 3-1 at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is one victory too different from this very 3-1 win at L'Estadi Camp Nou. In short, the negative effects in undermining may not be felt in the short term, but for the long term?
For all Blaugranes, the harshest adversity might be looming far nearer than we'd like to believe in otherwise. Because not only have Messi been tactically neutralised 100%, above all losing 3-1 at home is a totally different problem comparing to a 5-1 defeat at away or even just losing 1-0 at home. Because your beloved team's greatest pride can swiftly become its greatest humiliation.
And since Francisco Franco is no longer around...
A lawful joke most twisted and disrespectful aside, this final part shouldn't be politicised one way or another (and I'm being truthfully serious here). In short, how should the Blaugrana go about reversing the impact?
Or maybe I should try rephrasing the question:
How do you deal with a problem created by a counter intuitive answer discovered?
If we are to see Messi's efficiency to be zonally based, then Barca is a cooked goose for good. Yet, that will only mean that we'll end up being victims out of our own asking.
Huh? Why? How? Wtf?
Maybe we should try asking ourselves this: Is Messi a movement based player or a ball control based player?
When Mourinho stated that Messi can only operate effectively within a limited space area unlike Cristiano Ronaldo, he's basically hinting that Messi belongs to the latter.
CR7 is a movement based player. Both are good with the ball, but Messi has a superior sense of ball control while Ronaldo has a higher level of pace and stamina. You can pretty much compare Ronaldo as a lightly armoured swordsman wielding a longsword while Messi can be likened to a swashbuckling fencer living on the high seas.
In short, Ronaldo as a player is one being able to cut abruptly into any opponent team's final third from just about anywhere across the pitch, with or without the ball at his feet.
Messi on the other hand, is a player who requires the ball at his feet.
Yes, please kill me for saying that Ronaldo is truly more of an all rounder attacker compared to Messi being the ball specialist up front.
And when we end up talking about a ball specialist player, it will always be down to how the said player can use the ball rather than whether the player himself will end up having the ball.
In short, we've all been fooled by our own ass backwards assumption, guys.
So after talking so much cock amounting to a massive detrimental effect, am I trying to rub one entire ton of sea salt onto the Blaugrana's open wound?
Actually, maybe we can try asking ourselves how long it will take Messi to create a moment of magic with the ball at his feet.
One true answer to silence them all: one split second.
In short, Messi is a player far more steeped into the quality of ball usage and NOT the quantity of ball possession.
Now I'm in no position to tell anybody anything, let alone everything. Because I'm just a fallible 30 yr old porter working at SGH. Simply put, no big money pay=no sports cable TV.
But maybe this will be an interesting food for thought: why not shift Messi into a deeper lying position nowhere different from how one tend to view an attacking link up player? Am I mad? Surely I should be the Mad Hatter of Singapore if not for the fact that I'm talking about Messi being deployed WITHOUT the ball.
With the likes of ball players far more mobile and faster like Andrés Iniesta together with players capable of dictating the game either from the deep (i.e. Xavi) or further upfront (i.e. Fàbregas), what Messi has is something other players can only dream of: options coming from just about anywhere and everywhere. So long as El Chico Pequeño himself can be afforded that free license to drift, with or without the ball, he can easily evade detection because his greatest weakness will be working IN his favour rather than against him.
In short, who are we to say that Messi is far lesser of a versatile player than Ronaldo himself? It's not down to how you see his ability as an individual alone, but rather the very knowledge that no man can carry a nation's burden all by himself just to quote a self made parallel.
La Conclusión Decidió
Now when we talk about the Blaugrana, we're talking the antithesis of communism. Try asking anybody knowing a wee bit on global politics and they can easily tell you that communism is the most idealistic form of government, but only on theory.
But once we shift the whole equation onto the Blaugrana, every shit will be thrown out of the window.
Because their brand of football is one being improbable on paper, yet totally probable in reality.
Because as you all can see in my self invented motto down below...
Esto es Barcelona
Esto es El Furia de Caos
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