Reengineering their forward line was one of the most complicated challenges for Barcelona during the transfer period, and to evaluate the output we have to admit that they failed to do so. I use the term "failed" based on the team announced objectives when they started the reengineering project and how things ended up.
The plan was to sell Ronaldinho and Eto’o, and buy a left winger and a target man to be the in-box striker whom Barcelona missed dearly last season when they played against the teams that park their buses in their box, in such situations when there were no spaces, Eto'o and co failed to unlock the block and score, and being the kind of players who move out/in rather than sticking in the right positioning in the box, Eto’o and co turned to help the opponent to narrow the spaces more.
The solution, in Pep's point of view, was simply to get Adebayor from Arsenal, a tall-huge player whom Pep can plant in the box, and no matter how many players the giant striker will have around he will still be tall enough to keep his head high to welcome crosses and bounce the ball to the net, besides creating spaces for those who come from behind or flanks.
Practical approach, but simply wasn’t meant to be, getting Ade wasn’t possible, not for a reasonable price anyway, neither the other options worked, for a reason or another, so Barcelona ended up leaning on the same old guys, Eto’o – Bojan – Henry and Messi.
Saying so, I don’t mean that this is a disaster, it just created the challenge of how to avoid passing through the same situation that happened again and again last season when Barcelona failed to threat a stacked team in their box.
I can't claim that the first few games proved that the problem is definitely solved, but I believe Pep partially overcome that problem using Messi as a second striker so Eto’o is not isolated anymore in the box, the striking duo is clicking perfectly recently, though I believe the concern will always be there.
The big question is: will this be the
Messi season we are all waiting? If no serious long injuries blowed that possibility, there are lot of reasons to believe so. He is a matured talent now, with a new role that will make him express himself more, less international friendlies, and with the team having better resources this season to rest him when needed, Messi can be so messy this season, shaking defense and causing terror.
We have seen an
Eto’o whom we can feel excited about. A great start for the season and most Barcelona fans feel relaxed that the summer transfer collapsed, imagine a team without Eto’o, especially if we failed to get someone in his place!
Iniesta, the great left winger! Who said there is a problem left on the left? Till now, it seems to be our strength, Amazing performance, he is even becoming more and more dangerous in front of the goal. Have you seen the Gudi goal against Atletico? That’s a sample!
The player who used to pass the ball after dribbling the keeper vanished, and now we have a player who want to shoot and score, even though he need to pick his shots to increase accuracy, and if he keep improving the way we are witnessing, he will not need a long time to be labeled as the best winger in the world, I am not carried away, but may be I am little bit excited because I have always believed in Iniesta the winger, from the beginnings.
Backing up this line, the team has
Bojan as a player who can be used in Messi's position, after Messi switched to become a second striker, Bojan may not have as much responsibilities as last season - which is good for his age - but I think this season will be the last before he turn to become an established star who will play a huge role in the future of this club.
Pedro will be more an Iniesta back-up, he needs to take advantage of the promotion to the first team, there are a chain of wingers coming up from the youth ranks in the following few seasons so he dont have lot of room to slow down his progress, a good talent and good luck.
Henry is the striker who can take Eto’o place or play beside Eto’o when Pep feels he needs two strikers in the box. When I have a look on all European clubs, I can barely find a team having that much quality in a player who is not considered as a first option - till now he is second in the picking order behind Eto'o, but will he accept playing a secondary role? One thing that I am not happy about is that he is doing lot of talking recently, positive and negative comments in almost more than one interview per week, I hope he focus more on his role with the team, and I believe he can play a great role, as a striker.
I can't pick another team that have a forward line that match Barcelona forward combination, so I will not hide a secret if I say there is no need to seek any changes in January, unless if the team got an offer for Henry (I doubt), an offer that neither the club nor the player can resist then we will need to sign another striker.
What are the transfer options in January? Well, I only have one unpopular option for January - only in case Henry leaves - and that is Crespo. He is a player who can play the Larsson role, experienced in the box and is willing to be benched. It will be better than his current situation in Inter, where the kind of strikers they have give no chance for him even to warm the bench, he can also play in Champions league because he is not registered with Inter for Champions league games.
He is a short term option, may be till summer, and Inter will be willing to accept a loan offer, they surprisingly may prefer a loan offer over a sale, because in a loan contract they can put a condition that Barcelona is not allowed to select him against Inter if the two teams met in Champions league, while that’s not possible if they sell him, and he don’t have a big market value so Inter will not feel greedy to sell. That’s only if Henry left, again, unlikely.
What about summer? Still too early, but I think we need to make a change, the team need that big striker to give some other options the team miss at the moment, a young big striker who can offer that added value on the short term, and
complement Messi/Bojan on the long term, and I have my reasons to write the previous phrase in bold. So in order to have that striker, we need a space for him, so we need to sell before we buy, but not selling both Eto’o and Henry, that will be insane! You cant start a new season with no guaranteed tested striker, what will Barcelona do if the new players needed time to adapt, or even flopped? At the end, every transfer is a risk, isn’t it?
I cant find any reason for Barcelona to take that risk, I think the best scenario is to keep Eto’o by renewing his contract – and I don’t take that pay cut news seriously. Here is my case:
If Barcelona wanted to sell Eto’o this summer, they will get around 15 M because his contract is expiring, and selling him with Henry will make them start the season with no certainty, instead they can sell Henry (the older and less crucial), renew Eto’o contract and buy a new striker. This way they start the season with guaranteed card in hand - Eto’o, and a promising striker.
If the new striker accomplished himself and proved being a successful transfer, and if based on that Barcelona felt they don’t need Eto’o anymore, they will be able to sell him for at least 15M, the same amount they will get if they take the risk of selling him next summer, because the new contract conditions will put the team in a stronger position. If the new striker failed, at least you will still have Eto’o whom we know what he can offer.
I had a thought that may be keeping Eto’o will make new strikers hesitate to join Barcelona, but then I ignored that idea, because the strikers who panic if there is competition for places is a striker Barcelona simply don’t need, in a big team the competition will always exist and the rotation is a must, so who will be signed must be welling to welcome this fact.
If selling both Henry and Eto'o is a must, then we better find our striker some where in South America and sign him on January so we have a close eye on him to make sure if he will be our winning card for next season, and whenI say so I have no name in mind, we read a new name every day, and I think my cousin who lives in Brazil is the only name that is not mentioned yet as a Barcelona transfer target, but the way things are going, I guess I will read his name soon if he got lucky enough to score a blind shot while playing with his two children.
Josep Guardiola i SalaHe was my third option, behind Wenger and Scolari, but now that he was appointed, I have a good feeling about it, even though he made the second worst start for Barcelona in the season (first six games) since 2004, as the following table show:
Season
2004-2005 W W D W W W (16 Points)
2005-2006 D W L D W D (9 Points)
2006-2007 W W W D W W (16 Points)
2007-2008 D W D W W W (14 points)
2008-2009 L D W W W W (13 points)
What makes me feel good is the fact that this guy has been masticated with Barcelona colors, so he know exactly where he stands, and how things go in this club.
Secondly, his tactical structure contained lot of modifications that proved its worth already, changing Messi positioning, using Iniesta on the left flank – though he was used there before - and playing three central backwards when needed are some of the changes. But the change was more radical when we talk about the mentality, and when we go in details about players roles on the field, but I will stop it here without testing your patience to read.
He also created a big technical/medical staff to assure each and every detail will be taken seriously, he remind me, to some extend, of France coaching staff in world cup 1998.
Of what we read and saw, it’s obvious that there is more diversity in training now, especially physically and for set pieces, players admit it, and Xavi was so clear regarding set pieces, while Abidal sound to be more satisfied with the physical aspects.
One serious challenge for Guardiola will be the size of the squad, he has lot of first class players in his squad competing for limited positions, how will he keep them all satisfied is a question. No doubt this confident charismatic coach has a plan including a certain rotation strategy, but will it work? And for how long? Time will tell...
He is showing enough character treating all the players on the same level, and substituting as it suits the team even if that will mean sometimes taking Eto’o of and see how he look when he is upset. Also, pep is showing enough vision working on a rotation system that will prove its worth on the long term, will that make him a great coach? Certainly it’s too early to jump to that conclusion, but it’s fair enough to offer him enough time to express himself.
Barcelona is certainly one of the teams to beat domestically and in the Champions League, not the only horse in the race, but certainly an exciting one.
My final conclusion is that Barcelona can count on the resources they have for now, In this long overview splited on three parts, I tried to express a pont of view, which is certainly not a definite judgement, but based on what I mentioned, I create my opinion regarding players who come or go, because If we look outdoors there will always be dozens of talents we wish to have them in our team, but when we look indoor, we can see first what are the needs of the team before browsing the best options to fit those needs.
Now based on your own evaluation, do you think we need to buy in January? Why and for which role? What will that improve? What about summer? Do we already have definite targets? Let us know!
Posts
