Comments on: Holland wreak destruction on beautiful monster they helped to create

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 14:57:33 +0000

Thanks, inferentially appears about right. Midfield in particular appears aboutt right, interesting about Neeskens influence. More diagonal balls too, with Marquez?

By: Wouter

Wouter — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 12:57:35 +0000

A bigger focus on the physical side and not just stamina and grit, but also strength and height. A preference for strong, tall full backs (the likes of Belletti, Abidal) and centre mids (Edmilson, Toure). Themidfield was quite tenacious as a whole (not that weird with Neeskens as his assistant), with van Bommel and Deco also known to get stuck in at times. Xavi once said Rijkaard made him feel like an unfit part of the bigger Barcelona, “like a cancer”.

By: Wouter

Wouter — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 12:52:17 +0000

The orginal:
http://deportes.elpais.com/deportes/2014/02/01/actualidad/1391284340_205577.html

Some parts are translated here:
http://www.insidespanishfootball.com/96741/xavi-7hernandez-pens-open-letter-to-the-late-luis-aragones/

By: Charlie Wood

Charlie Wood — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 20:14:19 +0000

I speak some (limited) Spanish, was compulsory during school until 16, could have a look when back in St Andrews?

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 19:42:17 +0000

Thanks for that info, v. interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Spanish. Do you know of any translation?

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 16:11:56 +0000

Ya, I said at the time that they should have had Fabregas in as a False 9 (to create a 3 vs 0 situation), Pedro/Navas stretching play, perhaps moved to 4-3-3 to have Busquets dropping in to cover. Azpilicueta was a also a mistake, being a Chelsea fan, he is unwilling to move high enough up the pitch to get the ball, leaving Blind relatively free. Understandable why, given Van Persie can make a run wide of the RCB.

Was Juanfran not omitted for fitness reasons?

By: Wouter

Wouter — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 09:44:00 +0000

Cool, will be looking forward to that. Great to have a website where thought and energy are put into that are posted

Most of the Xavi/Aragonés story came out after Aragonés passed away. Xavi even wrote a column himself talking about their special relationship, which was published in a Spanish newspaper, I think it was el Pais.

By: Wouter

Wouter — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 09:35:04 +0000

You hit the hammer on the head there. For me, tiki-taka, as it was developed in the Spain squad, is a defensive tactic first and foremost. Get hold of the ball and under no circumstance lose it, so the opposition can’t score. Beneficial side effect is that opposition will tire from running after the ball, start losing concentration and make little mistakes, which creates space for you to exploit. It’s very dull to watch on its own (“boring Spain”).
The power of Guardiola was that he adopted the tiki-taka defensive method and combined with Barcelona’s own Catalano-Dutch hybrid of playing wide and pressing.

Back to that fateful night in Salvador (disclaimer, my perceptions might be very much wrong because of the shenanigans that ensued after the final whistle). My view of it is that Spain made a hash of it because they tried to play like Barcelona (including the pressing), but forgot to mimic their shape. Because Spain played so narrow, there was no pressure on the back three to stretch out. The back three were sitting back quite comfortably (although de Vrij was struggling with Costa runs behind his back, but that has nothing to do with tiki-taka). This gave the Dutch wing backs license to roam forward. Because Spain tried to press up, this left the Dutch wing-backs 1-on-1 with Alba and Azpilicueta and Ramos and Pique were left to deal with Robben and van Persie. Both Azpi and Ramos were quite clearly out of their depth during Dutch counter-attacks.

Spain clearly had a better players and should have won easily had they ensured the right amount of width, Sure, Navas was out with an injury, but not taking a like-for-like replacement to the World Cup was a mistake. A second option was starting Atlético Madrid’s Juanfran as right back. A converted winger, he knows how to make Alves-like runs and get to the byline.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 23:28:18 +0000

Sigmund,

Was broadly aware of the contents of that BR article (though was pretty good for a BR article, some can be awful), I really need to sit down and watch some games of that team. Theoretically it was all about controlled press, incredibly compressed game, offside trap, equal utilisation of space, and total universalism (what better a symbol that Ruud Gullit, striker, central midfielder and sweeper).

Thanks anyway,

Oliver.

By: Charlie Wood

Charlie Wood — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 23:07:16 +0000

Yes, this is true, will alter that now. My mistake, thought Rexach was Dutch. Can see now why he’s Catalan though, the ‘x’ in his name that gives it away (Txiki Begiristain, the Man. City, former Barca director of football, could only be Catalan with a name like that!!). Cheers.