Possession

[RobRoyal]

So ideal's big idea is that it's important to take your chances. Brilliant.

[ZacNaloen]

I suppose the key question is, would Barcelona be more effective if they didn't tippy tap it in their own half for 150 passes, or is it that key to their effectiveness?

[Simon's Church]

I'm not sure if media outlets work out there own possession stats but Opta work it out by the number of passes a team makes, making it even more irrelevan

http://www.weaintgotnohistory.com/2012/ ... statistics

[BR2]

I suppose the key question is, would Barcelona be more effective if they didn't tippy tap it in their own half for 150 passes, or is it that key to their effectiveness?

One fairly obvious point-it is more tiring chasing players all over the pitch than it is keeping possession and teams like Barcelona gradually wear teams down and create more and more openings.
They tend to score late in each half (and at other times as well) when the other team is knackered.
As for what is more aesthetically pleasing to watch that is down to the individual-I love watching Barcelona but I didn't like watching Reading under Burns or Rodgers because we played too much in our own half without an end product.
Swansea have improved under Rodgers and Barcelona are currently better at that style than anybody else.

[Franchise FC]

Barcelona 82% possession

Fair play to Chelsea, the ten men at least, that was a fantastic defensive performance.

[TheMaraudingDog]

Not much you can do when the keeper and the post have a blinder. Or indeed when you miss a penalty.

[PieEater]

I suppose the key question is, would Barcelona be more effective if they didn't tippy tap it in their own half for 150 passes, or is it that key to their effectiveness?

One fairly obvious point-it is more tiring chasing players all over the pitch than it is keeping possession and teams like Barcelona gradually wear teams down and create more and more openings.
They tend to score late in each half (and at other times as well) when the other team is knackered.
.

^this.

Added to fact that Barca condition the ref that any sort of tackle is a foul and they often end up playing against 10 men as a result.

[Schards#2]

The problem with Barcelona last night, and this style of football in general, is that if the defending team know that, firstly, you won't put a cross in, and, secondly, you won't shoot from outside the box, then they can simply defend the 18 yeard line with 10 players between them and the goal making it virtually impossible to pass through. It was reminscent of Arsenal of last year against some of the weaker sides.

I don't watch Spanish football but can't believe Barcelona haven't shown a bit more versatility week in week out or they would surely have had more draws.

[TheMaraudingDog]

There was no problem with Barca last night. Sometimes things like last night just happen. Miss chances, keeper has a great game, hit posts, miss penalty. Was just bad luck. Could easily have been 5-1.

[Alan Partridge]

There was no problem with Barca last night. Sometimes things like last night just happen. Miss chances, keeper has a great game, hit posts, miss penalty. Was just bad luck. Could easily have been 5-1.

They also really miss David Villa.

[RobRoyal]

There was no problem with Barca last night. Sometimes things like last night just happen. Miss chances, keeper has a great game, hit posts, miss penalty. Was just bad luck. Could easily have been 5-1.

Exactly.

Anyone wanting to explain last night as a tactical victory for Chelsea will have to explain how Di Matteo arranged the post coming to their rescue twice. Barca played well enough to progress except in their finishing, which let them down badly. Messi has to take a lot of responsibility.

[Alan Partridge]

One of them things like TMD says that just occasionally happens in football. Park the bus and get away with it, happens rarely. Pressure and you have to give credit to Chelsea, other than drogba's lunge they were very disciplined and organised. Soon as they gave it away or cleared it, there were 9 players back behind the ball defending.

The pundits made a big deal of Cahill and Terry going off but if there's one team you could play without two traditional centre halves it's Barcelona. They never put crosses in, and if they do they are all under 5'9 anyway. You could probably count on one hand the amount of headers Ivanovic and Bosingwa made yesterday. What you need is positional discipline, pace and luck. They had all 3. As mentla as it seems although Chelsea would of course rather had 11 players on the pitch, it possibly did them a favour losing the slow ponderous Terry and getting someone else in there. Guardiola got his team wrong in the away game playing Mascherano at centre bck instead of Pique up against Drogba, in the 2nd leg they didn't get a lot of luck and when they did get some Messi mucked up the penalty. It was just one of those days, funny how football can turn. 2 weeks ago Barcelonawere the form team in Spain and looked nailed on for CL final and now they are out of both competitions in a week.

The problem for Chelsea now is for the final they will need to be a lot better against either opponent and they won't have a defense. Real and Bayern both play a more traditional style of football, both will put crosses in and both have proper centre forwards. This will cause them a lot more problems than BArcelona trying to pass the ball around them.

[Simon's Church]

Bayern Munich's back four are all on yellows for tonight so if they get through could be without a defence as well.

[Alan Partridge]

Bayern Munich's back four are all on yellows for tonight so if they get through could be without a defence as well.

Outstanding. Lets hope for that then for the lulz.

[Maguire]

There was no problem with Barca last night. Sometimes things like last night just happen. Miss chances, keeper has a great game, hit posts, miss penalty. Was just bad luck. Could easily have been 5-1.

Missing chances, missing the target, and missing penalties is absolutely fukk all to do with luck - they just weren't good enough.

[Maguire]

There was no problem with Barca last night. Sometimes things like last night just happen. Miss chances, keeper has a great game, hit posts, miss penalty. Was just bad luck. Could easily have been 5-1.

Exactly.

Anyone wanting to explain last night as a tactical victory for Chelsea will have to explain how Di Matteo arranged the post coming to their rescue twice. Barca played well enough to progress except in their finishing, which let them down badly. Messi has to take a lot of responsibility.

Post isn't the target m8.

2-0 down and a man down and nobody would've put money on them drawing that game. Nobody. Ramires' goal was absolute class.

Saying "they were lucky, the keeper had a good game" is nonsense - the keeper is part of the team FFS.

Barca just had Arsenal syndrome. No Plan B, no idea what to do when faced with a massed defence like that (answer - get it wide and cross it) just like the Gunners haven't been able to do for years. Thierry Henry hardly ever scored headed goals.

[NTRoyal]

Agree completely with the above. Barcelona were 2-0 up against 10 men. They drew 2-2, therefore were nowhere near good enough. Hitting the post isn't bad luck, it's bad finishing. Having possesion, territory and a man advantage then proceeding to throw the game away isn't bad luck, it's poor and a credit to Chelsea, and for taking full advantage of the opportunities they had.

Were Liverpool 'unlucky' against WBA? No. They simply weren't good enough.

[No Fixed Abode]

There was no problem with Barca last night. Sometimes things like last night just happen. Miss chances, keeper has a great game, hit posts, miss penalty. Was just bad luck. Could easily have been 5-1.

Exactly.

Anyone wanting to explain last night as a tactical victory for Chelsea will have to explain how Di Matteo arranged the post coming to their rescue twice. Barca played well enough to progress except in their finishing, which let them down badly. Messi has to take a lot of responsibility.

Isn't that what the post is there for? You haven't hit the target, so you don't deserve to score.

[Schards#2]

There was no problem with Barca last night. Sometimes things like last night just happen. Miss chances, keeper has a great game, hit posts, miss penalty. Was just bad luck. Could easily have been 5-1.

I do think their tactics were wrong.

They continually played the ball from right to left and left to right on the edge of the box without shooting. They could have had a shot at goal pretty much every minute of the second half but chose not to and, as a result, only had a handful of efforts. A superb strike can score, or a deflection, or a deflection to a player in the box, or the keeper spills one.

I just think after 25 minutes of plan A not working it would have been sensible to try something different but they didn't change one iota save for leaving 0 men back instead of 1 for injury time.

[Franchise FC]

There was no problem with Barca last night. Sometimes things like last night just happen. Miss chances, keeper has a great game, hit posts, miss penalty. Was just bad luck. Could easily have been 5-1.

I do think their tactics were wrong.

They continually played the ball from right to left and left to right on the edge of the box without shooting. They could have had a shot at goal pretty much every minute of the second half but chose not to and, as a result, only had a handful of efforts. A superb strike can score, or a deflection, or a deflection to a player in the box, or the keeper spills one.

I just think after 25 minutes of plan A not working it would have been sensible to try something different but they didn't change one iota save for leaving 0 men back instead of 1 for injury time.

Who gave Torres the freedom of not just the pitch, but the stadium, the city, the country and most of the Iberian peninsular ?
Credit to him, he never looked like he was going to miss it