Barca victory a template for Everton?

[Neiler]

Clearly youth is something to focuss on but its impossible to rely on it, you can never predict if youngsters will make the grade compleatly untill they do.

It has to be a blend for me complimented with clever singings - its very possible, i think what we have now at Everton is closer to Utd's model then anything.

A good young team bubbling under the surface as a lot of our current squad hit their late 20's. I expect to see a blend of youth and expierence in our side over the next couple of seaosns, supplemented with one or two quality sigingings.

Getting back to Barca the thing that surprised me about their success this season is that it is in the main the same squad that were beaten by the Norwegians in the semi final last year and Madrid in the League, i think a lot of the credit goes to Pep, which again indicates money isnt everything.

 

[SuitsBlueX2]

Barcelona did not deserve to squirm past Chelsea (who got messed around in a Champs League semi yet again) and Man Utd stood off them all night, I do not recall one good strong challenge that sent a message. Talking about the kind of tackle Neville put on Ronaldo at Goodison that suddenly had them all backing off and backing down.

 

[Neiler]

Barcelona did not deserve to squirm past Chelsea (who got messed around in a Champs League semi yet again) and Man Utd stood off them all night, I do not recall one good strong challenge that sent a message. Talking about the kind of tackle Neville put on Ronaldo at Goodison that suddenly had them all backing off and backing down.

I agree mate if you can contain Barca, you have a more then good chance of scoring agianst them, they are really bad at the back.

Hiddenk deserves some kind of award for his tactics against them an absolute masterclass in tactical awarness!

 

[Bruce Wayne]

As I said in the CL thread, the first goal is oh so important. United were left chasing the game after Eto'o scored. Chelsea were never in that position. They could afford to block up the middle and rely on Drogba to bully on the counter attack. It was no different to how Blackburn or Bolton have learnt to play against Arsenal lately.

 

[Yard Dog]

Every team at Barca, down to the youth sides, plays the 433 formation with the same style of play, with each player modelling themselves on their equivalent in the first team to be able to fit in. Im sure we could use this as a template, and even just mirror the barca team

Howard
Neville Jagielka Lescott Baines

Arteta Rodwell Pienaar

Cahill Fellaini

Yakubu

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The thing with the Barca style of play is that you need your three in midfield to be exceptional at keeping the ball as neither Messi or Henry track back much, they're both very much wide attackers. This works because they have the ball so much, but if you don't have it then you have an outgunned midfield trying to chase the ball around.

For us it seems that we use the formation used by Milan et al, whereby you have two holding midfielders (Neville/Fellaini), three attacking midfielders (Osman, Pienaar, Cahill) and a striker. The two holding players usually consist of a destroyer and a passer, similar to Mascherano and Alonso at Liverpool, Gattuso and Pirlo at Milan etc. Before his injury, Arteta was in there alongside Neville and it was working well.

 

[ToxtethBlue]

Ours is more of a 4-4-1-1, the most advanced midfielder is more of a second striker. Both Fellaini and Cahill are used as target men when we have the ball and drop slightly deeper when we don't have the ball.

There certainly not in midfield long enough for us to dominate a game like Barcelona or even Man utd when they play 4-3-3. They have three midfielders facing the play and looking to get on the ball. We usually have two looking to get on the ball with Cahill or Fellaini playing with there back to goal.

If we buy a pacy winger that might change, it might allow us to push our wide men further forward and drop Cahill/Fellaini into a deeper midfield role. At the moment we have Osman who is usually very deep and central. He’s not really a player capable of playing high up the pitch, especially outwide.

 

[Rook]

If we had talent like Xavi and Iniesta then they would get poached by the big 4 before they were 21.

Our academy is better than almost every other one in the prem. Besides aren't we restricted by age limits on forenigers and local players? We couldn't sign an Argentinan at 13 like Barca can. Plus their reserves play in the 2nd and 3rd divsion. With their TV contract they can buy and afford to keep almost anyone in the world as well.

 

[lordyefc]

Our academy is better than almost every other one in the prem. Besides aren't we restricted by age limits on forenigers and local players? We couldn't sign an Argentinan at 13 like Barca can. Plus their reserves play in the 2nd and 3rd divsion. With their TV contract they can buy and afford to keep almost anyone in the world as well.

I *think* the rules have changed, so that players can't be ferried around the world for football reasons if they are under 18. Villa are trying to sign an Aussie kid whose family moved to England, but his club are claiming the only reason they moved was so the kid could move clubs.

However, there are still immigration rules. In England, it's really hard to sign top 20 year old South American prospect unless he's played loads of international game - and of course, getting in the Brazil team is hard. In Spain, they have agreements with South American countries allowing easy movement (probably because of their colonial days), which means they can take a chance on a load of cheap, unproven talent (some of whom will be good, some will be crap)