Before Barcelona played Manchester United in the Champions League final at Wembley last May, Alex Ferguson said that the way Barça pressured their opponents to win the ball back was “breathtaking”. That, he said, was Guardiola’s innovation. Ferguson admitted that United hadn’t known how to cope with it in the Champions League final in Rome in 2009. He thought it would be different at Wembley. It wasn’t. Barcelona start pressing (hunting for the ball) the instant they lose possession. That is the perfect time to press because the opposing player who has just won the ball is vulnerable. He has had to take his eyes off the game to make his tackle or interception, and he has expended energy. That means he is unsighted, and probably tired. He usually needs two or three seconds to regain his vision of the field. So Barcelona try to dispossess him before he can give the ball to a better-placed teammate. Furthermore, if the guy won the ball back in his own defence, and Barcelona can instantly win it back again, then the way to goal is often clear. This is where Lionel Messi’s genius for tackling comes in. The little man has such quick reflexes that he sometimes wins a tackle a split-second after losing one. The Barcelona player who lost the ball leads the hunt to regain it. But he never hunts alone. His teammates near the ball join him. If only one or two Barça players are pressing, it’s too easy for the opponent to pass around them.

If Barça haven’t won the ball back within five seconds of losing it, they then retreat and build a compact ten-man wall. The distance between the front man in the wall (typically Messi) and their last defender (say, Carles Puyol) is only 25 to 30 metres. It’s hard for any opponent to pass their way through such a small space. The Rome final was a perfect demonstration of Barcelona’s wall: whenever United won the ball and kept it, they faced eleven precisely positioned opponents, who stood there and said, in effect: “Try and get through this.” It’s easy for Barcelona to be compact, both when pressing and when drawing up their wall, because their players spend most of the game very near each other. Xavi and Iniesta in particular seldom stray far from the ball. Cruijff recently told the former England manager Steve McClaren, now with FC Twente in Holland: “Do you know how Barcelona win the ball back so quickly? It’s because they don’t have to run back more than 10 metres as they never pass the ball more than 10 metres.”

Once Barcelona have built their compact wall, they wait for the right moment to start pressing again. They don’t choose the moment on instinct. Rather, there are very precise prompts that tell them when to press. One is if an opponent controls the ball badly. If the ball bounces off his foot, he will need to look downwards to locate it, and at that moment he loses his overview of the pitch. That’s when the nearest Barcelona players start hounding him. There’s another set prompt for Barça to press: when the opposing player on the ball turns back towards his own goal. When he does that, he narrows his options: he can no longer pass forward, unless Barcelona give him time to turn around again. Barcelona don’t give him time. Their players instantly hound the man, forcing him to pass back, and so they gain territory.

If an opposing player gets the ball anywhere near Barcelona’s penalty area, then Barça go Italian. They apply what they call the “3-1 rule”: one of Barcelona’s four defenders will advance to tackle the man with the ball, and the other three defenders will assemble in a ring about two or three metres behind the tackler. That provides a double layer of protection. Guardiola picked this rule up in Italy. It’s such a simple yet effective idea that you wonder why all top teams don’t use it.

When Barcelona win the ball, they do something unusual. Most leading teams treat the moment the ball changes hands – “turnover”, as it’s called in basketball – as decisive. At that moment, the opponents are usually out of position, and so if you can counterattack quickly, you have an excellent chance of scoring. Teams like Manchester United and Arsenal often try to score in the first three seconds after winning possession. So their player who wins the ball often tries to hit an instant splitting pass. Holland – Barcelona’s historic role models – do this too. But when a Barcelona player wins the ball, he doesn’t try for a splitting pass. The club’s attitude is: he has won the ball, that’s a wonderful achievement, and he doesn’t need to do anything else special. All he should do is slot the ball simply to the nearest teammate. Barcelona’s logic is that in winning the ball, the guy has typically forfeited his vision of the field. So he is the worst-placed player to hit a telling ball. This means that Barcelona don’t rely on the element of surprise. They take a few moments to get into formation, and then pretty much tell their opponents, “OK, here we come.” The opposition knows exactly what Barça are going to do. The difficulty is stopping it. The only exception to this rule is if the Barça player wins the ball near the opposition’s penalty area. Then he goes straight for goal.

Keeping the ball has been Barcelona’s key tactic since Cruijff’s day. Most teams don’t worry about possession. They know you can have oodles of possession and lose. But Barcelona aim to have 65 or 70 per cent of possession in a game. Last season in Spain, they averaged more than 72 per cent; so far this year, they are at about 70 per cent. The logic of possession is twofold. Firstly, while you have the ball, the other team can’t score. A team like Barcelona, short on good tacklers, needs to defend by keeping possession. As Guardiola has remarked, they are a “horrible” team without the ball. Secondly, if Barça have the ball, the other team has to chase it, and that is exhausting. When the opponents win it back, they are often so tired that they surrender it again immediately. Possession gets Barcelona into a virtuous cycle. Barça are so fanatical about possession that a defender like Gerald Pique will weave the most intricate passes inside his own penalty area rather than boot the ball away. In almost all other teams, the keeper at least is free to boot. In the England side, for instance, it’s typically Joe Hart who gives the ball away with a blind punt. This is a weakness of England’s game, but the English attitude seems to be that there is nothing to be done about it: keepers can’t pass. Barcelona think differently. Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid’s coach and Barcelona’s nemesis, has tried to exploit their devotion to passing. In the Bernabeu in December, Madrid’s forwards chased down Valdes from the game’s first kickoff, knowing he wouldn’t boot clear. The keeper miscued a pass, and Karim Benzema scored after 23 seconds. Yet Valdes kept passing, and Barcelona won 1-3. The trademark of Barcelona-raised goalkeepers – one shared only by Ajax-raised goalkeepers, like Edwin van der Sar – is that they can all play football like outfield players.

No other football team plays the Barcelona way. That’s a strength, but it’s also a weakness. It makes it very hard for Barça to integrate outsiders into the team, because the outsiders struggle to learn the system. Barcelona had a policy of buying only “Top Ten” players – men who arguably rank among the ten best footballers on earth – yet many of them have failed in the Nou Camp. Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic did, while even David Villa, who knew Barcelona’s game from playing it with Spain, ended up on the bench before breaking his leg. Joan Oliver, Barcelona’s previous chief executive, explained the risk of transfers by what he called the “one-second rule”. The success of a move on the pitch is decided in less than a second. If a player needs a few extra fractions of a second to work out where his teammate is going, because he doesn’t know the other guy’s game well, the move will usually break down. A new player can therefore lose you a match in under a second. Pedro isn’t a great footballer, but because he was raised in the Masia he can play Barcelona’s game better than stars from outside. The boys in the Masia spend much of their childhood playing passing games, especially Cruijff’s favorite, six against three. Football, Cruijff once said, is choreography. Nobody else thinks like that. That’s why most of the Barcelona side is homegrown. It’s more a necessity than a choice. Still, most of the time it works pretty well.

cutsy123 wrote:gave up after 1st sentence

Quickenthetempo wrote:We used to have the same tactics of pressing and hunting the ball when we had Ings, Boyd et al.

Vegas Claret wrote:by pass the midfield, give the new lad Laporte Barnes and Vokes to contend with. I'd play our biggest team and try and get something from set pieces. Oh, and ask the police to use that wall they stick up when we play Bastards - "across our 6 yard box will do nicely lads"

Spijed wrote:Interesting that it worked so well at Barcelona but not as well when he was in charge at Bayern Munich.

Wonder why?

Spijed wrote:Interesting that it worked so well at Barcelona but not as well when he was in charge at Bayern Munich.

Wonder why?

KRBFC wrote:Narrow fullbacks who tuck inside to overcrowd and dominate the midfield which gives De Bruyne and Silva licence to roam forward. The central defenders split wide. Almost creates a 2341 formation. Genius really

cutsy123 wrote:gave up after 1st sentence

dibraidio wrote:I don't agree. We don't target 65-70% possession for a start. We never press just after losing the ball because we hardly have the ball in the first place. We have a press but it's a completely different kind of press. When in possession we try to transition the ball efficiently to get it forward and our poor pass completion shows that it doesn't work as often as we might like. The player who won the ball doesn't look for a teammate who'll have a better vision of what's going on on the pitch, more often than not he'll bomb forward in the hope of hitting the opponent before they can get organised.

The only similarity in style is the last bit where he says, their style of play is so different to other teams that it takes time for players to learn the system.

Silkyskills1 wrote:Who'd have thought it was such a simple plan? Now I know what a genius can achieve, especially if there's a few hundred million pounds available to facilitate the process. I used to think Jimmy Mc was a genius. Oh, how wrong I was.

boyyanno wrote:Peps tactics aren't revolutionary and they are certainly beatable.

I'm not saying he isn't a good manager but a lot of it comes back to Cruyff in my opinion. He also inherited Barcelona, went to Bayern and has spent hundreds of millions at City. How does he prove himself when he's at that level of club spending that amount of money?

KRBFC wrote:I've never understood the logic behind an opinion like this, you're saying it like he has to prove himself in the Championship to manage in the Champions League. It's like saying you need experience sweeping the floor to become the owner of the place. Do footballers need experience in the lower leagues to play at the very top? Do PL players need that experience out in France? Why would a manager at one of the top clubs need experience in the free transfer world? How would that benefit City? Surely it's the opposite and he needs experience managing big clubs, in big competitions, handling world class players and assembling the squad.

boyyanno wrote:Except that isn't what I said at all. I asked a general question on how he does prove himself. If you think moving clubs from the world best teams and spending more money than anyone else is a barometer of how good a manager you are then I'd completely disagree. Brian Cloughs achievements will dump all over Peps unless he goes on to win everything, and I'm including world cups in that. The expectation at Peps clubs is to win everything, my genuine question is how does he go about making himself the best of the best? Which I think we both agree he could be at some point in the future.

KRBFC wrote:I've never understood the logic behind an opinion like this, you're saying it like he has to prove himself in the Championship to manage in the Champions League. It's like saying you need experience sweeping the floor to become the owner of the place. Do footballers need experience in the lower leagues to play at the very top? Do PL players need that experience out in France? Why would a manager at one of the top clubs need experience in the free transfer world? How would that benefit City? Surely it's the opposite and he needs experience managing big clubs, in big competitions, handling world class players and assembling the squad.

It's like some on here are bitter about the finance at the top, it's the way modern day football is. Think of it this way, why has Dyche not got a Champions League job? after all he's proven himself at a lower level and with free transfers? I'll tell you one reason...... because the top 4 clubs don't employ managers good at getting out of the Championship or avoiding relegation on a shoestring budget because it's a whole different game at the top. There's levels to the game, look at Paul Cook, is that 3 successive promotions at 3 different clubs? why is he not managing Barcelona? he's proven at different clubs he can win the league.

''How does he prove himself when he's at that level of club spending that amount of money?'' Let me flip this, How does Dyche prove himself to be capable of managing in the Champions League and winning titles when he hasn't proven he can manage world class players or attract world class stars.

KRBFC wrote:The best managers tend to get the top jobs, it's just how it works. To be considered one of the best you win trophies and style of play is important. Pep's biggest achievement isn't winning trophies, it's his coaching and tactical work that creates the style of play we see. He has already put himself down as one of the best coaches ever from his style of play. The PL has seen nothing like it and the financial power has always been there. Johan Cruyff invented tiki-taka at Barca in the 90s while Pep was playing, Cruyff was Pep's idol and he's took that style of play and transformed it. I think some people believe to be the best you have to win trophies in the lower leagues and work on a shoestring budget which is hilarious.

KRBFC wrote:It's genius, don't worry keep hating, the majority of the football world will see him as a world class coach.

dsr wrote:The point is, he has proved that he can win championships when he's managing the club with the most money and the best players. That's not a mark of genius - it's a mark that he's good, but it's no proof that he's better than the man who comes second. It's a bit like Lewis Hamilton - does he consistently finish first because he's the best driver, or is it because he's got the best car?

KRBFC wrote:He spent hardly anything at Barca in his first season and won the treble. He bought Pique for £3M and promoted Busquets and Pedro from the B team where he coached them through the system.

dsr wrote:I don't know how much he spent, but he did sign Dani Alves, Seydou Keita, Martin Caceres, Gerard Pique, Alexander Hleb, and Henrique.

Wikipedia claims that Alves cost €30m Keita €14m, Caceres €16.5m, Pique €5m, Hleb €17m, and Henrique €10m. But Wikipedia could be wrong, and maybe they did cost £3m for the lot. (This was to add to a side that had just reached the semi-final of the Champions League.)

KRBFC wrote:I said £3M for Pique not the lot? you're so awkward

IanMcL wrote:On Saturday....

Barnes up front with Lennon playing off him.

Steve-Harpers-perm wrote:Ashley and Aaron.

dsr wrote:OK, take it not so much as a correction, more as an addition to what you said. "He spent hardly anything at Barca in his first season and won the treble. He bought Pique for £3M and promoted Busquets and Pedro from the B team where he coached them through the system" is true if you count €90m as "hardly anything", but I think knowing the actual total spend adds something to the tale. Don't you?

KRBFC wrote:They spent around 80 million and brought in about 50 million from sales, hardly a fortune compared to clubs around him. Like I said, he promoted young players and coached them into super stars and bought Pique back from Man United for about the same as we spent on Juke and Sordell.

City fan wrote: I do think that city are entering a difficult period now because we have lost players. Players like Jesus and sane have been outstanding, and we miss them no matter how good the other players are. .