Almeria 2-2 Barca, or, Did I say "Thrash Almeria?"

An unexpected los...er, I mean, draw...this week has brought an interesting question to the fore: Are Barca a good, verging on great, team at home, but a mediocre team away? One needs to look no further than this wonderful blog to see that while Barca are capable of turning out some stunning performances within its fortress, they struggle to produce the same quality outside in the unadoring cold of the road.

Some will say that the Camp Nou pitch is so good, that all other pitches in the world destroy Barca's flow with all the long grass and holes every other square-foot. Whatever. If you ask me, this game came down to a bit of exhaustion, a bit of jadedness, and you know what, a bit of curious coaching decisions.

I am as big a supporter of Pep Guardiola as you will find, and as recent posts will indicate, I am not at all against the direction he seems to be taking the team into, tactically and when it comes to personnel. But in this match, Barca looked on the ropes for a long, long time, looking sluggish as a team and, for the most part, individually. The team went down once, ground out a fairly lucky equalizer (not the first one lately, either), then went down again, still looking slow and relatively tame.

Note the lineup: Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Milito, Maxwell, Yaya, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Messi, and Ibrahimovic. That is just a suspension, an injury, and an I-don't-know-what's-up-with-Henry away from last year's tour-de-force. Yet, Guardiola tried--and commendably, at first--to try his new tactics with Yaya instead of Busquets. It was not quite working.

Did it really have to take a sending-off to pull Iniesta back into the midfield and have the team play the way they knew? With Yaya, last year's rock of the midfield trio, in the squad, why play the 433-cum-424/4231 experiment that Busquets is central to? At half-time, with the grip on the game tenuous at best, could Pep have not said, "Right, decent showing of the new tactics--now let's do the Xavi-Iniesta-Yaya thing, move the damn ball around, and put Almeria in their place"?

It was not all the manager, though, who should have known better than to get sent off with his team down. It was most of last year's legends whose performances factored into the draw. No analysis of important Barca players in a game should begin with anyone else but Xavi Hernandez, who just was not the engine that the team needs him to be. He looked to be lacking barrels of mental sharpness--his passes were inconsistent, and his movement did not involve himself enough and allow him to take a hold of the game. Gone, for the most part, were the one-touch passes that kept the ball moving, as almost every one of his passes seemed to take moment after agonizing moment to consider and execute, successful or not. Did having only one midfield partner, and one that tends to stay behind the attack, give him more to think about than usual? Probably. But most of all, he played lethargically, without urgency, without the usual conviction.

His slowness set the tone for the team, as the story of the first half was possession at the back. Xavi had his good moments, everyone had their good moments--but somewhere along the line, someone scuffed off a poor pass or lost the ball cheaply somewhere in the field. Xavi's hesitancy led to hesitancy all over the field, and the ball never really got moving. Sometimes the team moved the ball quickly from right to left, from left to right; other times, they dribbled and turned, made a back-pass, or lost the ball one way or another. Defensively, the whole team did not track back as one far too often. Fingers will point to Alves for giving Puyol more work than he needed, but when that happened, and when Puyol got beaten, where were the midfielders on too many occasions? Inconsistency and slow speed of play marked a very uninspired game.

Like Xavi, almost everyone who showed last year that they could, did not. For some players, it was also partly because of tactics. Iniesta, playing as a left-forward for most of the game, looked uninspired. In that position, his currency is the ability to dribble his way out of tight situations, and in most games he produces some magic a few times against the sideline, but he could not in this game. As long as he depends on his dribbling in the final third, as long as his final balls are not-quite-there, as long as he does not score goals or even take shots most of the time, he will not be very good in that role.

Other players will not find their excuses in tactics. Between tracking back too late, too often, getting caught out of position, as well as with trademarked-loose distribution, trademarked-inaccurate crosses, and one trademarked-exaggeration on the floor, Alves showed off a lot of what we hate him for with precious little of what we love him for. Loads of involvement and flash in his game was more than counter-balanced by the wastefulness that Barca fans hate to call predictable. Perhaps he is playing his way back from injury--I hope that is the case.

Yaya was also a bit off-color. Though his passing was generally sound and his possession generally smart, last year's defensive proficiencies were as lacking as they were in the Stuttgart game. Very inconsistent was his positioning, as he was just reaching balls too late, having to make most of his tackles in the places you would not expect--anywhere but the middle of the field in front of the defense. More noticeable was his ineffectiveness in imposing himself. For such a historically intimidating player, if not technically excellent in his tackles and interceptions (though often he is this), to see him lose so many physical battles in the air was baffling. People seem to be pointing to Puyol for the 12th-minute goal concession, and with reason--but that goal began with Yaya holding onto his man, looking to be on him, but allowing him to escape and get his head to the ball. Perhaps he is shaking off some rust--I hope that is the case, if he remains with the team. I would hate to see him go.

The other concession effectively started with Yaya as well. Sure, Maxwell gave away the ball cheaply upfield, but then Almeria moved right through the middle, as Yaya ran alongside the play. Also like the opener, it ended, obviously, with Puyol at the scene of the crime with blood all over his hands, but this time, it was for real. An own goal is not something you see often from El Capitan, but it happened, and it symbolized another sluggish, inconsistent, and, well, slow performance from another of the team's staples. Did Valdes call him off? Should he have done so louder if he did? Was Puyol listening? We will never know. What we do know is that if it was not for that practically once-in-a-lifetime mistake, Barca would have scrapped out a narrow and only arguably deserved win.

Was it really any surprise that our best performers were the relative newbies, the ones that did not partake in last year's spotlight? Milito played arguably the best game in the defense, with superb reading of Almeria's passes in the final third, several well-executed tackles that came from that reading, and flashes of Beckenbaur-esque forays and passes forward. His cross-field- and long passes were not that bad, either. Busquets, when he came on for Yaya for the last 20 minutes of the game, really showed his form by playing a near perfect game off the bench, picking off loose balls, pressuring every player that came into his zone and running them straight into one of our defenders, and passing 100%, including one Xavi-esque cross-field ball.

Pedro, though playing a supporting role throughout the game, did not put one foot wrong if I remember. His passes, when they were not adequate to keep the attack moving, were excellent to put the ball in a wholly unexpected place. Especially after the team went a man down and he was allowed to play more strictly in the left-forward position, he showed flashes of playing it exactly as Henry did last season. I mentioned in the last post that one of his criticisms is his inexperience that is reflected in hesitancy in final-delivery situations on the wing. Against Almeria, when he received the ball at just the right time, he had no trouble in beating his man and racing to the touchline to put the knife in. Once, he opted to pass the ball back to Xavi, when Alves was wide-open in the middle. Another time, he delivered a dangerous one to the far-post, which came back through an Almeria header for Messi's second goal. With a bit more confidence--as if he does not have a ton already--he gets a couple of assists.

The exception to the rule, of course, was Messi, who really had an exceptional individual game. Almeria could not deal with his heroic runs, and, unlike most teams, could not deal with his foolish runs most of the time, either. They were also terrorized by tiny, chipped flicks of the ball to nearby teammates that Messi cheekily pulled off again, and again, and again. His passes were right-on, too, as he would consistently hold the ball just enough to draw two or three players, before giving to someone like Pedro, through whom he could have had one obvious assist. He looked so threatening throughout the game, and really deserved both goals of the type--cool, but just a tad lucky. If Ibrahimovic played half as well as Messi did, Barca would have put this game to bed quickly through sheer class at the front. Unfortunately, the big man kept bundling over his defender whenever the ball came near him, and finally the poor guy had enough of it and exaggerated some contact, which got Ibra sent off--and that is all I will say about him.

But, again, Barca only came near their full potential after he was sent off. It was not because Ibrahimovic was the wrench-in-the-gears--he was far from it. Puyol's own-goal whipped the team and the manager into shape, as they both realized that this could go down as an L. Guardiola, for his part, got on his iPhone and told Villanova to authorize the tactical changes that allowed the (old?) Xavi-Iniesta axis to run the midfield. The players, for their part, started to get the ball around the field faster. The defenders, who had until that point been far, far too content to imagine that the Valdes-Puyol-Milito axis was the key to dominance, moved the ball forward. Iniesta became much more assured in his passing, visibly relieved that he did not need to wow the crowd as the only way to do anything right. Xavi, with an attacking outlet, hesitated much less. Both of them, plus Pedro and, sometimes, Alves, coalesced around Messi to create three chances--three--right after the sending off. The fourth was the second equalizer.

More came, and to the last minute, I felt fairly comfortable that Barca could pull it out. Messi still produced some great things out of sheer drive, including a half-volley that gave Diego Alves his best save of the game. I did not know it, though. All the players that were only half-there prior to the sending off were still only 75-80% there afterward. Xavi continued to rack up passes like a collection of dull-knives. Iniesta was certainly more comfortable, but still was not playing like St. Andres. Alves dived in the box and freaked out when the ref didn't give him a penalty. In some ways, things got worse, as Maxwell began to get beaten like a gong toward the end, and Almeria returned the favor Messi did their goalkeeper by giving Milito his best, if subtle, moments. It was only when stoppage time began, and I saw six of our players still in our own half, that I knew that we would give up the lead to Real Madrid.

In a very real way, Barca did not want three points as much as Almeria wanted one. When Sergio Canales was subbed off during the Racing game a few weeks ago, four goals down in the Camp Nou, he sat on the bench, shook his head, and smiled. Almeria players, when the 2-2 stalemate consolidated itself, became visibly frustrated with one another when things did not work out. Sure, our boys looked upset--mildly--but not enough for a second title. On Sunday, they need to prove that they want this Liga against a much more formidable team than Almeria--Valencia.

This just-in: Hopefully, the fit-again, and fit-again-early, Seydou Keita will help us. Arriba!

Barca 2-1 Malaga, or, Last Season We Put Away 15

It is an understatement to say that I was very pleased with this match. However, as I watched, and then watched again, a creeping doubt entered my mind: what did Guardiola have to say about it? According to Goal.com's translation:

"The important thing is that we played very well, with excellent possession and control of the ball. It was one of our better home games. [. . .] We were far better than our last games."

Phew! After thinking I was going crazy after hearing his pretty sharp criticism of the admittedly-incomplete hammering of Malaga, I hear a blessing from the master, which gives validation to what I had in mind which was this:

Dear Lord, did Barca look good. Dear Lord. Did they look good. Very good. Exclamation point. Exclamation points. More of them.

Did Malaga lay down and take it? That is partly the case. More importantly, Barca never let them stand up. The way the team was spreading the ball from the wide left to the wide right, back and forth. The way the whole team cohesively defended, with everyone in the right position. The way each individual won their own one-on-ones, and the way many of them did even more than that. The way everyone moved. The simplicity and precision of every pass, dribble, and tackle...all these things made this performance one that could have left world-beating opposition completely stumped.

And mark my words, our best performances this season will come at home, from "The" starting XI of this year (minus Abidal): Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Pique, Maxwell, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Messi, and Ibrahimovic. Why do I rate Henry behind Pedro, and why do I rate Yaya behind Busquets? Because Guardiola does so on both counts, and because I am just starting to believe.

That said, I am not convinced that Barca is a better team this year than last year. Last year, Barca finished a great many of their chances. In the first half of this game alone, I counted eight quite gilt-edged chances. A sampling:

-9th: After a failed cross to Xavi from Pedro, with three other players in the box lurking, Messi touches the ball but cannot control. However, Busquets' pressure is immediate, and forces a bad pass to a man tracked by Alves, and the ball bounces back to Busquets without ever having crossed the halfway line. A few passes later, Xavi drags his marker forward before dropping back and receiving a pass from Pedro, who continued to run diagonally inside, and Pedro feeds him through a quite-tight angle. He touches it on to Messi, who lofts it to the wing for Alves, who makes a fool of his man, crosses in with the outside of his left foot, and nailed Messi's head at the far post. Messi's run was great, and whether he saw it late or not we will never know, but he missed the open net.

-14th: After a goal-kick is owned by Puyol in the air, and it comes to Iniesta upfield, who cannot control his space in the air. Malaga briefly recovers the ball, but they have their own problems with the bouncing ball. Within a half of a second, Messi pounces onto the ball and has a two-on-two situation. Being Messi, he leaves that unfortunate player in the dust, dashes into the box with Ibrahimovic to his right, but Weligton tackles the ball just as he takes the shot. Whether he should have taken the shot earlier or stopped and gave it to his partner, that should have been a real punishment.

-24th: Maxwell's header, one of the approximately one hundred (and 98%) he won all day from a goal kick, sends the ball bouncing into the middle. Xavi never has control of it to begin with, he has no right to it. But he sombreros the man running at him, then with the second touch, sombreros a second man running at him. The first comes at him for his third touch, which flicks it behind his standing leg and turns one of them. The second arrives and converges on the ball, but with the fourth touch, Xavi passes it in between both of his victims to Messi, who is fouled on the break. That was not a goal scoring opportunity--it was just awesome.

-26th: Another Maxwell defensive header finds Ibra, who uses his head to ping it back to Xavi. Busquets uses great composure to receive one of the not-so-great passes from Xavi under the pushes of two Malaga players, and gives it off to Messi, who runs off and gives to Pedro, wide open on the wing. Pedro jukes once, jukes twice, and beats the left fullback handily, puts in a peach of a cross into the path of a great run from Messi, who inexplicably heads it high.

-29th-30th: Busquets finds himself on the wing, and gives to the real winger, Pedro, who loses the ball with a loose touch. However, Busi chases his man immediately to the corner flag, and the fullback passes it forward expecting it to hit his winger--but Pedro had tracked the winger, and controlled-cum-passed it to Busi. In a real error, the fullback doesn't attack Busi (on the wide right) for several seconds, and he is allowed to pass it back into the midfield. The forward play falls into the midfield (and to the wide left), mainly through Xavi, and the midfield play falls into the defense (and the middle), mainly through Busi, before coming forth (to the wide right!) to Alves, who releases Messi at the corner of the box. Messi jukes once, jukes twice, finds himself in on goal...but honks it high, with Ibrahimovic waiting at the other side of the goal. I really do not know if that was supposed to be a shot or a cross.

-36th-37th: A Xavi set piece is headed out, but Xavi himself runs across to catch it and distribute it to Alves, who knocks it on to Pedro on the right wing, who absolutely tears his man to pieces with a simple turn and run. He should have crossed to Ibra on the far post, but instead he gives back to Xavi on the edge of the box, who moves about and gives to Iniesta on the left side. He keeps running though, and turns around, so that when Iniesta crosses it to him, he looks uber-cool, when he catches the ball with his studs and flicks it with decent pace on-target for the keeper to save. I do not rate that as a gilt-edged chance, it was just another most excellent Xavi-moment (and a great Pedro-moment, as well).

And that was just the first half. And, that is not to mention 1) an Alves cross that somewhat luckily came to Ibra, whose reactions were not quick enough, 2) a Busi header scuffed that came from a shortly-taken corner on the right that was crossed in from the left, 3) a piece of beat-three-then-pass Messi magic that should have been a Pedro one-touch assist and an Ibra counterattacking goal, and 4) another piece of Messi magic and teamwork with Pedro that would have been either a goal for Messi's portfolio or an always-coming scrapper from Iniesta. That is also not to mention that those last three came in the 43rd, 44th, and 47th minutes respectively. And thusly, I explain the title of this post. Last year, Messi is calmer with his touch and scores four. Busi scores also scores one with a calmer touch. Pedro's pass is perfect and Ibra doesn't have to stretch, like that goal from last year of Eto'o's, assisted with Henry's one-touch.

But I do not want to be negative because this was an absolute blitzkrieg, with the "style and discipline" that marks our best performances. Notice the main characteristics of all these goals. Except for the last three chances that came in the last four minutes, everything started with good defense. It could have been just a header from a goal-kick that seemlessly connected possession upfield with possession at the back, and it often was. That is nothing to underestimate, however. It was all the defense needed to do most of the time, because once Barca had the ball, they passed it from right to left, from left to right, usuallyall the way into Malaga's box. Was Malaga fighting? Perhaps they could have fought harder, but they certainly were fighting: they just had no chance of winning. When Xavi is playing his best game all season, when Messi is combining his excellent runs with excellent passes, when the defense (+ a Busi who is really, really getting the hang of the game) does their one-necessary-action-per-few-minutes perfectly, no team in the world has a chance.

Strange, then, when Barca finds all this collective play perfectly, and all that is missing is the finish, the game-breaker has essentially no collective play, and only a finish. Or should I say cannonball. Indeed, it took my bet on first-scorer, the always over-performing Pedro Rodriguez, to finally open up the scoring, after ten or eleven great chances. Out of nowhere, Pedro puts the ball on his right foot and, from about 25 yards beyond the left side of the goal, drives it home--as simply as that. After creating a ton of chances in the expected way, Barca scores the unexpected way, from the most expected of unexpected scorers. And just like that, the game is 1-0, seemingly dead-at-last, and Pedro, the Real Special One, is one piledriver closer to the always-starting list in everyone's opinion and not just mine.

Within 15 minutes, all that brilliance seemed to come to an end, with the one mistake the defense made. It came down to overconfidence and thinking that the game was over. After Alves puts in his 1,843 poor cross of the game, Busi makes a rare defensive mistake. Sure, he is in the right place, as he was the whole game, but he tries to recapture some of that fanciness that characterized his poor play in the past by heading it to somebody who would be there, because Barca is magic. Except they are not magic. Malaga does the right thing for once with one of their few moments on the ball and brings it down our right side, which, with Alves having just made the cross, is wide-open. Xavi fills the space, but he is no defender. Pique and Puyol are, but they, in quite uncharacteristic overconfidence, miscommunicate and burst forward at the same time, each thinking that the tackle will be made, so why don't they themselves make it? Magic, right? No--the ball is passed simply in between the two, and Valdo has at least forty yards to run in on goal. Just maybe, Valdes could have done better--Pique and Puyol definitely should have.

And after 81 minutes of domination, it looked like one of the worst "one-of-those-days" anyone can think of. Except, Barca had a perfect reaction: "well, graham crackers. We have to put one away now." On the very next play, within a minute of the restart, Messi ran in from the right, beat two, passed it to Iniesta, who backheeled it back to Messi, who took the snap-shot for a good save. Within three minutes, Barca had their goal, and it was a special, special goal.

In those three minutes, Malaga did not have the ball. Not once. They came close to getting it after a Maxwell cross to Messi that was to tall for the little guy, but Pedro came bursting back to pick up the loose ball, and showed off some great skill to escape pressure. Then he passed it back, and the ball moved back to Pique, who gave it to Xavi, who gave it to Messi on the right. Messi jogged inside, and mis-placed a pass to Ibra, who mis-touched to Pedro, who was back on the left side of the box. Two-touches, Ibra continued running to the wing, and he gets it back. One-touch to Maxwell, one-touch (and a difficult one) back to Pedro. Two-touches, turn, and it's Xavi in the middle, who just takes a moment to look--three touches. Alves is running inside the box on the right. Boom, he has it, from a narrow ground pass through a gap between four players. He is unmarked, one-touch into the middle, and Messi is unmarked. Messi taps it home.

Tracking back from a forward. One touch in our third, one touch in the middle third, then the rest in and around the box. One-touch and two-touch play, with only one player--the key player with the best eyes in the world--touching it thrice. Ball-movement that puts the sport of basketball to shame. This goal had it all.

It should have been 3-1, when Bojan came on for Pedro and, in his one moment, received a perfect long-ball from Pique on the left, ran in along the touchline, and stroked in the most perfect ball you can ask for from the young'n for Ibra to tap in. But Weligton, who was a constant thorn in our side with his strength, fell over next to Ibra because he was "fouled".

I apologize for the length of this post--it will probably be my longest post for some time, but I cannot say enough about this performance. It was not a perfect game. Aside from the goal conceded and the chances missed, certain errors became prominent, such as Iniesta's consistently poor crosses, to Alves' consistently poor crosses and deteriorating distribution throughout the game. Everything else felt so distinctly not-memorable that it is hardly worth criticizing. If I was in the habit of rating players, I would give the worst player on the field an eight--maybe a nine. But I do not dare say who I thought that was, because it would be so harsh.

Next week, tune in to see Barca thrash Almeria. I cannot say if it will be such a good performance, but I also cannot say Barca will not put away six or seven goals on a poorer performance. Such is the period this team is in right now, and sometimes I feel honored to watch.

Stuttgart 1-1 Barca, or, A Looong and Dirty Job Done

The Setanta Sports commentator for this match noted the curious fact that Johann Cruyff, after the Racing match, called the 4-0 win "the worst performance he'd ever seen of a Guardiola side."

Huh. I wonder what he is saying about this one.

When the results of the Round of 16 draw came out several weeks ago, I doubt that I was alone in thanking my lucky stars for the easiest possible draw, knowing with the fullest confidence that Pep and the boys would deliver up a thorough and vengeful Hlebbing of the side with that one guy who wanted out last year.

Boys and girls (and Isaiah if you're reading), we just barely escaped a right-Hlebbing of our own.

Pep went to Deutschland with a lineup geared up with our most intimidating beasts of men, plus a magically fit-again midfield maestro: Valdes, Maxwell, Pique, Marquez, Puyol, Yaya, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, and Ibrahimovic. I suppose all credit must go to the manager for recognizing the need for an abundance of experienced defensive talents in such an important away fixture (injury obligations aside), but by the same token, all fingers must point to him for preparing his men for nothing more than an awful defensive display throughout much of the game. The players have to accept some responsibility. But the pervasiveness of cheap giveaways, woeful touches, weak clearances, and overall defensive incohesiveness and evident scrambling, especially in the first half, proved to me that Pep did not instill in his troops the sense of importance of this crucial fixture that could have been won handily.

Barca started the game looking solid enough. They had most of the ball for awhile, and when Stuttgart got the ball, some very organized-looking defensive plays by the team earned the ball back. For instance, in the sixth minute, Marquez gave away the ball with a poor pass to the forward line. But immediately, Ibrahimovic and Messi put pressure on the receiver, forcing a pass to a man that was well-covered by Busquets and Puyol. Puyol makes an easy tackle, gives the ball calmly to Yaya, and off we go again. It was a brilliant collective move that stood out to me, but it was the initial poor pass from Marquez that set the tone.

Iniesta played awfully throughout the first half, passing just about every ball he received straight to a Stuttgart player. Yaya was worse, playing the most useless match I may ever see him play, with some of the loosest possession and slowest defense; whenever Iniesta gave the ball away, Stuttgart flooded right through our middle. Often, the middle was just a route from our left to our right side, where Marquez was all over the place, Messi was clearly not tracking back consistently, and Puyol was rushing around like a mad man, putting on as much pressure as he could and making last-ditch tackle after last-ditch tackle. That right side should have been our strong side on defense, but it collapsed like a Jenga tower again and again.

The goal came came from our left side, but it began on our right. It was none other than Alex Hleb that totally schooled Yaya and Puyol and delivered a pass that led to an excellent cross. A better head from the un-marked receiver would certainly have been a goal, but the contact by the un-marked receiver was poor and Busquets was aloud to clear...poorly, for a throw-in around our box. It should have been routine defense for the boys, but discipline broke down quickly when play resumed, and Stuttgart dragged the team toward the middle before switching it back out to the left, and the crosser had nothing but time and space to put in another excellent cross. Puyol did not mark Cacau closely enough after getting pulled apart moments earlier, and this time the contact was perfect. At 1-0 in 25 minutes, the score reflected what was shaping up to be real domination of the game by an opponent of the mighty FC Barcelona.

The team's most baffling period was over, but they continued to look very much un-mighty. Iniesta's passes continued in their failure to find Ibrahimovic. When Ibra did have the good graces to finally get on the ball, his poor touch gave it away just about every time. Messi had the worst of both worlds: despite having the only moments approaching highlights with a few futile runs and shots, including that stinger that so nearly trickled into the goal after sneaking past Lehmann, Messi had plenty of poor giveaways in possession and in sprayed passes to more than render his highlights forgettable. Everyone gave the ball away: go down the team-sheet, and you find three poor giveaways at the very, very least, and the result was absolutely no attack.

In the second half, certainly after a good ripping-into from Pep, Barca found their scrappy equalizer and something resembling a rhythm. The goal, appropriately enough, came froma corner, and it was all down to our tall men. Xavi's cross was kept alive by Ibrahimovic, whose height prevented a solid clearance. Iniesta finds the ball outside of the box and gives it to a more-central Marquez. Marquez did the only thing he was doing right in the entire game, and put in a good long ball over the top of the defense, the shortest of his game. Ibra kept it alive again, nodded it to Pique, who rose and knocked it back to Ibra, who smacked it...against Lehmann. Luckily, the rebound only fell to Ibra again, who did not repeat the same mistake with a simple tap-in.

And thus, Barca escaped. Afterwards, Stuttgart lost their ravenous edge, and Barca passed the game to death without looking really dangerous and only getting into it with Hleb once or twice. Part of this was due to two very wise and uncharacteristically timely substitutions from Pep: Henry on for Yaya after the goal in the 52nd, and Milito on for Marquez in the 59th.

Setanta's cameras did not capture Yaya's substitution. If they had, they would have caught a glimpse of a defeated Yaya. I have no idea what got into him. It was not just his poor passes, defense, positioning, possession--everything!--it was the situational unawareness that marked it all. For a player whose strongest and most remarkable trait, in my opinion, is his intelligene on the ball, this game was extremely shocking. His replacement changed the game, arguably more so than the goal. For the first time ever, I can say that Busquets was much, much better in that position. Defensively (but certainly not offensively), Busi was one of the strongest performers in the first half, with a ton of midfield tackles, including an athletic "tackle" of a ball passed loosely to him that he hooked straight to Messi for one of the few "chances" of the first half, and when defense became his primary responsibility, the team was far more solid. Xavi, on the whole our best player throughout the match, had all the more opportunities to orchestrate the game with most of the best passes, the calmest presence, lots more great distribution, and superb movement (I cannot believe he healed up so quickly). Most importantly, he had the opportunity to play alongside his buddy Iniesta, who looked completely relieved and incomparably better in a deeper position. The typical routine commenced, as Xavi set 'em up with great space-finding and shorter passes, and Iniesta knocked 'em down, acting as a constant valve to make perfect cross-field balls and passes into the attack. Henry saw little of the ball and what we did see from him was definitely underwhelming, but that just seems to be Titi these days: more of a presence for defenders to respect than a real threat. Without him, the Xavi-Iniesta-Busi midfield that properly controlled the game in the second half would not have been allowed to show off.

Now, Marquez came off because he was terrible. Appalling. Useless. His long passes gave Iniesta ample opportunity to give the ball away in the first half, but except for the easiest of clearances, he accomplished nothing in the heart of the defense. He was at the center of most of the defensive disorder, almost constantly out-of-position. The contrast between his youthful heir-apparent, with the excellent positioning and impenetrable presence that used to be hallmarks of the Kaiser's game, could not have been starker. Milito did not have much time to shine with the midfield under control, but if Marquez had stayed ont he field, I daresay Barca would have found themselves in a lot more trouble. Like Henry, Marquez is aplayer whose aging is difficult to watch.

And that was that: there is little else to say about the match. 1-1 was quite an honest result, as it was a tale of two halves, and after our goal, Barca considered the job done and did not really expend themselves to earn a second away goal. They should be able to take the away goal they do have back to the fortress and kill the tie properly. Remember last year's CL: in the knockout stages, Barca scored only three goals in the away fixtures (not counting the final), but ten at home. At Lyon, who we were matched up with at this stage, the result was also 1-1. In that match, Lyon drew first blood, before Henry headed in a scrappy goal from a corner. I see nothing to worry about, especially with Alves returning very soon, and Xavi shaking off the last shades of his injury. If we have to be one of those "home-sides", we will be one of those "home-sides" and take care of business.

Other short notes:
-I didn't like Busquets' timewasting at the end. Alves has all but stopped that practice, and Busi does not need to adopt it. Not a classy way to play a sub-par game at all.
-Is anyone as worried as they were two or three weeks ago when the news came out that Abidal would be out for two months? I'm not.

Barca 4-0 Racing Santander, or, Stepping Up

After a conspicuous loss that had the Madrid rags predicting Real's imminent dominance, Barca lit up the Camp Nou and put its mighty foot down.

Looking at the injury list ahead of this match, even the most experienced and skeptical viewer of La Liga might have believed, to an extent, the shouting Madridismo coming from the capitol about how Atletico has opened the almighty floodgates to allow Madrid's astronomically superior quality to shine through at last. After a soft hammering of a light defense against the other team in Madrid, the Racing match presented similarly unusual problems in the all-important Barca midfield. With Xavi out, surely Barca would be without its guiding rudder, and without Keita and Yaya, Racing would be able to run roughshod all over the sleek Camp Nou pitch, right?

Right?

Not this team. Some people will view this match, and see a world-class team against a side that had obviously given up before even entering their opponent's house--not me. I prefer to think that, with the raaaaaaare absence of Xavi Hernandez, the incessant nattering coming from Madrid, and the widespread doubts stemming from an ignominious defeat to a basket-case of an Atletico Madrid team, the boys put their heads together and said "heeelll naw."

It started with the brilliance of Pep Guardiola and his magesterial physical staff, that patched up Yaya in two steps of Messi's pace and rolled out a lineup that looked, well, full-strength: Valdes, Puyol, Marquez, Pique, Maxwell, Yaya, Busquets, Iniesta, Henry, Messi, Bojan. And I expected a start from Thiago or dos Santos.

Through the rest of the game, though, it was the individuals. They had no illusions what it would mean for Xavi to be out, and they also noticed that their big, expensive Swedish striker was out as a late-scratch. So it was a time to step up, for everyone. Marquez and Henry needed to prove that they're still world-class after a first half of a season that left people like me doubting. Maxwell needed to prove that we can survive a long absence for Abidal. Iniesta and Messi needed to prove that they are formidable even without Xavi. Bojan and Busquets needed to prove that they're worth a good-goddamn, and arguably both played out of position.

Guardiola said that the team was not at its best--I think they were inspired and energized enough to put four goals past a team that they should have beaten as badly as Atletico should have been. What's more, almost all of the players I have mentioned stepped up and proved exactly what they set out to prove, and some of them, emphatically so.

The game started out at a neck-breaking pace, as Barca invaded massive swaths of space in the midfield. Iniesta was Barca's fount of creativity, and set the tone by charging through the midfield on the ball and ripping great long passes that would be the trademark of his game. But it was really Marquez who stamped his name on the game first, however, as one of many wonderful, questioning balls over the defense found Racing's box. Two defenders had tracked Henry, and the ball bounced off one of their backs, and toward a lurking Iniesta. Iniesta pounced on the bouncing ball, jumping on it ninja-style to knock it into the goal with a deceptively-controlled piece of skill. At 1-0, Iniesta slid in front of the adoring Camp Nou crowd to celebrate his first goal since Chelsea 1-1 on that wonderful day.

Eight minutes gone, and two reputations have been cleared.

The game went on at the same pace, and Iniesta continued to dictate the order of things with a supreme performance. He did the simple passes and moves with "oomph", and spiced it up with the best long-passes and cross-fields, profound moments of dribbling and distributing skill, and several moments of midfield defense. Assisting him was Busquets, who created a new talking point for guys like me: is he a box-to-box midfielder instead of a defensive midfielder? With Yaya playing behind him, Busi became a totally different animal. His excellently-timed runs forward came precisely at the right moments for teammates to put a ball into the defense and ask questions, and came back to haunt Racing for 90 minutes. Wonderful positioning found him cutting out tons of wayward passes and touches in the midfield. His passes took on a whole new meaning, and in a few majestic moments, his play with the team took on a centrality that reminded me of where Xavi runs, what Xavi does. Frankly, it took all the dumb-looking, too-fancy moments of his play in the defensive role and threw them in a whole new light.

Indeed, moments in which Sergio Busquets was the central figure led to two fouls that became two free-kick goals. In the first, Busquets found the ball in the midfield, with a too-far-up defender right on him. He simply turned, and started to lumber toward the goal. Though he was tackled quickly, Messi was right there to sweep up and terrorize the scrambling defense. After causing some alarm, he laid it back to Iniesta, who of course caused more alarm. But he just laid it back to Yaya, who made a great little pass to none other than Busi, who ran right to the perfect place. All he does is one-touch it to Iniesta, whose touch is perfect, and he bursts through, only to lose the ball which lands...at Busi's feet. Now, Racing's defense is falling to pieces, and as Bojan takes the diagonal run inside, it's beginning to look like a brilliant Barca goal. But, it isn't to be: Busi puts a most-excellent touch past one defender, but succumbs to a foul.

But no problem. The much-maligned Thierry Henry, the one that never takes free kicks for Barca for I-don't-know-why, stepped up and side-footed it through the wall into the near-side, and Racing was finished within half-an-hour.

But still, the team carried on, to prove a point: We are the best team in the world, and certainly, Real Madrid is not. Only a few minutes later, Busi had his other moment of greatness. An awful clearance finds him in the box, with his back to goal and everyone surrounding him. He simply looks up thinking, "Where's Mr. Reliable," and pops a lofted ball to the feet of Iniesta that would be worthy of the man himself. Iniesta controls without a problem, and pops the ball up to a Racing player's hand. In a similar situation to the last set-piece, Marquez steps up and puts in an even better free-kick. 3-0, Racing is really finished, Marquez has a goal and an assist, Iniesta is part of all three goals, and Busi is central to two. Point proven, no?

The game turned into a practice session, where everyone had a chance to work on their chops. Bojan took the opportunity to express himself. Taking advantage of some defeated defenders with a number of fabulous, sprightly runs through defenses, he had an above-average game by his standards. My favorite moment was when he found a loose ball deep on the left, and, having spied Iniesta running against the sideline, attempted a cheeky flick with the outside of his right. Though it did not work, he picked it up, a la Messi, and went off to the races, with three players floundering in his wake, only to pass it to Messi to calm down play with Iniesta further up the field. He put in a few dangerous-looking crosses, as well.

But the man of the match was Iniesta, who really ruled the game and showed that he truly did not need Xavi to run the Barcelona engine. From juking every defender on the field, to finding himself always, always open, to placing dangerous balls beyond it, to drawing a foul every single time Racing had a hope of finally getting the ball off of him, Iniesta overshadowed everybody.

Even Messi had precious few opportunities to prove that he does not need Xavi (or Iniesta). Perhaps his knee really was bothering him, because there was not much to remember of his play, except for the goal he assisted. But that goal was all Thiago Alcantara's, who had come on for Yaya in the 76th minute. Within ten minutes, this young boy put himself on the scoresheet and, in the spirit of the game, proved that he will one day be a valuable part of this team. With great off-the-ball movement that he showcased often in his brief time on the field, he found the ball just outside the box, and lofted an inch-perfect pass to a running Messi. Messi does what he should always do perfectly, controlled, froze his man, cut the ball back, and gave it back to Thiago, who did well to find himself space. He controlled, hesitated, and blasted it in for a goal that made me smile for the rest of the day. It was a shame that Messi did not celebrate with a player that he may play with on a regular basis in the future, but he knew that it was not his day when it really should have been.

It should have been everyone's day against such underwhelming opposition, but it unfortunately was not, and that is exactly what Pep was talking about when he said the team was not at its best. Pique mixed good defense and passing with bad defense and passing in a very inconsistent game. Maxwell did well to show off some great footwork occasionally and defended well in general, but still looks too unaggressive, especially in the air, to show anyone why he should start ahead of Abidal. Yaya began the game playing like his immense, bear-man self, applying pressure in all the right places, displaying great passes and superb intelligence on the ball, but showed his rust as the game wore on with some uncharacteristically loose possession and passing (to his credit though, when he lost the ball, he often ran after his tackler like a bull and won it back). Speaking of rust, Henry's game was characterized by the squeaking of rusty touches, passes, and shots that tragically overbalanced the handful of brilliant, experienced moments in his game. Puyol did generally well, popping in with a number of tackles that seemingly came out of nowhere, but is clearly never going to be the attacking force we expect of a starting fullback. And Valdes, well, he had literally nothing to do--but his passes between Marquez and Pique caused not a few anxious moments that become increasingly worrying as one sees them under increasing pressure, game after game. Pedro and Jeffren also came on for Henry and Puyol, respectively, but they did little more than look young and energetic and, in Jeffren's case, like a winger rather than a fullback.

And so, Guardiola has a few of the finer points to work out with his team. But how many teams can play with only three or four players playing particularly well, still bang in four goals, and keep a clean sheet? Next is Stuttgart at their house, and we will probably play without Xavi, but the way this team is, and how Iniesta plays, I say: bring on the Champion's League, and let's get to doing the double.

Atletico 2-1 Barca, or, Inauspicious Circumstances

With two soft goals conceded, Barca loses its undefeated league season. May I be the first to propose that we retire the yellow shirts vs. Atletico? Last year's 4-3 loss in the same fixture, with the same shirts, had a very similar tenor--lots of good play, some good chances missed, nullified by some really poor play.

Perhaps the game was lost when the starting XI was announced--Valdes, Jeffren, Puyol, Milito, Maxwell, Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Iniesta. I was quite excited, actually, as it was an opportunity for readers to see the testing of my Keita/Busquets double-pivot hypothesis. Alas, a very early injury to Keita put the kibosh on that, and forced Barca into a conventional and, maybe, more predictable formation. With the few early moments of pressure Busquets and Keita were putting on Atletico in tandem, the outlook was for a very interesting match discussion--but it was not to be.

Of course, that was not the crucial fact about the lineup, because the newly-signed and newly-numbered Jeffren Suarez came in at right fullback--and why? There were certainly rumors about this particular RB selection, with Jeffren's previous 45-minute outing vs. lowly Cultural Leonesa earlier in the season, but I was nonetheless baffled by this choice. After seeing a second- (third-?) division left-winger take Jeffren apart in that match-up, I thought Puyol would be the most logical choice, with either Muniesa or Fontas, both popular critically, coming in to patch things up in the middle. Even the fact that Marc Bartra was a natural RB, though I had never heard of him, made it sound like he would be a better choice. Combine this poor selection with the rather like-and-like pairing of Milito and Puyol, and we have a pretty vulnerable-looking defense. I still cannot quite figure this one out, unless I accept that Guardiola, just maybe, wanted to show off the young boy he chose to renew out of four very promising candidates in the cantera--and that, my friends, is poor management, something Pep Guardiola very seldom engages in.

A few early tackles from the young Venezuelan made for the most deceptive start to the game possible, because for the roughly an hour he spent on the pitch, Atletico tore him to shreds. Sure, there were some clearly-missed tackles, but it became clear that Atletico were allowed to simply victimize him by putting the winger and fullback, and sometimes also Forlan, to work in his area, which just made it unfair for somebody who, though aggressive, clearly has not been to a clinic on positioning. Playing from deep, he was constantly harassed on the ball, and limited to hopeful balls over the defense on offense. The game was completely bereft of overlapping runs on his side, which brought Messi much closer to the right sideline for most of the game. And what happens when Messi spends most of his time there? He turns into number-10-superhero, runs more, passes less, jukes more defenders, but ultimately loses the ball again and again. Though he was not directly responsible for any goal, Jeffren reduced the possession game significantly and put a ton of pressure on the likes of Puyol and Milito. And that is Pep Guardiola's fault.

That said, Barca really could have won this game, as a few fantastic individual displays in the first half gave me several reasons to hope. Pedro, on for Keita, looked very lively, with a barrel of confidence, growing positional discipline, pace, aggression, and some very decent crosses to boot that could have become assists. Feeding him was the best player in the world of the next three or four years, Andres Iniesta, who was simply awe-inspiring, so composed was he in everything he did. Awesome and effortless cross-field balls, especially to Pedro, his dances around defenders and through entire defenses, flawless passing, perfect timing of runs, loads of space found and created, and I-don't-know-how-many possible assists characterized an absolutely insane first-half by anyone's standards. He is clearly beginning to outshine his twin, Xavi, who came off injured (!) late in the game and played the most sub-par game in all my memory of him. What picked my head up most, however, was Ibrahimovic, who is "getting it" more and more with each game. His runs are being rewarded, he is beginning to impose his gigantic physique on defenders, his distribution is getting astronomically better, and he is finally getting the confidence to show off his consummate skill. He scored Barca's only goal, but with just slightly quicker reactions and a bit of luck, he could have had four. Last but not least, Sergio Busquets seems to also be coming into his own. Now that he is playing a simpler game with his passing and possession, he appears to have shaken off a lot of anxiety, and looks to be a much more composed and calm player, in the mold of Xabi Alonso (hopefully). His off-the-ball movement still leaves a lot to be desired--perhaps he is a bit "too" safe in his positioning as well, having learned the consequences of attempting passes and skills that are over his head--but the facts remain: he was always in the right place to tackle attackers in the middle, and his passing, though supportive and not too impressive, was 100%.

But a loss is a loss, and Barca sure deserved it. The first goal was one of the most deceptively soft goals you will ever see. Xavi makes an awful attempt at a cross-field ball--a very rare thing indeed--and Jose Antonio Reyes picks it up in his half, in the middle of the field, which is far from his preferred position to receive. But, he runs with it, right past Iniesta--who went to ground way too quickly--and right past Busquets--who simply mis-timed his tackle--before passing it through a gaping hole in the middle of the defense. Puyol makes it far too easy for Forlan to run past him, he and Milito probably could have done better to leave less space in between them, but the deed was done, and it was a fairly simple goal for a very good forward. I am not sure, even after several reviews, if Valdes got his hand to it or not, but I think it just might have been a bit save-able--still, it would be very harsh to blame him too much.

But that goal seemed to have racked his confidence significantly, because just a few minutes later, our keeper, who has done so well this season, outperforming his expectations in every single game, made an utter hash of Simao's free kick. That was a pretty simple save to make, and Valdes was in pole-position to pull it off, but at the last moment he moved out of position, only to scramble back too late and see the ball fly into the far-side--the keeper's side--of his goal.

However, Barca responded well to each of these goals. Iniesta and Pedro were the prime movers-and-shakers that nearly teed up Ibrahimovic twice between the goals conceded. Even before the goal, the team looked like scoring, as a great run and (rare) good pass from Messi, assisted by Iniesta, found Ibrahimovic, who inauspiciously fell over the ball and lost the chance. And, of course, within three minutes of going down two goals, we got one back, as a corner taken by Xavi was easily flicked on by Puyol to a completely unmarked Ibrahimovic, who sent his goal-drought back to hell with a Hammer-of-Thor strike into the roof of the net (Drogba 1-0 Arsenal, anyone?). In the end, none of it counted. Here's why:

-Poor possession. It is one thing to have a ton of possession and be unable to find the final ball or the finish, that has actually been quite common for teams like Barcelona in the past--here, Barca could create chances at will for most of the game, but did not have the overwhelming possession they are used to having. There were too many giveaways all over the field, and by the end of the game, one got the sense that Atletico had seen way, way too much of the ball. Milito was a culprit, with several long-pass attempts that, I do not think, once made it to their target. Pedro and Maxwell each had more than a few moments in which they lost the ball a bit cheaply. Messi, in doing his thang, was making a lot more poor passes than good passes, and, of course, was getting caught in possession. But mainly, it was my hero, Xavi Hernandez, Barca's engine. His off-the-ball movement in Atletico's half was definitely below his sterling standard, and with Iniesta doing that bit quite well, Xavi had very little to do with the attack, and so Iniesta was only about half as devastating as he should be. Most uncharacteristic, though, was his very poor passing, which could have been the worst on the team--very, very strange for one of the best passers in the world. His long balls and cross-field balls were all over the place. His little flicks and drags were not finding their target. He made an effective back-passer, and possessed the ball fairly well, but the few balls forward seemed ill-advised in retrospect, as that player often found himself in immediate trouble (watch again, trust me). It makes sense that he came off with an injury--a very rare injury--because by his standards, he played with one leg. Almost as if they were real twins, Xavi's ineffectiveness seemed to rub off on Iniesta, as his passing became very loose in the second half.

-Poor defense. I have harped on Jeffren enough--needless to say, he should never have been on the pitch. Puyol, though brave, can be blamed for both goals conceded, as he not only allowed Forlan to run past him for the first, but he gave away the foul that led to the second. I have cited Milito's poor passing, but most striking was a lot of seeming discomfort with a new partner on either side. Maxwell looked very adequate, but too un-aggressive at times, holding off an attacker and giving away too much space, and of course, that moment when he turned a good-looking attack into a counter-attack starting in our half, when his attempt to keep the ball in resulted in Atletico with the ball as he stood behind the play. However, the whole tracking-back scheme that makes Barca look so dominant was very inconsistent at Atletico. Perhaps Messi did not have much of a chance to track back, as the right often disintegrated fairly quickly, but the whole rest of the team (except, perhaps, for Busquets, though you could argue that he did not go forward enough to "track back") had defensive moments that were few and far-between. This only added to the discomfort of the likes of Milito. As for Valdes, well, he came down from such a height.

Because ESPN blacked out the game from about the 65th minute, I cannot say anything about Bartra, who was apparently very good, and Bojan, or the performances of all the players toward the end, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Next is Racing at home, and though we will have the suspended Pique and Marquez back, as well as one or two of the injured defenders, the injury woes--such a rare circumstance for Barcelona lately--have transmitted to the midfield. Our 90-minutes-every-single-game engine, Xavi Hernandez, will definitely miss Racing and the Champion's League first-leg vs. Stuttgart, and Keita will be out for about a month. The Racing match will certainly be a huge day for many players. Iniesta, as Xavi's heir-apparent, will be trying to prove that he can play his twin's game. As a midfield-team with a mostly-hurt midfield, our forwards will be trying to stake a claim of importance. Messi needs to prove that he's not just the superstar with all the highlights, but that he is also as important as Xavi to the team. Henry, who has not featured lately, and hopefully is not hurt (or Ronaldinho-07-08-hurt), has a chance to prove that he is still Titi Henry with a long-overdue goal or two. And for one lucky young midfielder, perhaps Thiago Alcantara or Jonathan dos Santos, this will be an opportunity to stake a claim to a contract extension and a future with FC Barcelona.

Hopefully, I will have the post up before the day of the next match. Until then...

Why Keita's Rise Could Mean Yaya's and Henry's Fall, and, The Defensive Quandary Against Atletico

Once upon a time, this man was a hot property. He made his name at Lorient at the beginning of the decade, and became one of the most-wanted players in France. He moved to Lens and became their captain, scoring 19 goals in 156 Ligue 1 appearances, wearing the #10 shirt. In 2007, Sevilla moved west to Spain and helped (along with one Dani Alves) Sevilla become a Champion's League side, forming half of the most-feared center-midfield in the land. He turned out to be one of the best players to ever come out of his home country, Mali.

Last year, he came to Barcelona as Pep Guardiola's first signing and...sat on the bench. None of us thought too much of him, as his underwhelming performances showed little in the way of anything useful. With Yaya, Xavi, and Iniesta already on the roster, he seemed to many, including myself, to be something of a mismatch. He chased after the play, made a few passes, scored an occasional goal, but looked like nothing more than a squad player.

Boy, was I wrong. This season has seen the emergence of Barcelona's #15, the Real Seydou Keita. This man may be one of the most well-rounded players on the team. He is big and physical, able to make a ton of great stops, with a great defensive awareness. At the same time, he is deceptively fast, very good at popping up at the right moments to link the midfield to the attack, can make very good supporting passes, and can crash the box, loving to score goals, whether by getting his head on the end of crosses, or by rifling shots from around the box.

Some people may be laughing about this last one, pointing to his misses against Getafe and saying it was a so-so game from him overall, but I disagree. Misses aside, with eleven men, Keita was a tremendous part of the attack. He made Xavi and Iniesta look better with run-after-supporting-run, crashed the box to give our engine-room Spaniards more room to work, all while busting his gut to track back and forth to provide defensive cover. This man was a box-to-box threat, making everyone around him look a little better. His job got even more thankless after Pique went off, even though he showed off his greatest asset until the end: his versatility. Play on the left wing? No problem. Misses or no misses, this man was brilliant.

And as the times change, some facts are growing more apparent. First, Guardiola brought this particular player into the team as his first signing to become a regular first-teamer, and an essential part of the midfield. Second, Guardiola did this to replace two players he did not sign: Thierry Henry and Toure Yaya.

This hypothesis pains me, really, because these are two of my favorite players IN THE WORLD, not only for Barcelona. Henry's were some of the first soccer highlights I ever saw, and perhaps the primary reason I follow both Barcelona and Arsenal as a fan. Though I never saw him in his prime, I fell in love with his class. Yaya, meanwhile, may be the most underrated player I know. He was so valuable to the team last year that it was flabbergasting how few times I heard his name. Even more bewildering--and somewhat hurtful--is the fact that he has so fewer appearances this season. Less surprising, but still painful, is the increasing absence of Thierry Henry from the lineup.

But facts are facts: both players are seemingly being phased out, and I believe this is all according to Pep's plans. Henry and Yaya will leave in exchange for a nice transfer fee, and primarily it will be Keita to take their place. The lineup of the near future is: Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Keita, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Iniesta.

Let's look at the individual attributes and roles in the team. Henry, after playing a pivotal role as goal-scorer, winger, and forward last season, has essentially played as a pure winger rather than any kind of a striker this season, a "defensive forward" whose value to the team is more in the tracking back than in the creating chances. Keita, sighted more and more on the left than in the middle, can do the defensive job, while occasionally coming forward to score goals. Interesting stat: last year, Henry scored 19 league goals. In his best year with Lens, Keita, as a DM, scored...you guessed it...19 league goals. But mainly, he will allow Iniesta to go forward and learn to score goals, as he (mark my word) emerges as the best midfielder in the world. Let's face it: Henry is not getting any younger, and very well may be retiring soon, given his complaints about playing in pain most games. It's sad to see, really, but it is a quite creative way to replace Monsieur Titi on Pep's part.

Yaya, meanwhile, has also played the role of versatility. Huge and intimidating without being the most physical player, Yaya has played as a center-half and defensive-midfielder in his tenure with Barcelona, but before he came, he was an attacking midfielder in France, and continues to play that role for the Ivory Coast. Being as big as he is and playing in the position he plays in, his top-class passing ability and intelligence with regards to what to do with the ball and where to be on the field is often underrated. He may be one of the calmest presences I've ever seen on the pitch. This year, however, he has also been phased out by a combination of Keita and Busquets. Pep's plan, it seems, is to replace Yaya's physicality and positioning with Keita's. The still-young Busquets, occupying Yaya's DM role, is apparently being trained by Pep to become a better passer and more intelligent playmaker. Thus, in tandem, the two could form quite a mighty double-pivot that would more-than replace Yaya, who at least I will still miss.

It seems strange to occupy two roster spots with one very good player, especially when that player's replacing two other very good players in very different positions. It sounds so crazy, it just might work. What's more, the pay-off of allowing Iniesta and Xavi to stay at the front-end of the field more often is just scary. Teams will have to roll out five defenders, or two goalkeepers, or something. Once Iniesta starts scoring goals--once IBRAHIMOVIC starts scoring goals--knowing they're safe at the back, the floodgates might never close.

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The team could use a good defensive double-pivot right now, because this week has seen more injuries than at any time, perhaps, in two years--and they're all in the defense. Alves continues to be out, but added to that list is Txigrinskiy, who is definitely out for this match but might be back for the next, and Abidal, who, out for two months, becomes a potentially very-consequential injury-blow, especially ahead of the Champion's League Round of 16. What's worse, Marquez and Pique, having been sent off against Getafe, are of course suspended, and Puyol and Iniesta are both feared to have knocks that *might* keep them out against Atletico.

This could put an end to our great defensive record, if not to our unbeaten record in La Liga. At least in terms of the next match, the Puyol and Iniesta blows could be the worst. Without our defensive captain, the defense will be counting on stellar performances from Gaby Milito--the man formerly known as "no-knees"--and a canterano. Without Iniesta, only Xavi and the maybe-good, maybe-not (at this point) Busquets will be shielding our defense from an onslaught from Kun Aguero and Diego Forlan.

So Pep is calling in the canteranos. The buzz-names are Marc Muniesa and Dalmau--I don't know his first name...that cannot be good. Muniesa is tipped as the future Puyol, though in the only appearance with the first team I can remember, he earned a red card against Osasuna (?). Admittedly, it was a good performance off-the-bench until then. Dalmau, I know nothing about, but at least he is a natural right back, so at least if he plays, he will not do so out of position. Some rumors are surrounding a second appearance for a recently-resigned and first-team-numbered Jeffren (#20) at right-fullback, but his first appearance was against Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey, and it was only 45 minutes before Guardiola admitted that he was asking for a right-raping down that side. I will be praying for Puyol to play, which he might. I don't know if I'd rather see him on the right or in the middle, but thank God he can play both.

On the bright side, Maxwell and Milito, though they still have some question marks around them, are coming off good performances. It may be a good chance to see the Keita-Busquets double pivot in action, and the future for that, to me, looks bright. If Muniesa plays, he might play well and live up to the very, very high expectations that hardcore canterano-enthusiasts have of him. And, of course, we have Xavi, Messi, and Ibrahimovic almost definitely playing. Add Henry to that mix and that's one dangerous offense. Atletico games are always one of the great match-ups in La Liga, always unpredictable, and it should be a great watch, especially since Atletico is a basket-case club at the moment. Who knows, it could be a thrashing in our favor. On the other hand, it could be a Kun Aguero hat-trick.