Tata vs. Tito

Over the summer the much maligned but, also much appreciated Tito Vilanova had to step down from the Barca post for health issues. The manager to replace him was a huge debacle, some people believing it might be AVB, Low, Bielsa the man who is credited for a lot of Pep's work, and even Jurgen Klopp were some of the names I've seen mentioned. In the end the man who was chosen was a pudgy "Tata" Martino. A man most people of the footballing world weren't all too familiar with myself included. It took some watching of his Newell games and reading online to familiarise with his style. He himself is a student of Bielsa and is one of the managers that show an appreciation for the beautiful game. Tata we discovered can be pragmatic at time to time.



I just want to say that I hardly noticed many differences at first glance but, I saw it when I compared similiar games.

The first game I looked at was their first games against Sociedad. This was Vilanova's first league game and Tata's 4th in the league. Tito did have the advantage of having essentially the same squad as last year where as Tata had to work on incorporating the new players.

1. Pressure

I think there are a few moments in that first Sociedad game of last year that was very reminiscent of the 2011 Barca but overall it was very much pep's team with things that Tito added. One of the things that people kept talking about at Barca was their lack of pressing high up the field and I completely agree. The only players you ever saw pressuring the cb's or deep lying playmakers were pedro and alexis. Also when busquets went up to pressure the advancing midfielders there was no one supporting him leaving a huge gap which Sociedad exploited this is best demonstrated by this image

Goal that they scored

So the goal really just came down to ; none of the barca players knowing where to close down the space in the end they left a gaping hole in between the midfield and defence.

2. Use of wide forwards.
Under tito it was pretty apparent that not one winger on the team deserved a starting spot. Alexis was too indecisive pedro often did nothing during a game and then would pop up in another game and score therefore too inconsistent while tello and deulofeu were unfinished articles that needed to mature a little more. The lack of a presence out wide meant that barca's play was concentrated into one confined central area around the top of the box that messi controlled.

A goal under tito would be a lot like this

 It was often a player like tello providing the width to stretch the cover or pedro who would in turn cross to messi who then as always poke the ball home. It was a relatively dull interplay in the front 3 compared to the more lively wingless front 3 of henry messi eto'o who you would see constantly switch positions. Currently the only players with any given freedom are usually iniesta and messi who are allowed to probe the defense. This meant that tello, sanchez, and pedro were always forced to stay wide and weren't given the freedom to make runs infield with the ball. Pedro often cut across the box on crosses but his overall contribution with the ball suffered because he wasn't given license to cut infield with the ball. Alexis Sanchez was brought in because he was a very creative player who would score goals, provide width, get assiss, and work hard. This however took a long time to adapt to and only recently did you see him attempt to beat his man.

Here Sanchez is a wide vertical outlet in space where he can take on his man and provide the final ball. What really impressed me was that in that play he virtually had his head down the entire time meaning he either knew where neymar would be already or he knew that just putting it into that danger area would be enough.

3.Defending counter attacks

The team has become remarkably adept at defending the counter and accompanied with a furious pressing game makes it much harder for teams to score against Barcelona. I think with any team a pressing game makes a defender look better because he shoulders less defensive responsibility. Take Mats Hummels form of late, the pressing game has become a little worse at Dortmund due to the fact that most of the players are suffering from exhaustion and the rotation is poor. Hummels has had to deal with the full force of most counter attacks. Now he is in a similiar situation to that of Pique last year who has to deal with more and more defensive pressure. Barcelona are commiting more tackles this year than last year and higher up the field than last year. One telling stat is that Barca have committed the most fouls in La Liga in the opposition half. This stat indicates that the high pressing game has been carried out.

Tata displayed his great knowledge of defending against Athletico Madrid the second best counterattacking team in spain after Madrid.

They suffered early on but they're was really very little they could do as they lost the ball in a dangerous area.

It was a matter of a good goal rather than poor defending because barcelona were completely shredded on this goal but lets look at all the counter attacks they prevented that same game

those were 3 extremely good opportunities coincidentally down the flank on either side where dani alves or alba should be. Notice what busquets usually did in those situations

I highly doubt I need to compare this to tito's side as they always leave huge gaps left to exploit.

There are some major things that neither has changed so far in my opinion which keeps bothering me

• full back balance
• full back contribution to the attack
• Playing in tight spaces
• Lack of one touch ball movement

One thing I didn't comment on was verticality but, i think Barcelona have played so laterally that they don't know how to play that and that it is still a work in progress. I will try my best to comment on this next time.