Yes, just because it’s a holiday here in the ‘States, doesn’t mean that we stop working. Here’s the news, Labor Day edition:

–Thierry Henry says in effect, “We’re bored and we’re clueless,” in one of the strongest statements yet against the regime of Ruh-Roh Dumbenech. To wit: Speaking to Domenech last Friday at France’s training camp, Henry was quoted by daily Le Parisien as saying to Domenech: “Coach, we have something to tell you. I am speaking in the name of the squad.

“We are getting bored during your training sessions. In 12 years with the French team, I have never been in such a situation.

“We do not know how to play, where to be on the pitch, how to organise. We do not know what to do. We have no style, no guidelines. It is not working,” said Henry, France’s top scorer with 49 goals from 112 caps.

Wow. That’s heavy, because Henry is also squad captain. Imagine Puyol walking up to Guardiola and in effect saying “Dude, you suck.” Continue Reading

*Hector Note: Due to technical issues with my laptop I had to pretty much re-do the second section of this. I’ll post it up later today (you’ll see EDITED next to the post title and now that I updated it). Hopefully this keeps you guys busy until around mid-day.*

Here we go again, folks. It’s Part II (finally). In this installment we’re going to be covering what actually happens when we lose the ball and how our ball pressure philosophy has seemingly intangible benefits on our players.

In football, the hardest moments are the transitions (offense to defense and vice-versa). This is when we, or the opponent for that matter, are the most vulnerable. To briefly recap Part I, for pressing to be efficient it is vital that the defensive line compress the field and to keep the distance between our lines as short as possible without committing tactical suicide. This makes sure that we have plenty of players around the ball to pressure if it is lost and delays possible counterattacks. This tactic has inherent risks which we accept as tradeoffs for our offensive style as well as risks that can result from individual mistakes which must be minimized.

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“The ref better be looking at this shit, yo!”

A ruling has come down that has immense potential, for both good and bad. UEFA has slapped Arsenal striker Eduardo with a two-match ban for “intentionally deceiving the referee.”

Editorials have weighed in, calling it abritrary and rather silly, like shutting the barn door after the horse has been spotted in the downtown area. Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has likened the penalty to a “witch hunt.”

Why does this matter to us? Continue Reading

This is the first of what I hope will be a series over the course of the season that analyzes in detail goals that we both score and concede.  For its debut I will use the goal Citeh scored against us on Wednesday. So, start up the YouTube video and follow along. I’m going to tell you where to pause and what to look at:
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That’s a great quote. It’s also slightly contradictory in a sense which you will see in a little bit. Who said it is pretty obvious given the photo.

This last June, persons outside of the Barcelona staff got their best glimpse yet at Guardiola the coach. The setting was the arid-but-beautiful island of Lazarote, in the Canary Islands. The occasion was an annual coaching clinic organized by legendary ex-Barcelona handball player and coach, Valero Rivera. Our man Pep stole the show with a charismatic presentation that was officially titled “Pressuring the Ball”. However, the title given by Sport to their recap of it was in my opinion much more fitting. Thus, I stole it: “¡Corred, cabrones, corred!”. The Spanish language coverage of this presentation provided numerous quotes from Pep that combine to form an accurate picture from the man himself of how he approaches and views ball pressure from a coaching and management standpoint. Consider those quotes from his presentation (which hardly got any English language coverage) as the inspiration for this post.

That’s where I want to start. This week will be all about Ibra and his debut, and an Ibra post is certainly in the works. But this, the first of a two-parter on the intricacies of ball pressure, will give us an idea of what awaits, and will be expected of our BAS (Big Ass Swede) as well as insight into one of the tenets of our style. Something that at first glance seems like a simple thing (e.g. “just all go after the guy with the ball”) but in reality is much more complicated from the tactical and intangible or motivational aspects. Continue Reading