Vacation Time!
Hey folks, this is just a brief note to tell you that I, Isaiah, am going on vacation for 3 weeks. I’ll be doing the European backpack tour, so I’ll probably be completely out of contact during that time. It’s up to Kevin to hold down the fort in terms of telling you what’s going [...]
Hey folks, this is just a brief note to tell you that I, Isaiah, am going on vacation for 3 weeks. I’ll be doing the European backpack tour, so I’ll probably be completely out of contact during that time. It’s up to Kevin to hold down the fort in terms of telling you what’s going on.
I’ll be back the week of July 21, in case you’d like to keep a running countdown to my return.
As they say in the Czech Republic, “Kde domov m?j?…mezi ?echy domov m?j!”
Barça’s New Jerseys
You can check out the new FCB kits here on the official site. Let’s hear what you have to say about them in the comments. Here are all three together: Update: And thanks to faithful reader JC for this newest link to the players in the new kits.
You can check out the new FCB kits here on the official site. Let’s hear what you have to say about them in the comments. Here are all three together: 
Update: And thanks to faithful reader JC for this newest link to the players in the new kits.
Welcoming Seydou Keita and Gerard Pique
Because I was away when they were officially signed and announced, here is a double post on our two newest members: Seydou Keita and Gerard Pique. Obviously most of you have heard of them — in fact, I’d be surprised if anyone reading this blog hadn’t heard of them, though that would suggest Kevin and [...]
Because I was away when they were officially signed and announced, here is a double post on our two newest members: Seydou Keita and Gerard Pique. Obviously most of you have heard of them — in fact, I’d be surprised if anyone reading this blog hadn’t heard of them, though that would suggest Kevin and I are reaching a very wide audience — but I’m going to doe quick profiles of them anyway.
I’ll start with Keita, who was first to be announced. His contract was purchased from Sevilla for his buyout clause of €14million euros and then he was signed to a 4-year deal. That means his contract runs through June 2012. His buyout clause has been reported at €90million, so it’s pretty damned unlikely that he’ll be leaving before his contract runs out unless the club wants him to go. But enough of the economics and on to who Keita is. He’s a 28-year old, 6-foot, Malian international midfielder who has previously played in France and also, obviously, for Sevilla. His on-the-pitch role tends to vacillate between defensive and attacking central midfielder, meaning that he brings a lot of versatility to the squad’s “engine room.” He provides a little bit more attacking capability than Yaya Toure (and yes, I realize that Toure is capable of attacking, but has been held back by tactics, but I still believe Keita is more of an attacker), but a lot more defensive capability than Deco. While he is neither as good as Toure at defense nor as good as Deco at offense, he provides a lot of much-needed depth. The best possible outcome is Keita being able to come off of the bench for anyone in the midfield or starting for them if they’re injured, but there is also a legitimate fear of him being incapable of playing with Toure, something could cause issues with both the squad and my heart.
Keita is talented, there’s no doubt about it, but he’s not the youngest player and he’s not the most attack-minded. Of the four goals he scored for Sevilla, though, I remember 3 of them being laser beams basically from the parking lot. Dude has a canon. Like a damn BFG or something. Perhaps if he starts bombing them in from range, it will force defense to step out a bit, giving our mighty mites a few more holes to worm their way through. That and it could provide Toure with the ability to step up and take his own broadsides at the net without having 7 defenders blocking his way.
All-in-all, I’m still on the fence about Keita, but I think he has tremendous potential and I’m willing to buy into the whole thing if he’s capable of co-existing rather than replacing. If he’s a replacement for Deco, he better have telepathic abilities with Messi and the capability to run into the corners while the front line shifts around. If he’s a replacement for Toure, I will need at least 4 trophies next year or it’s off with someone’s head. Period.
Now to Pique. 21 years old, 6′4″, born in Catalonia*, raised as an FC Barcelona member, played in the youth team, moved to England, ended up back in Spain on loan at Zaragoza where he had a good year, returned to ManU and idled on the bench most of the time before making the move to Barcelona for an undisclosed fee somewhere around €5million. He scores goals with his head because he’s gigantor and I like that. In fact, I’m enamored with the possibilities because what if (and imagine this in your mind, right now) when we got a corner kick, the other team shat itself instead of waiting patiently to outjump our tiny child-like attackers? That would mean we could have our cake and freakin’ eat it too because we wouldn’t need a legion of tall, ugly brute forwards like Ibrahimovic! Yay! The beautiful game wins again! Another wonderful thing is that when they get a corner kick or a solid cross into the middle, we don’t have to shit ourselves because we’ve got a 6′4″ behemoth of a man taking names and handing out free passes to the infirmary.
So, as you can tell, I’m very excited about Pique’s return to the fold. I don’t hold it against him that he left for England because I would have done the same. In fact, so would you. In a perfect world, he never would have left, but it’s not a perfect world and I think the time away has done him some good (it has, at the very least, kept us from having to worry about him developing or not and even if we paid a bunch to get him back, if it turns out he’s half the player I think he can be, it’s well worth it).
*don’t yell at me if you think it should be spelled Catalunya. I don’t know or care about the politics behind spelling things certain ways.
How to Build a Better Team (and have fun doing it!) Part 3
So here’s the final installment in the on-going series on Barcelona’s offseason moves. So far I’ve covered the defense and the midfield, which leaves just the forwards to think about. There are some moves to make sure we consider when thinking about the forwards and they are: Gianluca Zambrotta has joined AC Milan (the Italian Evil [...]
So here’s the final installment in the on-going series on Barcelona’s offseason moves. So far I’ve covered the defense and the midfield, which leaves just the forwards to think about. There are some moves to make sure we consider when thinking about the forwards and they are:
Gianluca Zambrotta has joined AC Milan (the Italian Evil Empire…Il Impero Malvagio?) on a rumored 9million euro transfer fee that could rise to 11million depending on performance and appearances. I’ll write up a goodbye at some point this week. I’ve actually enjoyed his time in Barcelona and will probably miss some of his defensive skills…but not that pass to Scholes. Certainly I won’t miss that.
Obviously we’ve added Seydou Keita and Gerard Pique. You can read my welcome to them here.
There’s always the question of Giovani Dos Santos, who the press is counting as one of Tottenham’s players already, but that’s not official yet (a quick check to Tottenham’s website confirms this) so I won’t say goodbye yet.
So, on to the insanity that is our front line. Here is the list of current forwards: Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry, Bojan Krkic, Santiago Ezquerro, and Eidur Gudjohsen. A lot of people include Ronaldinho, Messi, and Dos Santos in the list of forwards, but I’ve covered them in midfield section as I think they are tactically deployed farther back than those liste above.
The way that most people see the forward line being deployed (4-3-3) only uses one true forward (the center forward), but Rijkaard used Henry as a left winger for most of the season. When Eto’o was injured, Bojan got a lot of starts in the middle, but he’s more of the winger type due to his size (5′7″); Gudjohnsen played more as a (un)creative midfielder; and Ezquerro was, well, not very good no matter where he was played. Eto’o is the main central striker, followed by Henry, both of whom have the size and experience to deserve a start over Bojan, as sacrilegious as that may be to a lot of cules.
Bojan is a fantastic talent, but he isn’t the answer to our goalscoring “problems” from the last season. The answers to those questions are being found in the defense, where we’re poised to overspend on Martin Caceres — and before the masses cry out that Caceres is a talent worth the risk, consider the above-stated deal for Zambrotta: is Caceres that much better than Zambrotta?* — and we have added Gerard Pique. A lot of criticism was aimed at the lack of headed goals, but it wasn’t headed goals exactly, it was set-piece goals that were the issue. Part of that was the lack of a true freekick taker once Ronaldinho was dropped, but a lot of it was the lack of danger once the ball got into the box. A corner kick was as good as a lost ball and a freekick either had to be scored directly or it too was just a wasted opportunity. With a tall player like Pique on the field, the team should have enough size to change the dynamic in the final third, thus allowing skill players like Messi to get more awkward rebounds (not to mention the goals scored). This is not necessarily true if a tall forward is employed to smash in crosses from the wing.
Samuel Eto’o is the best speedster striker available to Barcelona — and I would argue he is the best such striker in the world at the moment and Barcelona doesn’t even have to pay an outrageous transfer fee for him — so there is no reason whatsoever to think of transferring him just because he has a big mouth. He will continue to score goals at a ludicrous pace, which is just what we need. What made Barcelona “predictable” towards the end of the year was, in my opinion, a lack of tactical flexibility brought about by Rijkaard’s odd dedication to keeping Henry on the left wing.
And that brings me to Thierry Henry: obviously he is talented, obviously his experience is helping Bojan, and, most obviously, he can still score goals from distance. However, he is not a left winger and he doesn’t play like one, which limits the speed and versatility of the midfield flow. With all of our eggs in one tactical basket, it was only a matter of time before teams caught on. My proposition is — and always has been — to use Henry as a super sub. I know that that doesn’t work for him, but there’s no other way to really make a 4-3-3 work. A 4-4-2 works even less because it would require pushing Messi further back in order to carve space for Eto’o and Henry up front, which is not something I would be willing to give up for all the tea in China. Or in my girlfriend’s apartment for that matter. My point is that there’s a lot of tea there. Wait, no, you’re confusing me. My point is that Messi should be deployed in the same area he’s been deployed in recently, not in a more defensive role that would minimize his chances of taking on defenders one at a time.
Would a different striker be any better than Eto’o or Henry, though? The rumors have recently suggested a myriad of names, from Adebayor to Ibrahimovic to Guiza. Of those three, I am most impressed by Adebayor (fortunately for me since he’s the one that’s still potentially on the market), but none of those players would fit into the existing system in any seamless way. Guiza would be the most likely to adapt the fastest, but it would be shades of the Henry situation all over again, with a star striker coming in from somewhere else to solve problems that aren’t really there. Eto’o may be outspoken, but he’s a goalscoring machine and you always, always keep goalscorers around until their mouths outweigh their productivity. I am not at all convinced that Henry can match Eto’o’s scoring in the middle — in fact I’m pretty certain he can’t get anywhere near — and with a true left-winger, no one will be better than Eto’o. Think of the Ronaldinho-in-his-prime numbers that Eto’o was putting up as space was constantly being created for him to squeeze into with his 6th sense for where that space was going to end up appearing.
It is easy to say that any capable forward would score gaudy numbers when provided with exemplary service, but that’s not necessarily true. Eto’o has shown himself capable of scoring large numbers of goals while fronting a team that isn’t in a scoring groove and doesn’t create much space (if you dispute the goalscoring issues, I can understand, but 15 of the team’s 76 goals were scored in the final 4 games.**); imagine what Eto’o can do while fronting a team with a well-rounded approach.
My basic thought is this: don’t fix what ain’t broke. Eto’o has a big mouth and a big ego, but so do all of the aforementioned strikers. Henry is no selfless saint, of course, and Eto’o has proven himself worthy of Barcelona’s faith. He came back from injury and served a month with the ACN, yet he outscored all other players in the league. He scored at a goal-per-game clip, yet that’s not good enough? He scored more goals-per-appearance than pichichi Dani Guiza, yet that’s not good enough? Sure, we could cash in on him, but we don’t need the money — at the moment we could use the kharma or whatever you want to think of it as. We have a very, very solid frontline, so let’s get them working together better, rather than tinkering with who they are. I don’t know any more than anyone else about whether or not Eto’o will react favorably or negatively to Guardiola’s taskmaster style, but there’s only one way to find out and that’s by keeping him.
I also want to keep Henry, though not because I think he’ll do that much good, but rather because we already have him, so let’s use him where he’s most effective: in the middle. As a sub. I’ll never get my way, of course, and I may even end up watching a Barcelona team fronted by Henry rather than Samu. If that happens, you can rest assured that Kevin and I will duel to the death. Or at least disagree constantly on this forum.
Another, as-of-yet undiscussed option is to bring in a solid striker and dump both Gudjohnsen and Ezquerro rather than getting rid of Eto’o. Why do we have to get rid of Eto’o? It was depth at all levels that allowed ManU to win their double, so why should we be afraid of this same strategy? If we get a solid striker (if not necessarily a superstar), how would that hurt us? It would allow us to play hard in cup games, thus resting our primary strikers, as well as get those new strikers some more time gelling with the rest of the team. Ezquerro is such a liability that we can’t risk playing him even when we’re taking on our first round Cup opponent. Gudjohnsen has never found his stride in La Liga and it’s time he moved on, even though I do actually believe in his skills. It’s just that he’s frustrated my positive view of him so many times that I’m running out of patience. Even my girlfriend knows to cringe when he’s on the field and that tells you something. We also have enough Barca B talent to fill in for those two players. I mean, what, are they going to be worse? Score fewer times?
Enough out of me. What think you?
*and yes, Caceres is 21 while Zambrotta is 31, but Zambrotta is a proven entity on the international stage, while Caceres has represented his country just 5 times. I understand that the age difference is huge and that Caceres has a large “upside” but the risk being taken on Caceres would be far higher than what is being taken on Pique, who is the same age and has the same upside (in fact, probably has a higher upside). [As I wrote this, Sport just reported that Caceres is signed and that Gio will net only €6million. If the latter bit is true, that's absolutely unjustifiable. Absolutely ridiculous. Caceres is worth 3 times as much as Gio!? No. I'm sorry, but no. Sport, by the way, is suggesting €17million for Caceres. Maybe I should retitle this post "How to Build a Better Team (and get screwed doing it)...]
**Just to get some stats into this, the 76 goals the team scored in the league averages out to exactly 2 goals per game. Not particularly bad at all as those 76 is the second best in the league, but there were stretches (and in particular a 4 game stretch) when few or no goals were scored. Those 15 goals were 1/5 of the total goals scored in rough 1/10 of the games. So yeah, there were issues, but they weren’t suggestive of the need for an entirely new line, merely a few tactical changes.
Josep Guardiola: officially official
Pep Guardiola was officially presented as the new manager of the first team today, closing one chapter (that of Frank Rijkaard) and opening another. It’s good to have Guardiola actually be part of the team so that we can focus all of our energy on other things. In his post-presentation press conference, Guardiola made a couple [...]
Pep Guardiola was officially presented as the new manager of the first team today, closing one chapter (that of Frank Rijkaard) and opening another. It’s good to have Guardiola actually be part of the team so that we can focus all of our energy on other things.
In his post-presentation press conference, Guardiola made a couple of bold statements. Some of them I liked, some of them I thought were statements being made by someone who doesn’t know how to handle the media.
I’m not experienced [as a coach] because I’m 37 years old. The only thing I have going for me as a coach is that these gentlemen [Laporta and Txiki] have chosen me. I’m not worried and I’m not scared by the challenge. I’m taking it on with a lot of confidence.*
That’s all well and good, though he makes the mistake of admitting that his superiors took on a completely inexperienced coach; whatever, hopefully it’s just Guardiola not giving a crap about what the media does to his words. He does, however, go on to further dampen the mood for me.
Every player from last season’s squad struck me as being at a high level [talent-wise]. With the technical secretary [Txiki] we are forming a squad and Deco, Ronaldinho, and Eto’o are not in our minds, but we’ll see how it goes.**
I disagree a million percent with saying straight up that you don’t want particular players, especially when those players are top-notch stars. Deco is having a superb Euro and yet he’s out? Eto’o is just another superb striker with some emotional problems, but the operative word, for me, is superb, not problems. Ronaldinho, well, that’s something else that can’t really be judged from the outside, but suffice to say that it’s probably a difficult situation (and now the LA Galaxy are in the mix, according to El Mundo Deportivo — they’ve offered Barcelona €26m for him and offered €32million a year to Ronnie himself in salary and image rights, split evenly).
Still, you don’t air that sort of thing to the media even if you don’t give a crap about what they’ll do with it because it’s not in your best interest to force your club’s hand thanks to the players in question getting offended and turning potentially salvageable situation into a utter disaster or making any transfer fee for them lower because everyone knows they’re being run out of Dodge. It’s certainly nice for the speculators (myself included, of course) to know what’s going on, but since we still don’t have a clue as to what’s going on, why does Guardiola feel that giving out these details is a good idea? If you’re into unity above all, e pluribus unum if you will, why create fissures in your locker room before you’ve taken control? Bold statements lead to bold reactions and that’s just the sort of thing that hurt last year, if we can believe all the reports we’ve read about internal division.
Barça B ain’t no first team, buddy. This comic from Sport is a good example of what Guardiola is in for. If you can’t read Spanish, I think you’ll still get the gist just by looking at the pictures.
*Feel free to take umbrage at my translation: “No tengo experiencia porque tengo 37 años. Mi único mérito como entrenador es que estos señores me han escogido a mi. No tengo miedo ni estoy asustado ante el reto. Lo cojo con mucha ilusión.”
**”Todos los jugadores que tenía la plantilla la pasada temporada me parecen de un nivel altísimo. Con la secretaría técnica estamos formando una plantilla y Deco, Ronaldinho y Eto’o no están en nuestra mente, pero veremos como va”
Congratulations, Barça B!
With a 1-0 victory at the Miniestadi against Barbastro on Sunday, Barça B achieved promotion to the Segunda B. Hopefully this is the beginning of a revival that pushes the them all the way to the Segunda A, but they’ll have to do it without Pep Guardiola, who will be presented as the new first [...]
With a 1-0 victory at the Miniestadi against Barbastro on Sunday, Barça B achieved promotion to the Segunda B. Hopefully this is the beginning of a revival that pushes the them all the way to the Segunda A, but they’ll have to do it without Pep Guardiola, who will be presented as the new first team manager tomorrow (Tuesday).
The team finished the regular season with a record of 25W-8D-5L (83pts), 70GF 41GA (+29GD). At home they were unbeaten, winning 17 and drawing just twice. They weren’t so great away (8W-6D-5L), but they got the job done when it counted: the playoffs. There, they drew their first game away to Castillo 2-2, but then blanked them in the return leg 6-0. They advanced to the final and again started away to Barbastro, winning 0-2. At home in the return leg Barça B won 1-0 and secured their promotion.
Congratulations to all the Barça B players!
Martín Cáceres: blauguayan
A big welcome to Martín Cáceres, unveiled today, who has too many accents in his name for easy typing on an American keyboard. But he sure is Uruguayan and he sure is a defender, which is nice to see. Central D was our big failing last year, in my estimation, because of the lack of [...]
A big welcome to Martín Cáceres, unveiled today, who has too many accents in his name for easy typing on an American keyboard. But he sure is Uruguayan and he sure is a defender, which is nice to see. Central D was our big failing last year, in my estimation, because of the lack of depth; this year he’ll be standing in (or replacing outright) Gabi Milito, who is going to be injured until sometime around when the cows come home. Which is, unfortunately for the beef eaters out there, not until March or so.
The vital stats for Cáceres: 6′0″, age 21. Born in Montevideo, plays for the Uruguay national team, and has Sergio Ramos hair. For my money he looks like Javier Bardem’s younger, more athletic, less ruthless brother. And yeah, I’m acting as if the only movie Bardem has been in was No Country for Old Men cause I’m a jackass American.*
I expect big things from Cáceres, but I don’t expect him to start automatically unless he somehow has a great report with Puyol. I do expect Márquez to start alongside Puyol at first, but Guardiola may take advantage of his grace period and really just experiment with the lineup a little, including putting Cáceres in the starting 11 from the get-go. We’ll have to wait and see.
And I still very much dislike the new home jersey.
*For the record, I really liked Mar Adentro and I was so-so on Carne trémula, but I haven’t seen Before Night Falls, Love in the Time of Cholera, or actually anything else Bardem’s been in. And I didn’t even like No Country all that much, but only because I got bored by the end.
Welcoming Martín Cáceres
We have a new South American central defender who is known for his tenacity and crazy ass hair. And no, this isn’t a flashback to last year. I’m talking about Uruguayan international Martín Cáceres, who has joined from Villarreal (though you’ll remember him from Recreativo Huelva last year, where he was out on loan) in [...]
We have a new South American central defender who is known for his tenacity and crazy ass hair. And no, this isn’t a flashback to last year. I’m talking about Uruguayan international Martín Cáceres, who has joined from Villarreal (though you’ll remember him from Recreativo Huelva last year, where he was out on loan) in a deal worth €16.5million. Cáceres’ contract is for 4 years, running out in June 2012, and has a buyout clause of €50million.
But what of this man? Who is he? Where does he hail from? What’s his sign? Well, here are all the facts:
José Martín Cáceres is 21, born and raised in Montevideo, stands at 6′0″ (183cm), is a Pisces, and has crazyass hair. He’s known for his hard defending and a couple of headed goals, a couple of which can be seen here. Note his hard challenge on Messi…
Because he’s only played one year in Europe, it’s hard to judge his durability and his true skill, but from all accounts he’s a fantastic player with one hell of an upside. [I'll admit here that I didn't note him specifically in the Recre match this year; neither did Kevin, who wrote the review here. Cáceres only participated in our 3-0 home smashing of Recre, not the 2-2 draw at the Nuevo Colombino, so that's why the previous sentence appears in the singular, even though we obviously played them twice.] With all this talk about how good he is, I’m excited to see how he’ll do on the pitch. He’s not a jersey-selling signing, but rather a for-the-future defensive stalwart signing, which definitely makes me very, very happy.
Because I can’t truly speak about his positives (both of his goals for Recre were game winners, which is pretty great), I’ll focus on the negatives, though that in no way signals that I am against this signing. We needed another central defender and we got one that was being pursued, if only vaguely, by several other major clubs, so we can consider ourselves to on the track. As a 21-year old, Cáceres brings potential to the table, but can’t be considered an automatic starter at this point, even with the lack of depth at the position. He’ll take time to adapt to the situation, to the pressure, and to the new tactics in a way that an older, more experienced player might not. That means we’ll more than likely see a starting lineup of Marquez and Puyol to begin the season, which isn’t something I’m particularly sad about, but which does suggest that Cáceres better have his ego in check before stepping on to the field.
I doubt that Guardiola will have any issues keeping Cáceres off the field if he doesn’t think the kid is ready to play 90 minutes every game, so that’s a positive (Rijkaard would plug him in and do a trial-by-fire kind of thing, I’m pretty sure). If he’s as impetuous as some have said and often caught out of position because he’s being too aggressive, Guardiola will be forced to keep him off the field until he learns the correct positioning. Puyol can handle anything short of a thermonuclear warhead thrown at him, but even El Capitan Valiente sometimes needs backup. Because of Barcelona’s attacking capabilities (see above-mentioned WMD for defensive destruction capabilities), Cáceres won’t be needed to attack as much as he was by Recre. However, let’s get his head up there for corners, where we’ll still need him, full of mighty mites as our front line is.
Another potential negative is his aggression. In the video I linked before the jump, there were several in-the-box tackles that will be called penalties when they’re committed in Valdes’ box. That’s just how it’s gone the last year and our defense has to adapt to that.* Over-aggression leads to penalties, leads to draws and losses, leads to more pressure, leads to more penalties, etc. Cáceres has to keep himself in check and learn from Puyol when to kill an opponent. Not with kindness, but rather with the hatchet. Yellows aren’t bad as Milito taught us; in fact, they’re Deco’s best friend. It’s just that accumulating them in stupid circumstances (see Deco; Eto’o) is not a good idea. So calm down, son, and let’s play ball for real. You are surrounded by world class players; learn from them and you’ll be a star.
*I’m not suggesting a conspiracy, but that’s how it was this last year and I don’t expect that to change next year. Our defense was constantly off balance because of midfield issues and for at least the first third of next season, I expect the penalties to continue at the regular pace we had as Keita and company settle in.
Seydou Keita was officially presented to the press today. The FCB official has 