In defense of attacking football
I only have two posts left here and I want to take a step back from the argumentative tit for tat – it’s exhausting and Enigma does it much better than me anyway. I want to have a look at the broader picture, give a more clear idea of what we are implementing here. Playing attacking football is hard. Selling attacking football is hard. That is why we got ourselves the best guys in the game, the ones who have excelled at every stage in world football and produced some of the most beautiful moments the game has ever seen.
This is just that one little guy, who also happened to gets underrated in every draft match. He is not seen as a genius play maker, he is not a number 10 with great goalscoring statistics or pace to burn. He’s not a player excelling on FIFA. He is just that little guy with a ridiculously consistent skill level, the ability to transform build-up attempts into deadly chances and the intelligence to know how and when to use tricks effectively. He’s extremely humble and never tries to embarrass the opponent, or put himself above the team. Every action he takes has the purpose of getting towards the goal, creating chances for the strikers and furthering the cause of attacking football.
I call it attacking football because that it was it is: You want to attack? You need to have the ball. You lose the ball? You better get it back quickly to start your own attack. This epitomizes the philosophy of Barcelona, what is deeply ingrained in their DNA and what has been carried along several generations and different world class managers – from Cruyff to Pep.
Is this as good as Barcelona 2009? Is this like the Dream Team? How does it fit with Total football? I say these questions are time wasting at best and lazy at worst.
This is not a Remake-Draft and the only question is if the team that we have chosen works like we intended.
I don’t want to talk about individuals all the time (I will break that promise in a second). Football is a team sport with millions of different events happening in a match and the task is to fit the team together to produce a favourable outcome of the match through collective efforts. This is not FIFA Ultimate Team, this is not the Davis Cup and this is sure as hell not some NBA skills challenge, where it is just about who is better at showing off.
Xavi and Iniesta have understood that football is a collective sport, more than any other midfielders ever.
Many fans have asked themselves the questions of why Guardiola is so good at delivering attacking football. Why does it seem like he makes players better, especially his attackers like Sane and Sterling for example? The truth is, he knows how to get the best out of them. You have to put them into favourable positions on the pitch. Positional changes, cross-field passes, quick one-twos, fast kicks from the goalkeeper, lots of variety to achieve the goal of attacking the opponent’s goal. Xavi and Iniesta have understood that as well and made everyone around them better.
We are not playing like Guardiola here, or like Cruyff’s dream team, or like Michel’s Ajax. They do not have a monopoly on attacking football. It is open to any manager or set of players who want to enjoy the game and who are courageous. Xavi and Iniesta have no fear. They go into dribblings against 4 players who are bigger, faster and stronger than them.
I have done the mistake of underrating Xavi in the past. I will not make this mistake again. There is not a single player who comes close to him passing the ball and setting the tempo of the match. He is not a highlight player by any means, yet he is the one who highlights the strengths of everyone around him to a large extent. This is his peak attacking contribution, additionally to being the ever-reliable dominant force in midfield:
08/09: 30 assists
09/10: 18 assists
10/11: 15 assists
Critics will say he could have only produced those numbers because of playing with a GOAT attacker, but right at that point I will charge in and start talking about the greatest European to have ever played the game, who happens to play on our side.
Cruyff loves attacking football. Whenever you watch him, you can see the urgency in his style of play. Drafters don’t have much imagination when it comes to Cruyff. When asked about the best Cruyff XI, everyone answered with some variety of Cruyff + Gullit + Neeskens. Incredibly unimaginative and boring, considering that we know how he plays with them. I suggested pairing up Cruyff with Xavi and I still think it would turn out brilliantly. When you watch Cruyff, you get the sense that he dislikes his own teammates to an extent. He was so far ahead of anyone else during his time, it was just not an even game. The most progressive footballer of the last century, the closest to tactical perfection in terms of modern tactics, until the tactical revolution of Spain / Barcelona in the late 2000s. This revolution was led by Xavi and Iniesta and they represent the peak state of the game that we know today. No one in history before them has been as consistent at winning matches as those two: 1 World Cup, 2 European Championships, 3 La Liga and 2 CL in 4 years is an insane trophy haul and the key to their team’s success was always in their superior midfield.
Why is Cruyff a great fit for Xaviesta? I will answer it differently, taking reference to the point that I made earlier about Pep setting up the team to maximize the potential of the attackers. Xavi and Iniesta know how to do it, they know what a forward wants, they have the vision to spot a runner and the grace to deliver the pass in the only small window of opportunity. They know how to create a balance for your side, to keep danger away from your goal and to support your teammates in every situation. Cruyff cares deeply about these things. He wants to be like superman at times and do everything himself, just because he wants to help his team so much to win. With these two, he knows the fate of the team is in good hands and he will trust them to orchestrate the match. At first, he will be intrigued about what they have to offer, but then he will understand that they help you understand the match better and maximize your potential and he will be the happiest man on earth to have these two guys combining with him and setting up some ridiculous team goals. He will continue to be the talisman, since Xavi and Iniesta are never selfish and have easily glued together a team of multiple stars.
Like I said before, this is not a remake draft. The question is will create Rivaldo, Cruyff, Simonsen, Alves, Xavi and Iniesta a lot of chances on a consistent basis? And the answer is yes every single time.
I know I have not said a single word about our opponent, I think Enigma has done a really good job at dishing out. I will just say the tactics to defend with just some individuals to save some energy or something or to somehow catch the imperious CB duo of Figueroa-Chumpitaz on the break seems like a tactic straight from the 1960s, the kind of tactics that Cruyff left behind in a dust when he took the world by storm. When you watch a video of Xavi, you can see him regularly splitting fully packed defences with more players than EAP is assigning here and it was just an afternoon exercise for him. He can do it against any number of players and these kind of defensive tactics (or lack of defensive plan) will not be the way to stop him.
What defensive output will Rivaldo provide?
