First Season Failure!

As we approach the end of January in the opening season of this ambitious task, Barcelona sit 5 points behind league leaders Real Sociedad. Not an impossible task, but a difficult mountain to climb.

In the Champions League, the extreme challenge of Liverpool in the second round, following a double defeat to PSG in the group stage. Again, not impossible, but it would take a real miracle to get close to the final, let alone win the trophy.

For this first season, therefore, the best chance of silverware comes in the form of the Copa Del Rey. Every game needs to be treated as a final – we’re not in a position to rest players, this is a trophy that needs to be won.

The opening round was a simple one, besting second division Lugo 2-0, courtesy of two bizarre own goals. The next task though was more complex, away to Unai Emery’s Villareal.

In a crushing blow at this relatively early stage, penalties were our undoing.

Yes, the treble is off. Despite taking complete control of the game, we couldn’t quite grab that second goal in normal time to close the issue early – misses in the shootout from Fati and Messi himself meant we succumbed to a strong Villareal side.

Picking up the Pieces

Where do we go from here? Whilst it was always going to be difficult to win all three major trophies in the first season (considering the real team got no closer), it is still distressing to go out this early – and clearly shows the enormity of the task ahead in the summer.

I shall now play out the remainder of the season and report back. Hopefully some big sales, mixed with an expanded war chest will allow us to make some important signings in the summer, and make a real go of it next season.

With Mr Messi contracted until 2022, next season will likely be my last opportunity, whilst at Barcelona, to complete the treble.

A Trophy is a Trophy… Right?

Despite the tragedy of the Copa Del Rey, and the likely tragedy of both the Champions League and La Liga, there was a small, miniscule victory in the past few months.

A victory over Real Madrid is always good news, and in the final of the Spanish Super Cup it is very good news indeed. Having defeated Real Sociedad in the semi final, we defeated Zidane’s side 2-1, courtesy of two goals from the magician himself, Messi.

While the trophy is essentially meaningless, certainly in the context of our lofty ambitions, it represents that there is definite quality in this side – you don’t beat Madrid in a final without it. Perhaps we really are just a couple of truly world class signings away from the big trophies.

This, coupled with a strong victory over a resurgent Atletico Madrid in the league, and there are evident signs that this team can win the biggest prizes. Our biggest issue certainly seems to be a lack of bite in front of goal; replacing Griezmann is likely to be my first task in the summer.

So alas, this season has been a non-starter. We go again, as they say, and hopefully we can put ourselves in the strongest possible position to compete properly next year.

As we continue our voyage to provide Leo Messi with his third treble, it becomes clear just how significant a task this could be, particularly in Europe.

The group stage for the Champions League drew us with Slavia Prague, Ajax and Paris Saint Germain. Whilst finishing top spot would clearly be a tough ask, Barcelona do have a plethora of elite footballers, it shouldn’t be THAT hard, right?

Struggles in Europe

First things first, we qualified for the knockout stage. Finished second in the group, easily ahead of Ajax in third, with Slavia Prague still to play. However, it was absolutely those games against the weaker sides that dragged Barcelona through.

The man himself, Messi, has actually underperformed in Europe – I only played him in 3 of the 5 games due to fitness struggles, and he has only registered an assist in that time. However, the aim here was just to get through, the next step is seeing the draw for the knockout stage.

The frustrating thing about the PSG losses were that they came largely from strange errors, defenders dawdling on the halfway line, M’Bappe nicking the ball and sprinting into empty grass before easily being Neto in goal (with Ter Stegen injured until January, it is likely there could be a reduction in goals conceded once he returns to the side).

Steady at Home

Domestically, things are promising but not spectacular. The most notable statistic is that, after 11 games played as we delve into December, Barcelona are the only unbeaten team in La Liga. Real Madrid have lost on two occasions, Atletico Madrid are languishing in 10^th.

Barca would be top if not for Real Sociedad, who have won nine of their opening ten games. Pleasingly, the game they did not win was at the hands of Barcelona. An away 1-0 win thanks to a set piece is not the free-flowing football the club is known for, but with the players available it is more than enough.

So, 11 games, 7 wins, 4 draws and 0 losses is a perfectly acceptable start to the season. Enjoyable performances and some huge goals have come from the dynamic Riqui Puig; Pedri and Ansu Fati have been solid without being spectacular; the most consistent player in the side has undoubtedly been Sergi Roberto, who currently leads the league for Player of the Match awards at right back.

In amongst this was a 2-2 draw at the Bernabeu, a match which should have been a walkover for Real Madrid, but plucky Barcelona held on – not the way it should be, but the way it is this season. Still, it maintains the unbeaten form in essentially the hardest game of the season.

In fact, we have now played the two main rivals for the title, both away from home, taking 4 points from 6 in the process. Repeat the trick at the Camp Nou in the second half of the season and things will be getting exciting.

Messi, The Star

The clear player of the season so far is Messi. Playing in the advanced playmaker role alongside the shadow striker, he has scored 5 and assisted 4 in his opening 10 games. Naturally, he can’t play every game (hence him being rested for some European games), so its about carefully managing him going further into the season.

The only real downside is the distinct lack of consistency from Griezmann and Dembele. Much like the problem Ronald Koeman has faced this season, these two players, each costing over £100m, have severely underperformed, despite flashes of clear brilliance. If they can become more consistent, maybe this ambitious goal will become a little more achievable.

You don’t need me to tell you how good Lionel Messi is or was, what he has achieved and how brilliantly he did it. But we live in the waning world of Messi, one where he continues to exert his brilliance and magnificence, but in a Barcelona team acting as a mere shadow of what they were ten (even five) years ago.

So, this series will take on the needlessly ambitious task of securing one precise goal: One final treble for Lionel Messi.

The man has picked up two treble wins during his career, in 2009 under Pep Guardiola, and in 2015 with Luis Enrique, as part of the famous MSN trio with Neymar and Luis Suarez. No player, or indeed team, has won three trebles…

Joining Messi

To make things easier, I started my career at Barcelona. The other option was to join either PSG or Bayern Munich, and attempt to sign Messi during the early stages before the contract is renewed. The strength of Barcelona in La Liga compared to the strength of the top clubs in Germany, France or Italy is far weaker – Messi at PSG, for example, would at least tie up two of the three trophies without too much interference.

Nonetheless, we I began at Barca, and the first task was to renew the contract of the great man – offering a two-year deal to keep him at the side until 2022. Including a significant wage-cut but a considerable loyalty bonus fee, he was secured.

The Squad

The second task was to take a look at the team, see what we are working with. With very little money to play with in the transfer market, the current bloated squad will simply have to do. There are rumours that Man Utd are interesting in Ousmane Dembele, it remains to be seen if we can gain some cash from that.

The formation I’m going with is my new favourite, the Vicente Del Bosque strikerless 4-3-3 – not a million miles away from the tactic of Guardiola back in his Barca heyday, but with a slight variation. In this setup, rather than play Messi as the false nine, he plays the Iniesta role – just in from the left, centrally affecting play and can provide a goal threat. I would have liked to play him in the deeper role, alongside Frenkie De Jong, but his finishing ability would be wasted that far from goal.

Preseason Champions League odds were not kind, predicted to maybe make the quarter finals if we’re lucky – it will be a tough season. If we do get knocked out of any cups, the only option will be to skip to the end of the season and try again next year – lets hope it doesn’t come to that.

Messi in Attack

The opening league games were much more kind, at home to Eibar followed by an away trip to Cadiz, bringing 3-1 and 1-0 wins respectively. The goal that Messi scored in the second game demonstrated why I needed him in that advanced role.

As the ball moves wide to Roberto, Messi moves into the box, rather than taking up the position of Pedri, who actually receives the ball. As Pedri prepares to play the through ball, Messi is now the most advanced player on the pitch.

The finish is then simple enough when the ball reaches him, but it’s the anticipation and movement of Messi that makes him to valuable in that attacking position to risk having him anywhere else.

The Last Dance

In general, this series won’t be giving a detailed breakdown of each game – mostly the highlights of the season as it progresses. With so many games in multiple competition to focus on, the expectation will be to win near enough each game in the Champions League group stage, and reach the latter stages of the Copa Del Rey.

It may be that we scrutinise games in more detail at the business end of the season, but for now let’s just keep our fingers crossed that we don’t succumb to an early cup exit.

This series takes you through how to evoke the memories of classic teams over the years, recreating their tactics in Football Manager to (hopefully) win games and (definitely) have fun in the process.

Club sides, international teams, league winners, cup winners and just all-round entertainers, the series will focus on the most notable tactical styles which you can then recreate in your FM save. This time we do put Pep Guardiola under the microscope – not for his Man City team, or his instant impact with Barcelona, but his tactically ground-breaking Bayern Munich side.

The Forgotten Seasons

Nobody in world football can deny that what Pep Guardiola did at Barcelona was legendary, and may never be repeated: to win repeat league titles and domestic cup competitions, two Champions League trophies, bring through some of the best players the game has ever seen, as well as THE best player the game has ever seen.

Since his time at Barcelona, however, feelings towards Pep have been mixed from across the footballing landscape. Many consider his spells at Bayern Munich and Man City as failures, despite winning five league titles in that time and even more domestic cups. Whilst it is true that his teams have not won the Champions League, they have reached the latter stages on multiple occasions. What draws the eye towards the enigmatic coach is his outlandish tactical decisions in these ties – many of which do not materialise into a win.

8-Man Midfield

You may have seen our recent feature in the “Play Like” series, on Vicente Del Bosque’s Spain team, which utilised a false nine and inside attacking midfielders to overload the midfield space – 6 bodies in the central area, all capable passers, to overwhelm the opposition and get the ball high up the pitch.

This system from Guardiola takes that to the next level. The striker (Robert Lewandowski, who came to Bayern in Guardiola’s second season) plays deep, joining the midfield when required to initiate attacks. The wingers, nominally Robben and/or Ribery, cut inside at all opportunities, providing more depth in the midfield.

The midfield trio of a CDM (often Alonso) and two CMs (often Thiago, Muller, Vidal or Martinez) provided understandable control of the middle. This takes us up to six, but the way Guardiola maxed out the midfield space was with his final flourish – David Alaba and Philip Lahm. These two intelligent, creative and positionally astute full backs were Guardiola’s masterpiece – he played them inverted, sitting inside next to Alonso during the build-up, rather than flying down the wing beyond Robben and Ribery like a normal full back would.

A little like this:

Of course in actuality, the pitch never really saw the two centre halves sitting deep and just watching eight Bayern players crowd the midfield. But as players always sought to take up these positions, it meant that passes were always available, there was always someone on, they say could prod and probe their opponent before finding an opening.

The two inverted fullbacks gave an extra layer of midfield strength that no other team on the planet had. Luckily enough, Football Manager recognised this too, and decided to make inverted fullbacks a feature of the game. Aren’t we glad they did?

Play Like: Pep’s Bayern Munich

To really get the full impact from what Pep was trying to achieve at Bayern, a vertical tiki-taka is more appropriate than the standard approach he favoured at Barcelona. Then, simply lay out the team as below:

Essentially every player role that we would be looking to use in this system is already filled in with the “Vertical Tiki Taka” setup. The team instructions are also identical, with underlaps and narrow attacks exactly what we want to see.

All that is missing is ensuring the fullbacks become inverted wingbacks – I have given Alaba on the left an attacking duty, just to give some extra impetus up top.

I have kept Alaba in for his midfield ability. Whilst Alfonso Davies is certainly the hotter prospect at the moment, for this role Alaba is still king. Similarly, Kimmich on the right is a reincarnation of Lahm, the perfect replacement.

Tolisso has the passing range to act as Alonso. Goretzka isn’t quite the passing dynamo that Thiago was in the left CM slot, but still has more than enough quality, and can score from distance if required.

Sane and Coman, on the right and left respectively, are like for like replacements for Robben and Ribery (although Gnabry may be a more effective LW than Coman). Lewandowski and Muller fill their previous roles.

Attacking Overload

In my opening game, a 4-1 win over Werder Bremen, the side enjoyed total domination of both possession and the attack – with so many bodies for the opposition to track, it became an impossible job, and our players broke through time and time again.

The inverted fullbacks were a menace, particularly Alaba with the attack duty. In the above shot he is further infield, and higher up the pitch that the centre mid Goretzka – this is the essence of Guardiola’s system, bolstering the centre of the pitch with quality players who can all assist the attack.

By the end of the game, the team shape is precisely how I want it: compact, narrow and based entirely around the centre circle, with even Lewandowski dropping back to link play with the inside forwards.

To demonstrate how attack minded this system is, take a look of the replay of our first goal in the 3-1 win at Chelsea:

7 players in the opposition box as the shot was taken – all arriving from open play – and Tolisso waiting just outside to mop up. Only a positive mentality, nothing rash, but players overloading the midfield push the opposition back into heir own box, until they eventually cannot withstand the pressure.

Recreating Guardiola’s Tactics

Guardiola, of course, moved from Bayern to Man City, and brought his style of play with him, making Kyle Walker into a more than capable inverted fullback, and creating midfield overloads that brought him the highest ever points total in a single league season.

To recreate this tactic with your side, the three keys are:

• Fullbacks who can comfortably play as CDMs
• A goalkeeper who can sweep the space in front of him
• A front three who can occupy the space in front of the box – a deep-lying forward and two inverted wingers will do the trick

To deploy Guardiola’s style in your team, download the tactic on Steam.