Malaga game: high defensive pressure

First time we showed our Barca-style defensive pressure since the supercup. Maybe Mou is saving it for the more important mathups.

Interesting to note imo.

Agreed, it seems we save it for sides that are really good at keeping possession though.

I like that we have a "secret weapon" so to speak, it means we have an extra gear when the big matches come along.

I hope we get Bayern in the CL this year, their tough but it would be a great way to test how far we've come.

We did it against Lyon too.

We played that way against Zaragoza, Lyon, Ajax, and Malaga so far.

https://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t10763-ramos-to-cb-aftermaths

https://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t7553-mas-mas-mas

Yeh we've played it in the last few games. Our possession has been good, fullbacks are overlapping, good counters etc. We're almost perfect.

Putting Ramos in the centre allows us to have a proper ball playing CB and Arbeola is much more intelligent in his defensive and full back duties than Ramos probably ever would be thus makes things a tad bit better in our play.

The ball playing CB really does help in the possession though. If anyone gets the chance, read Phil Ball's article on it. Nothing too in depth but it certainly does make a great deal of sense...

Precisely Doc. but configuration in defense is different from other teams like Barca or Chelsea for example.

Our deepest midfielder is Alonso, but i dont think he can play as CB as Busquets or other traditional DMs that like to go deep, so we have to rely on Arbeloa to maintain a 3 man defense most of the time.

Arbeloa-Pepe-Ramos
Khedira-Alonso-Marcelo

If we had an attacking RB, we would have to use Khedira deeper, close to the defense.

Pepe-Khedira-Ramos
Att RB-Alonso-Marcelo

has anyone noticed how we havent conceded a single goal in the game weve used this method in(barring the supercopa)

i actually applaud some of the players for doing 2 jobs because we have some pretty lazy players in our squad

Seriously, watching Ramos at centre back does make things much easier for the team's style of play. No disrespect to Pepe but his passing was shit most of the time. Carvalho being out of form and probably out of shape was indeed a blessing.

Please note to all and sundry, I am not calling Ramos a WC centre back nor am I implying such. Just saying, he makes our play a lot easier to take in and probably accomplish. Also, with him and Pepe around, the "high backline" strategy is more applicable and thus allows a certain Xabi Alonso to really be effective. He is no Xavi but to see Alonso in the opponent's half would always spell serious trouble if given too much time to dictate his passes...

Honestly, i think that Barca and Malaga were the only two teams against whom we went 100% at it... the others, it was a softer version.

It's pretty devastating because our players are very direct once they get the ball. If they get it that close, defense has very little time to recover before we're on goal.

Understand we don't use it all the time because we would burn out.

Yes, that form of pressing can be very tiring. I understand they dont do as often, that's why you need to balance it out with dominating possession more.

It answered a lot of my early concerns about the team, so im glad, really.

It's now a bit clearer to see what Mourinho was trying to achieve, and i am not disappointed. It's moving in a positive direction, and things can only get better.

More rotation, Sahin coming back, we still have plenty of milestones ahead.

I agree, these are positive signs. In recent games (since we recovered from that bad period maybe?) I feel that Mou has improved his tactics considerably. When Sahin comes into the midfield, maybe we can take it to the next level. That, and playing Higuain and Benzema at the same time and IMO we would have got our tactics pretty much perfect.

Doesn't that make us susceptible to Through balls though? just saying

P.S- has any club ever gotten 18 points in Group Stages of CL? we might be aiming for that

Our secret weapon for big matches... I'm still interested to know how long that kind of pressing could last, 45-60 minutes? We need a guy in midfield, two in attack to sustain that pressure longer.If could make it happen with longer possession spells inbeteen. Higgy andKaka after Özil and Benz are burnt out+ Coentrao in for Marcelo. The guys who press in higher burn out faster. It looked somewhat like this:

Arb------Ramos------Pepe
Khedira--Alonso--Marcelo

sportsczy wrote:First time we showed our Barca-style defensive pressure since the supercup. Maybe Mou is saving it for the more important mathups.

Interesting to note imo.

If it's Farca-style def pressure then we're one on dopes. With our directness we'd create chances time after time