La Liga: FC Barcelona vs Real Sociedad

I haven't seen football like that from Barca since Pep's first season.

Possession ideals but with a direct approach, i like.

Also the pace on the flanks was ridiculous

Tello, Pedro, Alves and Alba it will be a lot more difficult to park against Barca with 2 attacking fullbacks as well as the wide forwards such as Tello, Pedro, Villa and Sanchez.

Although more vulnerable defensively, Busquets will have to drop back as a 3rd CB more often than usual.

Hopefully this style of play will make Sanchez come out of his shell as he looked limited at best last season and nowhere close to anything like he can.

Tello, more than a racecar

What I liked most about this match was that we were back to basics.

Three forwards means three forwards.

Four defenders means four defenders.

Formation back to the tried and tested 4-3-3 .

The midfield runs the game and not just a Messi one man show.

The one big problem though is with four world class midfielders and a very promising youngster, how do you play the midfield from game to game? Keeping it steady and rotating constantly both have their pros and cons.

Tello probably had his best game to date for us. Pedro was impressive. Messi in a not so great game showed what a genius can do with his touch that took more than three defenders out as if they didn't exist. Great to see Xavi back to controlling a game for it's full duration. Iniesta initially seemed off pace but then came into his own. Villa scoring was a golden moment and that it was an Iniesta assist made me doubly happy. Defense is a big worry - maybe the only worry this season apart from how Tito will cope up with the constantly mounting pressure.