Masche is the solution

messixaviesta wrote:

The Franchise wrote:I was going to put this in the Porto thread, but I think here is better.

I disliked Mascherano's performance, in fact I thought he had a horrible game. Mind you, its not exactly his fault.

He can defend fine for a CB, that is now proven. However, with the ball, he is terrible. Anytime it isnt rolling to him perfectly, he has difficulty continuing passing moves. He did at least 7 long balls high in the air for no reason tonight and we suffered possession wise because of it.

The thing is, at centerback, he has more time on the ball, but that actually isnt a good thing for him. You see, when he plays DM, he is in more traffick and often he isnt facing the goal. He is side on or back to goal. Therefore, whenever he gets a pass the decision is already made for him, he has to pass it relatively quick because he knows he will get closed down and he doesnt have the ability to get out of it.

But at CB, he has inital time and he takes touches and has to make a decision. Now, if he wasnt pressed and allowed to just play it simple to the DM, RB or other CB we would be fine. But when we are pressed, you see the flaw.

The opponant will press up and mark the midfielders, then Dani Alves. The passes to these players are much harder and its not always possible to make them. The angle to the other centerback is now cut by a player and Mascherano has to make a decision. He doesnt have the ability of a Pique (or even an Abidal who has come on leaps and bounds at this) to dribble out and commit a defender to him, so he hoofs it long before he gets closed down.

The thing is, he wants to make a decision, but once that has been take away he doesnt have the ability to readjust and make another decision anything like often enough.

If say Pique has the ball and his option is cut of, he can improvise, change direction and look for another pass, if that is cut off he can dribble it out..he has many options because he is much more intellegant and has much better skill. Mascherano wants the first option and if it isnt there, he ends up launching it.

What is also worse, he takes longer to control balls (or he cant control them period so he hoofs it) so he ends up having less time on the ball in the first place.


I thought him playing further away from goal would be a plus offensively when he is at centerback and it can be. But if teams press us, it becomes a bigger problem.

After 30 minutes I was literally pleading for Busquets to be brought on.

Excellent post dani. A great read. I can't disagree with anything but at the same time I would like to say Mascherano played a vital role last night in making several last ditch clearances and a few of these tackles were really special.

sagnik92 wrote:the main problem last night was not masch but abidal.he does not look solid as a CB like last season.i am worried about the villareal game although i think busquets coming in for keita would make things a lot easier for masch and abi

Blackmore. wrote:I've said it before and I'll say it again, Piquets is one of our best duet.