Barcelona are the best team, but they don’t have the best squad...

[SThompson93]

Since 2008 under Guardiola’s stewardship, Barcelona have become a collection of the world’s best footballers in a generation and an iconic club once more. There have been 3 La Liga’s titles in a row, 3 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Spanish Cup, 2 Champions Leagues, 2 UEFA Super Cups, a FIFA Club World Cup, 2 Balon d’Or winners, 13 players in the FIFA FIFPro World XI, 15 players in the UEFA Team of the Year and eight World Cup winners in their best XI alone. Barcelona have the best team in the world right now, unquestioned. But they don’t have the strongest squad…


View attachment 195620
The best 1 to 11 on the planet
Its fair enough to say that from 1 to 11 Barcelona have the best team, the titles I’ve already spoken about prove that. Valdes is a highly appreciated sweeper keeper and Puyol and Pique provide the grit that backs up the attacking instincts of the rest of the side (but don’t forget that the two centre backs are also the players used to start moves off). Dani Alves is a fantastic modern full back; attack minded, athletic and technically sound. Busquets is developing into a solid defensive midfielder with an eye for a pass. Xavi and Iniesta are the heartbeat of both Barcelona and Spain and a formiddable duo. Villa and Pedro provide Barcelona with attacking instinct, and in Messi they have the best player in the world. Throw in the likes of Javier Mascherano and Cesc Fabregas and the potenial of Thiago and Barcelona’s core of 10-13 players is phenomenal. But underneath this, there is an amazing lack of depth…

The Competition
Manchester City, Real Madrid and Manchester United can all make a substituion and replace one world class player with another. Can Barcelona? I mean does a bench with the likes of Pinto, Maxwell, Keita and Afellay look as intimidating as a United bench with Bebatov, Giggs, Valencia and Smalling or Sahin, Kaka, Khedira and Higuian for Madrid? No. Barcelona aren’t the same side when Puyol, Iniesta or Messi aren’t in the side because they don’t have the strenght in depth. They may be okay for a game or two sure, but we have never seen Messi miss half a season or Xavi out for 4 months to see how Barcelona would really cope when the games mount up. Here are some positions where they perhaps need strenghtening…

Put Valdes under pressure
A second goalkeeper may not be an absolute must, but we’ve never seen Valdes injured long enough to see how good Pinto really is (he’s played less than 10 games for Barca in three years). Admittedly, from Europe’s elite only Manchester United really have sufficient back up for De Gea, in Lindegaard. Casillas’ number two, Antonio Adan is a relative unknown outside Spain and Hilario (Chelsea) and Stuart Taylor (Man City) are hardly capable of wearing the number one shirt of a top team for more than a game or two, so perhaps Pinto as back up is not such an issue. But he is 35 and Barcelona will need an understudy to Valdes capable of filling in should he get injured.
Suggestion: Sergio Asenjo (Atletico Madrid), Sergio Romero (Sampdoria) or Guillermo Ochoa (Ajaccio).

Let your midfielders play in midfield
More important than a reserve goalkeeper is a proper third choice centre back. Playing Abidal, Busquets or Mascherano at centre back is not a long term solution when Pique and/or Puyol are unavailable. As last night showed with Pato’s first goal where Busquets was eaily beaten then outpaced, a reliable third choice defender is a must for Barcelona. Let Busquets and Mascherano play in their usual midfield ball winning role and leave the defending to the defenders. Andreu Fontas, an up and coming centre back at the club, has looked a decent prospect but can you really start him in the second leg of a Champions Leg Semi Final where a clean sheet is a must to progress?
Suggestion: Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Mamadou Sakho (PSG) or Leonel Galeano (Independiente).

A better Left Back please
A left back is the one position where I didn’t include a player in Barca’s core of 10-13 players. Eric Abidal is rightfully well appreciated at the club, but when looking at the best team in the world I cant help but think that the left back area is the one place that improvement is a must. Now 31, and with only Maxwell and Adriano (half winger/half full back) as cover, surely this is the one place Guardiola needs to strengthen the most. Why not bring in a young, attack minded full back now and start blending him into the team and teaching him the philosophy so in two years time when Abidal is no longer required, Barcelona have a ready made replacement?
Suggestion: Gareth Bale (Tottenham), Taye Taiwo (AC Milan) or Cheik M’Bengue (Toulouse).

A winger will do
Hardly at the top of the list but maybe another winger wouldn’t go amiss. Villa aside, Alexis Sanchez and Pedro are both the now and future of the club, plus there is Afellay to come but maybe one more winger wouldn’t be a bad option. Provided that Barcelona stick with a 4-3-3 formation then wingers are always going to be an important part of the teams shape and philosophy. A squad with Alexis Sanchez, Pedro, Afellay and one more winger in 5 years time sounds like a very healhty attacking line-up even without considering Messi and any other future strikers at the club.
Suggestion: James Rodriguez (FC Porto), Xherdan Shaqiri (FC Basel) or Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina).

A bit of variation
With Messi, Villa, Sanchez and Pedro it can be argued that no, Barcelona do not need an out and out striker but it should still be an option that Guardiola considers, if only to create a bit of variation (I’m not saying buy Nikola Zigic or Peter Crouch and play the long ball game). Surely a young, energetic, pacy striker would be an asset to Barcelona. One who unlike Sanchez, Villa and Pedro wants to stay central and not play as a winger, and unlike Messi wants to play on the shoulder of the last man and not come deep to get involved in play (essentially a poacher).
Suggestion: Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao), Neymar (Santos) or Hulk (FC Porto).

But will Guardiola buy?
Does Guardiola really need to spend money some may ask? Admitedly, no. He’s doing just fine with the squad he has and most importantly perhaps, he may consider it “not the Barcelona way” to just bring in five players from elsewhere (bringing in a Villa, Sanchez or Fabregas now again is not the same as buying five or six players in one window) and Guardiola may prefer to develop players from his academy and “B” team. I’m not even suggesting Guardiola needs to buy these players, or needs to have the best squad in the world on top of having the best team. Personally, I think he only needs to make three signings, a left back for the first team, a third choice centre back and a young striker.

As always, feel free to comment! For more of the StudentTactician's views please visit "The first 90 minutes are the most important"

 

[Munroe]

They definitely need some better defenders, and imo, they need to sell the likes of Keita, Hleb, Pinto etc. and bring in some quality players that are happy to sit on the bench.

 

[Calum]

err yes they do have some squad they just bought cesc and alexis !

 

[slbenficacoach]

I'm not particulary their fan, but people are ALWAYS trying to find petty ways to diminish them, I'm excluding the refeering here, whether the other players let Messi pass, or Messi only scores because he has Xavi and Iniesta, or what the fck else, some people do need to be more realistic, if they win, who cares?

 

[GodCubed]

Some points I disagree with:

1. Why is playing midfielders in defence not an option? It has worked excellently well so far, particularly with Busquets. Some people are going further, saying that Barca could well morph into a shape that doesn't even need traditional defenders. To say 'leave the defending to the defenders' goes against Barca's whole idea behind this team. The team defend as a collective, pressing across the pitch. Moreover, why would they need to splash £20 million plus on a defender like Hummels or Sakho when they have the likes of Muniesa, Fontas and to a lesser extent Sergi Gomez and Armando? All of those four have wonderful potential, and bringing in another defender to block their progress into first team action would be costly and silly.
2. Again, why would Barca need to splash out on a winger? Off the top of my head, Villa, Sanchez, Pedro and Afellay would be the ones rotating, not including people like Messi and Iniesta who can play there. To back them up at the likes of Tello, Kiko, Cuenca and maybe Lobato and Deulofeu. If we count each of the youngsters as a half, we've got about six or so realistic candidates, four of which are senior players. They've already bought Sanchez for a large fee, I doubt they'd be so interested in buying again so soon.
3. A poacher is a bad idea, in my opinion. People suggest this again and again with Arsenal, to my (and others') growing frustration. If we take the example in that link just there and transfer it to Barcelona, Villa takes the place of Walcott as the direct threat, making outside to in runs on the shoulder of the defender. Buying a poacher disrupts the whole dynamic of the team, losing Messi's influential deep movement. This all ignores the fact that Guardiola, tactically innovative as ever, has been using Fabregas as a forward recently, providing a replica of Messi's role. Also, your suggestions are off: all three of them are forwards more comfortable drifting in from wide positions, not a poacher in the traditional sense.

 

[Athe~]

I beg to differ.

does a bench with the likes of Pinto, Maxwell, Keita and Afellay look as intimidating as a United bench with Bebatov, Giggs, Valencia and Smalling or Sahin, Kaka, Khedira and Higuian for Madrid?

First of all, you've named players from different positions to compare squad depth (On a side note, Smalling may be a good player, a great prospect, but intimidating? Are you serious?).

On the keeper issue - maybe they could use a backup keeper when Pinto is gone (I think Pinto is **** anyways), I'll give you that one, although the keepers you named would hardly like to sit on the bench.

Defensively, I think both Fontàs and Muniesa are up-and-coming talent and I wouldn't be surprised to see them getting more games this year or the next. Sakho or Hummels would be way too expensive and the benefits would be minimal. Galeano is a player that's been terribly overhyped by FM - he's good but he's not been a starter for some time, and is prone to rash tackles, hardly someone I'd trust to play under so much pressure.

A LB is a must, I agree there, but Bale? Seriously? It'd be such a waste to get Bale (Who would be VERY expensive) to play him at LB.

Wingers are not needed - not only is one of the wings covered by Villa, but Pedro, Alexis Sanchez and Afellay are very capable players, and let's not forget Gerard Deulofeu, who's still very young but will probably be on the bench a couple times this year.

On the striker subject, Neymar is hardly an 'out-and-out' striker, he's used to dropping back and contribute to play, drift to either wing and even drop a little deeper to act almost as a midfielder, if need be.

And this is all I can be arsed to name right now, I'm off to grab a snack or I'll end up starving.

---------- Post added at 06:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:41 PM ----------

****, GC covered most of my points a minute earlier. **** you.

 

[DMF]

Completely agree with GC. They're whole system is built on fluidity, so why would they go and sign players who are unversatile and not comfortable with switching positions frequently. Someone like a poacher, as you said, is only comfortable really in the centre of the field and will therefore not like going wide - meaning the wide forwards who don't mind playing central/wide can't switch as effectively and it disrupts the whole fluidity of the team and makes them less effective.

 

[Jamie.]

I think the above 3 covered it, I took issue with your City piece and I'm afraid I feel the same about this. I'm struggling to actually find any valid point...Anywhere to be honest.

''Does Guardiola really have money to spend?'' - The guy's just spent upwards of £75m (Total +add ons) on 2 players.

And the point about his squad, so suddenly you're doubting Barce's La Masia academy that's brought through Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Pedro, Messi from nowhere?

They have a wealth of talent constantly coming through as is being shown by their U-18 B team at the nextgen.

And if you think Muniain is a poacher then, no offence, you have never seen him play. He's a centre forward who plays off the front line and creates/scores/builds the play. Hulk's definitely not a poacher and Neymar is arguably not either. Do they need a winger? They have so many young talented wingers coming through and have just signed one of the brightest talents from Hercules, Kiko, who is maybe 1-2 years off the matchday setup. And as for suggesting TAIWO for LB, you must be joking with that one is all I'm saying (Ask Milan fans).

You put alot of effort into it, it would seem, but I can't find any valid point except possibly them needing another CB and if it is a new CB it will be someone in the Amat/Polenta mold not necessarily a 'proven' defender. Not forgetting whilst you write about all these 'suggestions' the large majority of players Barcelona have sold over the past 3 years have buy back clauses (I.E Botia). With the 3-4-3 system being integrated the 'spare LB' point is completely invalid (Is Adriano/Maxwell/Abidal not enough?).

All in all, you're definitely 'thought provoking'.

 

[luke the blanco]

Simply put it is difficult to disagree with the points of the previous comments. They all scary guys so dont wanna get into a debate

Although definately right about squad depth though. But this effect will be null as the way Barce play its not about individuals but as a one fluid machine... this coming from a Madrid fan hahaha

All in all i still beleive Madrid have a great shot at it, our direct approach and quick movement along with a bit more consistent goal scorer up front and a ever improving Angel mean we have the weapons to attack a Barce side that for the first time have come under a bit of pressure