Admitedly I haven't read every post in this thread but i just wondered if anyone had tried deploying busquets as part of a 3 man defence in an attempt to replicate the tactics used against Athletico Madrid a couple of weeks ago. I was thinking a formation something like:
Valdez
-------- Puyol --- Busquets --- Pique --------
Alves ------------------------------------ Maxwell
-------------- Iniesta ------- Xavi ----------------
Messi ----------------------------------- Pedro
---------------------- Bojan -----------------------
With Busquets set as a Ball Playing Defender with his mentality changed to make him more attacking than both Puyol and Pique, and roam from position on so that he drifts out from the defensive line with the ball. Pique/Puyol should also have thier wing play set to 'move into channels' to try and replicate that aspect.
Gonna try and test this later on btw.
---------- Post added at 07:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:40 PM ----------
This didn't work too well tbh, I just played the Spanish Super Cup against Athletic and overall won 6-5 but they 2nd leg(home) i lost 4-2.
I used the first leg to test all kinds of things, I didnt go for more than like 5 mins without changing something significant and eventually got it down to something I though worked preety well.
I had to deal with injurys to Messi and Iniesta so Henry and Toure came in. The basic changes were;
- the two wingers came more central, playing behind Bojan.
- Pique and Puyol moved outwards to Full-Back, thier mentallity was set very defensive and generally they behaved well
-Maxwell/Dani Alves moved up beside Xavi/Toure and were set to defensive wingers.
Analysis;
--The shape at the back with Pique and Puyol wide with Busquets dropping in was achieved and worked quite well when I had possesion however it left me quite susceptible to long balls.
-Most of the long bals played however were either cut out by Busquets or cleaned up by Valdez/Pique/Puyol which I was pleasently suprised with.
-However all 4 of thier goals came from balls over the top which Llorente got to first.
-The 4 goals they did score were the only oppurtunities they had which weren't speculative long range efforts though.
-The front 3 were preety innefective going forward but defended well
-Dani Alves/Maxwell were too willing to get down the line and cross the ball, which wasn't likely to come off considering who was playing upfront.
I am going to try and fix this a little bit, If I can get my players to look long less and for Alves/Maxwell to look to pass inside more then I think this may be able to work against lesser teams. I don't think it will work against teams who play 2 strikers or who have very quick wingers though
.