Jonathan Wilson
Jonathan Wilson's Articles (Bot)
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2010
- Messages
- 695
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
There’s nothing particularly radical about how Barça play these days, but that doesn’t make them any easier to stop
It’s a question that opponents have been asking since the four-year-old Lionel Messi first wandered on to a dusty pitch in the Rosário suburb of Grandoli, nudged the ball in front of him and set off on a slaloming gambeta that took him past three players. How do you stop him? Before the semi-final Pep Guardiola, who perhaps knows his game as well as anybody, admitted that you just couldn’t. As Messi demonstrated against Athletic Bilbao in last Saturday’s Copa del Rey final, when he’s in the sort of form he is in at the moment, even surrounding him with three players and placing another three between him and the goal isn’t enough. So what do Juventus do?
Messi may be a huge problem, but the biggest problem is that he is far from the only problem. Devote too much time to him and Luis Suárez and Neymar will run free. It may be some consolation to Juve that the front three converted 74% of all Barça’s league goals this season – an even more extraordinary record when you consider that Suárez was banned until the end of October – but that says less about Barça’s reliance on their front three than about the sheer volume of goals they’ve scored.
Related: Juventus plan to keep it real against Barcelona in Champions League final
Related: Barcelona’s Luis Enrique says he is relaxed before Champions League final
Continue reading...
More...
It’s a question that opponents have been asking since the four-year-old Lionel Messi first wandered on to a dusty pitch in the Rosário suburb of Grandoli, nudged the ball in front of him and set off on a slaloming gambeta that took him past three players. How do you stop him? Before the semi-final Pep Guardiola, who perhaps knows his game as well as anybody, admitted that you just couldn’t. As Messi demonstrated against Athletic Bilbao in last Saturday’s Copa del Rey final, when he’s in the sort of form he is in at the moment, even surrounding him with three players and placing another three between him and the goal isn’t enough. So what do Juventus do?
Messi may be a huge problem, but the biggest problem is that he is far from the only problem. Devote too much time to him and Luis Suárez and Neymar will run free. It may be some consolation to Juve that the front three converted 74% of all Barça’s league goals this season – an even more extraordinary record when you consider that Suárez was banned until the end of October – but that says less about Barça’s reliance on their front three than about the sheer volume of goals they’ve scored.
Related: Juventus plan to keep it real against Barcelona in Champions League final
Related: Barcelona’s Luis Enrique says he is relaxed before Champions League final
Continue reading...
More...