Josep Guardiola - Tactics

Tactics

Under Frank Rijkaard, FC Barcelona were known for a 4–3–3 with plenty of flair with Ronaldinho being the centre point of the attack. Under Guardiola the team has become more disciplined with a greater focus on possession and a disciplined and aggressive pressing style. He often plays a high defensive line with the full backs (particularly Daniel Alves) pushing high up down their respective sides while relying on the passing of Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta to retain possession whilst employing pressing style without the ball. During Samuel Eto's time at Barcelona, Lionel Messi was deployed on the right hand side, however, since his departure Messi has largely played in the centre forward role fulfilling a false nine capacity. During the 2011–12 season Guardiola made increasing use of the 3–4–3 system, especially when facing two attackers. Using Cesc Fàbregas as an attacking midfielder and Javier Mascherano or Sergio Busquets as pivot on the midfield. Johan Cruyff used this system as a basic tactical approach when Guardiola played for Barcelona. Guardiola used this system in a 5–0 win against Villarreal because he was short on defenders, and in a later Champions League game against A.C. Milan, he employed this tactic with most of his players available. "In Barcelona it is understood that you can win a thousand ways. All are valid. All work. There's little more to say," Guardiola wrote in a column for El País in March 2007, when Rijkaard experimented with a three-man backline of his own. "But in Barcelona it is also understood that you can never win and repeat in a way that does not feel right to you—that does not feel right to the directors, coaches, players, friends of the press and the people who go every week to see them."