You have repeated the idea of LVG principles too much that I want to ask what are these really ? Are you considering the ability to pass sideways and backwards are principles that we need a world class manager to teach a group of professional footballers how to do ? Really ?
The problem is you're putting both LVG and Pep in one basket, or considering LVG had the principles of Barce current style. The fact is Pep play style is far, far away from the terrible ideas of LVG mind and his philosophy is miles ahead of anything LVG can dream of.
No, I am not. I Exactly know the difference between the two. And If you read closely i have mentioned about improvisation of Lvg style. Lvg was a double edged sword himself because he cut his own brilliant ideas with the rigid mechanical Style which was brainless at times because of being rigid but also had world class ideas and ability at the same time in his philosophy
Pep's made it more fluid and improvised on the ideas of lvg and just improved what was missing from the incomplete Lvg philosophy and made its more complete.The basic difference between the two is fluidity and penetration and better pressing off the ball. But The Core of the Philosophies remains exactly the same. Pep and barcelona bettered it via the micro analysis of Principles of attacking and defending and improvisation of what was missing. [/QUOTE]
Barca isn't rotating aimlessly from side to side just waiting for a chance to appear. They know exactly where to pass and where and when to find their teammates and when the killer pass should be made. They're carrying the possession to the final third of the pitch and pushing any team back. Passing between CBs is only done to build up the attack not keep passing backwards and sideways the whole 90 mins as what we were doing. They are using the possession to attack.
LVG was using the possession to defend. He's actually a highly defensive manager but in a shiny new way. His aim of keeping the ball to prevent the opponent of taking it, not to build the attack or anything like you're saying. Doing thousands of back passes and sideways are hardly considered a build up for the attack. We were passing the ball aimlessly without a clue to how to do anything with it. Are you seriously considering this a build up and good principles of football ? We were controlling the ball to decrease the number of attacks on our defense not to attack like what Pep does. How you consider LVG has been putting principles for the Barca style here is out of mind. Barca themselves will be ashamed of such negative possession that he was applying here. If we need a tool class manager to teach players how to pass backwards then I'm well suited for the manager position then.
If you Look at 5 Principles of Attacking and Defending and Micro analyze them ,Which are penetration, support/depth, mobility, width and creativity/improvisation
Lvg's style lacked the penetration which is achived by running beyond the defensive midfeilders in space with the ball and finding players with a simple pass who are running beyond or are positionally beyond the def midfeilders of the opposition through the centre and in wide areas the penetration is achived via running beyond the full backs or cutting inside and finding players there with a simple pass. And for that you need mobility in the attacking midfeild which he restricted and forced the midfeilders to be positionally safe and not commit in attack through the middle. Pep and barcelona simply fixed that wrong piece in the philosophy. While Support/ Depth , Width, and Creativity/Improvization and Symetrical Passing in bal circlulation is still the the same
The 5 Defensive Principles are delay, depth, balance, concentration and composure/discipline/patience.
When you press the on rushing source of creativity in the middle and wide areas who is on the ball and on the support of that player You delay the oppositions pace of attack and force them to either loose the ball or pass it sideways and when you press wide areas too you force them to loose the ball or pass it backwards.
LVG passed it backwards and sidewards without any pressure on the ball and when the space opened up for penentration the right pass or right run never arrived through the centre to attack and achive penetration In Posession. Instead You should pass sideways and backwards when there is pressure on the ball and danger of loosing Posession ideally and pick the right pass to achive penetration while going forward.
While Out of Posession Lvg Never Allowed the MIdfeilders to press high In opposition half but restricted them Positionally to safe back line . Pep and Barcelona changed that Wrong piece in the philosophy and allowed the players to press high to recover the ball by closing the space for creative players. Depth can be controlled an alterd too depending the dominance in Posession.
The Ball circulation symetry remained the same. So its always rotated side to side quickly where the maximum space is available.
Posession can be used for both attacking and defending with the ball But without compromising these 5 principles of attack and defense.
So when you Pass vertically to achive penetration the opposite team is always pressing high to win it back and if you lack the ability to create or improvise you loose the ball and give the Posession to them who then keep it and penetrate when the opportunity arrives with the right pass.
Lvg did nothing for the team. In fact he destroyed it. The principles you're talking about has set us back more and more as the time passes under him and the ending of his regime was a disaster in how boring and aimless we were playing in all our games.
I won't even need to say he was the inventor of using Fellaini as a striker and playing long balls for him and he was the first one that puts this trend here so he himself ignored his claimed principles you're talking about.
Lvg Built a good platform Like he Did with Bayern Munich But some of the pieces were missing which Mourinho did improve by buying the right players but we still needed players to improve the attacking principles of Width and creativity/ Improvization in wide areas.
Lvg's record against the top 5 teams in epl was fabolous but he struggled against smaller teams . Last season we faced big teams in first months and last months of the season and liv in january and our record against top 5 teams was very bad compared to lvg's.
Fellani was just a Plan B when all his plans failed.
Today's team selection and performance proved that, It was unbalanced.
We want to play direct and fast attacking football. If we want a manager who teaches us how to control the ball I would have taken Pep but saying LVG was playing possession and put great principles here is a disgrace to Pep, Barca and possession style, so please stop with this trend as you're giving him what he doesn't deserve.
We Should Still Play a Mix Of Posession based football( But with Direct attacking dynamics few times ) in posession to achive that penetraion required In epl Which drops too deep at home and dont allow penetration. Throwing Lvg's Platform wil be counter productive in europe on longer term basis . Because that's the mordern football now and that tactical understanding to top european teams is very good and the money is used to build the teams for a complete philosophy in all the big teams.
Finally regarding the dominant, the fact is Barca aren't even the same dominant team as they were in the period of 2009-2012 and I can see them declining heavily after the MSN because most of their other squad are mediocre or players past it but the MSN are covering the cracks pretty nicely just as what SAF was doing in his later years with us, and yeas the dominant teams will decline eventually.
Barcelona Has a midfeild problem who cant recover the ball back against better players But it can be solved with the right players and i belive they will sort it out . But they are still a formidable attack and have the ability to out score opponents.
There was once in a time a great team completely dominating Europe called AC Milan and they were the target each club was aspiring to be like them. The same club has passed through a total collapse after, and now starting to try and begin a new era. It's a cycle. Madrid before 2013 final has been out of any CL final for +12 years then they reach 3 CL finals in 4 years. Teams took cycles of dominating and declining and if you believe putting some principles here and there will make Madrid and Barce keep winning CLs continuously then sorry you're terribly wrong. Madrid, Barca and Bayern have passed through their patchy years then enjoyed success later on. When this generation ends and another set of players arrive they will pass through another patchy period and so on.
That was a time when the money was not being spent to achive and build a super strong team every year. This is a new era. The Buying strength of teams can ensure they always remain on a very high level at all times and the Rivalry of clubs have taken the game to new level.
Chelsea was the last reactive counter attacking team to win the Ucl back then and inter was in 2010. Since then All 3 teams who have won the Ucl Play Proactive Posession based football and are dominant forces. Its not just because of the players but also the playing philosophy a huge factor in it. The platform that lvg Built and Heynecks and pep took forward at bayern made them the european force too. So this decade only 1 team won the ucl who played reactive counter attacking football.
Lvg Built the same Platform at united, Mourinho Improvised it last season and played Proactive Posession Football for majority of the season apart from Last one and half month and 1st month. We must not Ditch Basic Lvg Proactive Posession philosophy at all but Improvise on it in posession and find ways to achive more penetration Yet Playing on Posession.
Symetrical Side to Side ball circulation is just for finding more space and makes the game beautiful which is not a must but when there is lack of space A simple switch of sides should not be neglected which the likes of Pogba needs to be learning.
Football has been always like that it's going to change. The team who keeps winning for its history without a decline, this team doesn't exist.
No team can win all the time , But philosophies do win in longer time frame. We have to adapt to it since we are back in europe now.
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