Why is this a thing? Why is this even being spoken about? Xavi should be dropped, Spain are boring, they are killing football. Is this some kind of sick joke? The majority of these players are some of the best players of the last 20 years, some of them the best ever and this is being levied at them? The mind truly boggles.
Spain came into this championship with a headache. As I blogged about way back at the start, they have too many midfielders. Xabi Alonso, Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Silva, Fabregas, Mata (remember him?) and Cazorla would most definitely start for 90% of any other teams in world football. Del Bosque picked 3 strikers in his squad, none of whom came into the championships in sparkling form. The natural choice then was to pack the midfield. They have done this barring the two occasions when Torres started against a very poor Ireland and scored two goals and then Negredo was on the pitch for a spell against Portugal (but the less said about that the better).
On the majority of occasions Spain have, to all extents and purposes played an incredibly narrow 4-6-0. Del Bosque has introduced a double pivot of Xabi Alonso and Busquets as a way of ensuring an even greater degree of control in games. This has worked, very well defensively but then Spain have been very good defensively for the best part of 6 years. The old adage that if the opponent doesn't have the ball they can't hurt you. Incredibly, Spain have still not conceded a goal in a knockout tournament since France put 3 past them in the last 16 of World Cup 2006!
In front of the double pivot is the quartet of Xavi, Iniesta, Silva & Fabregas. Six ball playing central midfielders packed into the space where 3 at most would play. This has resulted in Silva and Fabregas taking turns at the 'false' 9 or 'Messi' role. As fantastic as they both are, this isn't their role and it's unfair to ask them to play it.
Xavi has, unbelievably in my opinion, come under some semi serious criticism during these championships and I'll try to explain why.
Xavi has made a career out of keeping possession as can be seen by last nights statistics. He had a quiet game in comparison to usual, only attempting 70 passes but with 67 of them finding target giving him a frighteningly high accuracy rate of 97%. This is made even more telling when it is shown that he only touched the ball 78 times. The level of skill to play this number of passes so accurately with one touch can never be understated.
Obsessed with rondo, the spanish version of piggy in the middle he prides himself on one touch, incisive, intelligent football. During this tournament it has been mooted that perhaps himself and Spain are taking possession football too far and it appears to be tiki taka without any form of penetration. This is partly true, but there are reasons for this.With Barcelona, everything goes though Xavi. He is the fulcrum, the regista. It all channels through him, he dictates the tempo, he orchestrates the choir and is deep enough to see the full picture ahead of him. At any given moment he has 3, 4 sometimes 5 players to hit with a pass. With Spain, he has been playing as a mediapunta, a slightly more advanced position than he is used to. With the lack of midfielde runners and a focal point (not necessarily a target man) Xavi of Spain often receives the ball 20 yards higher up the park and naturally his options are a lot more limited. He now only has one or two options to pass to and therefore opts to play it safe, keep possession and try to reshuffle the deck.
Despite this supposed lack of penetration, Spain have attempted to play 66 through balls at Euro 2012, a massive amount compared to 2nd place Russia with 23. This shows that, to put it bluntly, the bullets are still being loaded but the gun isn't firing as it should.
This could also be down to another difference between Barcelona and Spain. A lack of natural width.
This diagram illustrates how active both Spains full backs were in the semi-final against Portugal. They are both asked to play high up the park to provide some semblance of natural width but only Jordi Alba looks to be comfortable doing this. Alba has had a fantastic tournament as is seen with him completing the third highest passes in the attacking third but for the most part he has been Spains only wide player. Due to Piques injury, Alvaro Arbeloa has played at right back while Sergio Ramos has filled in excellently alongside Gerard Pique at centre half. This again stunts Spain's width as Arbeloa is nowhere near as attack minded as Ramos. It will be interesting to see how Alba and Dani Alves fare as Barcelona's full backs next year if as expected if he makes the move from Valencia once the championships are finished.
As mentioned, it's been obvious throughout this tournament that Spain's primary focus has been retaining possession. This doesn't equate to negative or boring football. They simply wait for their chance, recycling possession and effectively tiring the opponents out. It was remarked last night that Spain should have attacked Portugal a lot earlier rather than waiting till extra time. I don't buy into this. You attack these teams and they will sit in and counter attack. Would you want Nani, Ronaldo and Joao Moutinho attacking you in the 20th minute or the 120th minute? The answer is obvious. Spain attacked freely and openly at the precise moment they realised Portugal had ran out of steam. The introduction of players such as Pedro, Jesus Navas and Torres at late stages of games are pre mediated intelligent moves, they are not Plan B's or last throws of dices. Navas and Pedro provide direct play from the flanks and Torres, playing on the last shoulder of the defender as he has always done, ensures the opposition have an extra layer of attack to worry about at such a decisive moment in the game. Bringing on these players isn't seen as a sign of weakness or abandoning their principles. It's another part of a masterplan.
The most crucial part of Spains possession masterplan is Sergio Busquets. To suggest he does the dirty work which lets the artists perform their magic is a massive, massive disservice. He is an artist in his own right. He has created a brand new position in football and made it his own. A frightening rise from Barcelona B football 4 years ago to where he is now. He is the perfect mixture of other fantastic players such as Khedira and De Rossi with the intelligence and anticipation of Claude Makelele. The self styled master of 'half touch football' he never stops moving, constantly prodding and cajoling those around him. 77 passes, 84 touches of the ball against Portugal. The most abnormal thing about these statistics is how normal they seem. They have changed the way we analyse, watch and appreciate football forever. When Alba rampages forward, he steps back into defence and mops up. He is the security blanket, the safety net.
If it is a disservice to Busquets to describe him as doing the dirty work to allow the artists to roam, it is nothing compared to talking about Picasso and Andres Iniesta in the same sentence. In Picasso's dreams!
As Graham Hunter described him in his excellent book, Barca : The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, he is the solutions man. The man tasked more often than not with not only picking the lock, but swinging it off it's hinges. He is probably still one of the most under rated players in world football. I don't mean no-one rates him, I mean very few rate him as high as he deserves. For me he is better than Xavi and will step up yet another level once pelopo retires. He is the most complete footballer I have ever seen, always 3 steps ahead of the game and with the most phenomenal technical abilities. Just look at the technique required to score the World Cup winning goal. At that stage of the game, to get himself in that position took superhuman effort, never mind the consumate skill and ease with which he dispatched his shot past Stekelenburg.
A criticism could be levied that he always seems to encounter injury problems and when fit, doesn't perhaps score as many goals as he should. I prefer to look at the positives and consider it a sheer delight to even have the pleasure to see him at work. In this tournament he has been at his incisive best, the flood of central midfielders has taken the focus off him and allowed him to shine in a slightly more advanced position than he is used to at club level.
Despite starting this article determined to disprove the Boring Boring Spain theory I've decided throughout the article that people can say what the like. If the worst thing they can say about this team who stand on the brink of making history is that they are boring, then they are certainly doing something right.
Viva España
Spain came into this championship with a headache. As I blogged about way back at the start, they have too many midfielders. Xabi Alonso, Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Silva, Fabregas, Mata (remember him?) and Cazorla would most definitely start for 90% of any other teams in world football. Del Bosque picked 3 strikers in his squad, none of whom came into the championships in sparkling form. The natural choice then was to pack the midfield. They have done this barring the two occasions when Torres started against a very poor Ireland and scored two goals and then Negredo was on the pitch for a spell against Portugal (but the less said about that the better).
On the majority of occasions Spain have, to all extents and purposes played an incredibly narrow 4-6-0. Del Bosque has introduced a double pivot of Xabi Alonso and Busquets as a way of ensuring an even greater degree of control in games. This has worked, very well defensively but then Spain have been very good defensively for the best part of 6 years. The old adage that if the opponent doesn't have the ball they can't hurt you. Incredibly, Spain have still not conceded a goal in a knockout tournament since France put 3 past them in the last 16 of World Cup 2006!
In front of the double pivot is the quartet of Xavi, Iniesta, Silva & Fabregas. Six ball playing central midfielders packed into the space where 3 at most would play. This has resulted in Silva and Fabregas taking turns at the 'false' 9 or 'Messi' role. As fantastic as they both are, this isn't their role and it's unfair to ask them to play it.
Xavi has, unbelievably in my opinion, come under some semi serious criticism during these championships and I'll try to explain why.
Xavi has made a career out of keeping possession as can be seen by last nights statistics. He had a quiet game in comparison to usual, only attempting 70 passes but with 67 of them finding target giving him a frighteningly high accuracy rate of 97%. This is made even more telling when it is shown that he only touched the ball 78 times. The level of skill to play this number of passes so accurately with one touch can never be understated.
Obsessed with rondo, the spanish version of piggy in the middle he prides himself on one touch, incisive, intelligent football. During this tournament it has been mooted that perhaps himself and Spain are taking possession football too far and it appears to be tiki taka without any form of penetration. This is partly true, but there are reasons for this.With Barcelona, everything goes though Xavi. He is the fulcrum, the regista. It all channels through him, he dictates the tempo, he orchestrates the choir and is deep enough to see the full picture ahead of him. At any given moment he has 3, 4 sometimes 5 players to hit with a pass. With Spain, he has been playing as a mediapunta, a slightly more advanced position than he is used to. With the lack of midfielde runners and a focal point (not necessarily a target man) Xavi of Spain often receives the ball 20 yards higher up the park and naturally his options are a lot more limited. He now only has one or two options to pass to and therefore opts to play it safe, keep possession and try to reshuffle the deck.
Despite this supposed lack of penetration, Spain have attempted to play 66 through balls at Euro 2012, a massive amount compared to 2nd place Russia with 23. This shows that, to put it bluntly, the bullets are still being loaded but the gun isn't firing as it should.
This could also be down to another difference between Barcelona and Spain. A lack of natural width.
This diagram illustrates how active both Spains full backs were in the semi-final against Portugal. They are both asked to play high up the park to provide some semblance of natural width but only Jordi Alba looks to be comfortable doing this. Alba has had a fantastic tournament as is seen with him completing the third highest passes in the attacking third but for the most part he has been Spains only wide player. Due to Piques injury, Alvaro Arbeloa has played at right back while Sergio Ramos has filled in excellently alongside Gerard Pique at centre half. This again stunts Spain's width as Arbeloa is nowhere near as attack minded as Ramos. It will be interesting to see how Alba and Dani Alves fare as Barcelona's full backs next year if as expected if he makes the move from Valencia once the championships are finished.
As mentioned, it's been obvious throughout this tournament that Spain's primary focus has been retaining possession. This doesn't equate to negative or boring football. They simply wait for their chance, recycling possession and effectively tiring the opponents out. It was remarked last night that Spain should have attacked Portugal a lot earlier rather than waiting till extra time. I don't buy into this. You attack these teams and they will sit in and counter attack. Would you want Nani, Ronaldo and Joao Moutinho attacking you in the 20th minute or the 120th minute? The answer is obvious. Spain attacked freely and openly at the precise moment they realised Portugal had ran out of steam. The introduction of players such as Pedro, Jesus Navas and Torres at late stages of games are pre mediated intelligent moves, they are not Plan B's or last throws of dices. Navas and Pedro provide direct play from the flanks and Torres, playing on the last shoulder of the defender as he has always done, ensures the opposition have an extra layer of attack to worry about at such a decisive moment in the game. Bringing on these players isn't seen as a sign of weakness or abandoning their principles. It's another part of a masterplan.
The most crucial part of Spains possession masterplan is Sergio Busquets. To suggest he does the dirty work which lets the artists perform their magic is a massive, massive disservice. He is an artist in his own right. He has created a brand new position in football and made it his own. A frightening rise from Barcelona B football 4 years ago to where he is now. He is the perfect mixture of other fantastic players such as Khedira and De Rossi with the intelligence and anticipation of Claude Makelele. The self styled master of 'half touch football' he never stops moving, constantly prodding and cajoling those around him. 77 passes, 84 touches of the ball against Portugal. The most abnormal thing about these statistics is how normal they seem. They have changed the way we analyse, watch and appreciate football forever. When Alba rampages forward, he steps back into defence and mops up. He is the security blanket, the safety net.
If it is a disservice to Busquets to describe him as doing the dirty work to allow the artists to roam, it is nothing compared to talking about Picasso and Andres Iniesta in the same sentence. In Picasso's dreams!
As Graham Hunter described him in his excellent book, Barca : The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, he is the solutions man. The man tasked more often than not with not only picking the lock, but swinging it off it's hinges. He is probably still one of the most under rated players in world football. I don't mean no-one rates him, I mean very few rate him as high as he deserves. For me he is better than Xavi and will step up yet another level once pelopo retires. He is the most complete footballer I have ever seen, always 3 steps ahead of the game and with the most phenomenal technical abilities. Just look at the technique required to score the World Cup winning goal. At that stage of the game, to get himself in that position took superhuman effort, never mind the consumate skill and ease with which he dispatched his shot past Stekelenburg.
A criticism could be levied that he always seems to encounter injury problems and when fit, doesn't perhaps score as many goals as he should. I prefer to look at the positives and consider it a sheer delight to even have the pleasure to see him at work. In this tournament he has been at his incisive best, the flood of central midfielders has taken the focus off him and allowed him to shine in a slightly more advanced position than he is used to at club level.
Despite starting this article determined to disprove the Boring Boring Spain theory I've decided throughout the article that people can say what the like. If the worst thing they can say about this team who stand on the brink of making history is that they are boring, then they are certainly doing something right.
Viva España
