Chapter 370 Do you have the confidence to suppress Lucio?
There was dead silence on the special plane flying back to Barcelona from Munich.
No one spoke and the atmosphere became quite weird.
The first leg ended with a 2-3 loss away from home, which strictly speaking was not a bad score.
After two away goals, Barcelona is fully capable of making a comeback after returning to their home court.
But everyone is still worried because the team's defensive problems are too serious.
The situation is so serious that it makes people very worried. Can they really beat Bayern Munich at home in the second leg?
Rijkaard, Ten Cate and other members of the coaching staff are also thinking about their own problems. They need to focus on thinking about countermeasures for the second round and at the same time find Bayern Munich's weaknesses and loopholes.
You know, in the first leg, Bayern's core midfielder Ballack was absent.
But in the second round, Ballack will definitely return, which will be a considerable threat to Barcelona's midfield.
…
When the plane rose into the air and was flying smoothly, captain Puyol stood up from his seat, walked to the middle of the cabin, looked around at his teammates, and attracted everyone's attention.
"As usual, everyone let's talk about it, summarize the first round and think about the second round." Puyol said loudly.
After a pause, Puyol said again: "Let me go first."
Still no one spoke, everyone just listened quietly.
"In the first leg, our defense should be held responsible. We shouldn't put the blame on one person. Everyone is responsible. We are a whole and we should shoulder the responsibility together. As the captain, I bear the biggest responsibility."
At the critical moment, Puyol still has the responsibility as captain.
As soon as they said this, other members of the defense, including Oleg, took the initiative to apologize and said they were willing to take responsibility.
Whether it was during the halftime break, in the locker room after the game, or even until now, no one has blamed the team for the goal conceded in the first half. Although everyone knew where the problem lay, there was nothing they could do because the team only had so many players.
Let alone using Oleg, even if Marcos returns to the back line, can he defend against Makaay? The Mexican is not necessarily that stable, right?
Furthermore, if Marcos returns to the back line, who will play in the midfield? Barcelona has tried many ways this season, but Gerard has completely lost confidence and can no longer find the form he had in Valencia. It is difficult for him to meet the team's requirements.
Thiago and Edmilson have been slow to return from injury, and even if they do return, how are they doing? Barcelona has been seriously held back by its defense this season.
And if we dig deeper, it will inevitably involve power struggles among management.
Rosell believes that it was because Laporta used up all his financial resources, even using bank loans, to sign Sudon from Valencia that Barcelona did not have enough financial resources to operate other players.
If the money used to buy Su Dong was used to buy a striker and a defensive midfielder, it would definitely be more than enough.
For example, Ballack was very close to Barcelona last summer.
Laporta believes that the team's current predicament has a lot to do with Rosell, who is in charge of football affairs, because two Brazilian players, Motta and Edmilson, have been absent for a long time due to injuries.
Another point is that the midfielder Barcelona wanted to sign was to make up for Davis' shortcomings. Rosell insisted on signing Deco, but it turned out that Deco was not Davis. Instead, Marcos Senna, who was introduced during the winter break, could better play the role of Davis.
It’s a pity that the Brazilian midfielder can’t play in the Champions League.
It can be said that this is a very troublesome matter. Once a dispute arises, it will be an endless mess.
In the second half of last season, Barcelona's strong revival was due to the important structure of the iron triangle in the midfield. Davis was responsible for large-scale sweeps and pressure, Xavi was responsible for organization and passing, and behind him was Cocu, a high point with excellent defensive ability.
According to the club's organizational ideas at the beginning of the season, Edmilson was to fill Cocu's position, but Gerard has been out of form due to a serious injury, and no one in the team can replace Cocu, and even Davis' vacancy cannot be filled.
It is precisely because of the imbalance in the midfield that Barcelona can rely on its strong offensive power to be unstoppable in the league. However, when it comes to the Champions League, especially the knockout rounds, when it encounters strong opponents like Bayern Munich, the problems are immediately exposed.
Losing three goals in a row at the start may seem accidental, but in fact it was inevitable.
…
"I think we should adopt a more proactive strategy in the second leg, just like we did against Real Madrid."
After many people expressed their opinions, Su Dong also put forward his own ideas.
Since it is difficult to defend, just push out and attack the opponent.
When playing against Real Madrid, Barcelona's most eye-catching tactic was pressing throughout the court.
But as soon as Su Dong finished speaking, someone immediately expressed a different opinion.
"Real Madrid's defense is so bad, but Bayern Munich's defense is very good. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to use the tactics we used against Real Madrid against Bayern. Instead, we may be directly knocked down by a counterattack from the opponent." Deco expressed his concerns.
Many people nodded, expressing their agreement with Deco's point of view.
"The key lies in ourselves. As long as everyone focuses on the game and fights back as soon as they lose the ball, Bayern Munich may play worse than Real Madrid. Their players' technical skills are not as good as Real Madrid's."
At this point, Su Dong added, "In the second half, or in the entire game, we did one thing very badly. We didn't dare to take the ball or pass the ball in the opponent's half. This was related to the fact that we lost the ball at the beginning. But think about it, if we dared to take the ball or pass the ball in the opponent's 30-meter area, could Bayern Munich stop us?"
Looking at Barcelona's current players, not many have actually played in the Champions League knockout stages.
Su Dong and Deco are the only players among these people who have played in the Champions League final.
Ronaldinho has played in the World Cup, but to some extent, the technical and tactical level of the World Cup is not as good as that of the Champions League knockout stage, because the Champions League knockout stage brings together the best football players in the world, and the technical and tactical level is even higher than that of the European Cup.
It was precisely because of the lack of experience that the players began to be afraid of making mistakes after losing the ball at the beginning of the game.
But sometimes, the more you fear making mistakes, the more likely you are to make them.
Barcelona had too much ineffective ball possession, which just shows the players' mentality.
…
Rijkaard did not express any opinion from beginning to end. He and Ten Cate were listening and taking notes carefully.
No one knows what he is thinking.
The only thing that is certain is that he listened carefully to the players' opinions.
This is actually a good tradition in the Barcelona dressing room. For example, when choosing the captain, basically everyone votes for whoever they like, and there are not even any candidates.
However, after returning to Barcelona, when the team started training, Rijkaard consciously wanted to try the high-pressure tactics proposed by Su Dong.
This style of play yielded great results against Real Madrid, but it also had its share of problems, the most important of which was excessive consumption of physical energy.
The reason why they were able to achieve such amazing results against Real Madrid was mainly because Real Madrid's defense was very poor. They were not aggressive in pressing and oppressing, especially the superstars in the frontcourt, whose defense was almost useless.
But even so, Barcelona's full-court pressing is still extremely exhausting.
Bayern Munich is not Real Madrid. Adopting high-pressure tactics against such a team will only consume more energy.
Even whether you can hold on until the end of the game is a question.
…
No one knows what the coaching staff is thinking, but in the La Liga match at the weekend, Rijkaard made a major rotation, and several core players, including Su Dong and Ronaldinho, did not play.
Barcelona finally drew 1-1 with the second-to-last team Numancia away from home.
The team's defense was still worrying, even though Marcos Senna started and played the whole game.
As March begins, the 26th round of La Liga is held in the middle of the week.
Barcelona will face Espanyol at home.
Although it was a derby in the same city, Rijkaard still held back in this game.
In the end, the two teams drew 0-0.
Ronaldinho and Su Dong both played for 65 minutes, but neither of them gave their best.
Everyone knows that Barcelona is now fully focused on the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 next week.
Barcelona have enough of a lead in the league to ensure the team focuses on the Champions League for the time being.
This weekend, the 27th round of La Liga.
Barcelona will challenge Osasuna away.
Sudong came on as a substitute in the second half and scored a goal for Barcelona in the 80th minute.
It was thanks to Su Dong's goal that Barcelona won 1-0 against Osasuna away and got three points.
After two consecutive draws, Barcelona finally won again.
But with the Champions League final approaching, Barcelona has performed poorly in the last three games. Their defense is okay, conceding only one goal in three games, but their offense is not satisfactory, scoring only two goals in three games.
After the game, the German media summed up four tactics to deal with Barcelona.
First, sacrifice a striker to disrupt Barcelona's defense; second, disrupt Xavi and Deco's passes and disrupt Barcelona's midfield organization; third, set up an iron bucket formation in front of the penalty area to prevent Barcelona from entering the penalty area; fourth and most importantly, freeze Su Dong's performance.
The German media's remarks have attracted considerable attention, and the set of playing methods they summarized is indeed effective for Barcelona.
As early as after the Gamper Cup, AC Milan head coach Ancelotti once said that if he met Barcelona again, he would definitely win. After that, many teams in La Liga used this method to deal with Barcelona.
To put it bluntly, it is to use the numerical advantage to curb Barcelona's midfield, and then attack Barcelona's fragile defense through counterattacks.
But facing Bayern Munich, Barcelona's biggest problem is not defense.
But on the offensive.
On the morning after the game against Osasuna, after the recovery training, Rijkaard and Ten Cate left Sudong alone.
They only asked Su Dong one question.
"Are you confident that you can suppress Lucio against Bayern?"
(End of this chapter)
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