Last season Barcelona led by Pep Guardiola swept all before them playing a system that was largely reported as a 4-3-3. In truth though for those that watched Barca often the fluidity of the system left them playing a hybrid 3-1-3-3 more often than not with players moving into and out of space with a rapidity that left opposition players unable to keep track. As such when the time lineup for their recent match with Villarreal was produced analystst and journalists were quick to announce a new era in terms of tactics as Guardiola set his team out from the start in what essentially looked like a 3-1-2-3-1 system. What followed will go down in history as one of the most complete tactical performances of recent days as Barca swept aside a Villarreal side that were fellow Champions League entrants and make them look almost completely ordinary. Does this change though mark a tactical evolution or revolution?

There has been some debate as to whether Guardiola is a genius in terms of system and style with detractors rightly pointing out that Rinus Michaels developed a system of intricate interplay with players comfortably swapping positions in the way that Barca do. They also allude to the scientific advances that Valeriy Lobanovskyi made with his Dinamo Kiev side as he set his side out to press as high up the field as possible so that they could win the ball back and re excert their attacking pressure again in the way that Barca do. While it's true that many aspects of this Barca side have been seen before in my opinion they have never been combined together to such devestating effect. What we are seeing with this Barcelona side is a footballing revolution that has created the single greatest team of my generation.

I don't make that point lightly. I am old enough to remember the Milan of the early 90's coached by Arrigo Sacchi and containing talents such as Gullit and Van Basten. I was around when the original Barca dream team were playing superb attacking football and I even remember the incredible Red Star Belgrade side that seemed set to dominate European football for years before their nation was torn apart so suddenly. This Barcelona side have similarities to each of those sides but they seem to take their football to the next level and as such replicating their style of play seems to have become an obsession to a number of FM players in the last year.

How then can we replicate the new Barca system? Is the FM match engine ready and capable to allow us the freedom to play the 'Barca way'?

The System

Obviously im using Shakhtar to provide my answers but for most it will be relatively self evident which roles each Barca player would fill in this system. The key in replicating the system is to maintain a framework using 4 players that are to hold a relatvely stationary poisition for the match whilst allowing the other 6 players to flow fluidly into space around them recieving the ball before cycling it on again to maintain possession and create goal scoring opportunities.

The above graphic shows the basic shift in shape that we are looking to effect. The four players circled will hold position to give the frame of the team width and depth, the two wingers will be free to 'move into channels' but we are not looking for them to cut inside and crowd the space in the centre. The two wide centrebacks have also been asked to 'hug touchline' so that when we have possession they occupy the wider channels both to provide wide defensive cover and to give an interesting passing option to the players in possession should they find themselves under pressure.

Controlling the Centre

With football as with Chess the key to victory is controlling the centre of the playing area. This is best achieved in football by having more of your players occupying this area than the opposition. As such playing a narrow diamond in midfield is one of the very best options avaliable, of course this action has in the past been met by opposition as people denounced the system for a lack of attacking width. With this new Barca system though we see the combination of the narrow diamond with advanced attacking wingers. This then allows us to have at least one player occupying each of the lines of midfield making it easy both to maitain possession and apply pressure to the ball.

Here you can see our midfield diamond maintaining its basic shape. The opposition is playing a flat four across the centre and the two central players are being drawn in by our AM whilst the wide midfielders are attracted infield to apply pressure to the two wider midfielder in our system. This immediately puts the AI on the backfoot as you are taking away one of their immediate attacking outlets. The close connections between our four players means that even with the pressure being excerted we should be capable of maintaining possession.

Here is a screenshot taken from an earlier save when I first tried this with Barca. As the left winger cuts into the channel with the ball the two parts of our diamond close enough to support are able to fluidly move into position. The player on the tip or AM is free to move through the defensive lines to give a strong passing option whilst the left central midfielder drops in behind Villa taking advantage of the space that the winger has vacated and pulling an AI defender out of the centre.

Keep the ball..

Another aspect of the narrow diamond midfield is that it make it so easy for you to keep the ball. With this system though having an attacking three moving ahead of the diamond you should be able to carve the AI open more or less at will!

Here we have comfortable possession with one of our defenders and as one of the AI players moves to shut the player down as he does so he opens up another passing angle and as the shot above shows the player in possession then has 5 easy passing options thus allowing us to keep possession and shift the angle of attack. As the play develops and passing connections are made each player in the midfield or defence should find themselves in a similar position in terms of passing options.

Here we can clearly see the benefits of the 3-1-2 part of our system as we look to play the ball our from the back. As the play develops and the ball is shifted first to the DM then to one of the MC's the wide defenders spread given the wider passing option and allowing us to move and shift the emphasis of our attack.

Pressure

As I have already discussed above the ability to excert pressure high up the field and win the ball back is one of the most important aspects of the Barcelona system. In FM using this setup we are able to achieve something very similar.

Here the AI is in possession but as you can see instead of sitting off allowing them easy possession far up the field our players are moving up to apply pressure to either force a bad pass or manage a challenge on the ball. It should also be said that this is only the pressure from 5 of our players so we still have another 5 in reserve to either apply a second tier of pressure or to provide deeper defensive cover.

Defensive Issues

I can't really leave the article here without highlighting what many of you will be thinking. A back three leaves you vulnerable to the AI attacking down the wing. There is no doubt this is the case but my counterpoint has always been that attacks in these areas are nowhere near as effective as many believe them to be. You have to remember that as the AI attacks wide one of our centrebacks will shift over with the MC on that side also moving into the wide sector. The DM will drop in alongside the other two centrebacks and at this point even if the ball does come into the box we have the players in place to deal with the threat. It's an unavoidable fact in FM that the perfect defensive setup is unattainable. I have built seemingly perfect defensive systems that can still be undone by a shot from distance or a corner kick.

Here you can see my point in action. As the AI winger threatens up the wing he is met by a defender pulling wide. While this creates a gap in our defensive scheme that could be exploited by the striker our DM is able to drop in and prevent the space becoming as issue.

So there you have it. Once more im not going to go into details on the individual settings I use and im not going to upload this tactic. This is intended rather as an example of what you can achieve within the match enging if you take things one step at a time....


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