Post match analysis vs. Barcelona (Pre-season friendly)

Some perspective about our pre-season. I would consider this as the 2nd pre-season match for our actual first team which isn't too bad considering the setbacks from the Euros and what not.  The lads are still getting into their stride and I hope in the next 2 matches, our players reach their intended target for match fitness so I wouldn't be too harsh.

I will say I'm not one for commenting on pre-season matches as they arent major indicators but there have been a few common themes I just can't resist talking about.  I'll highlight a few below.

Positives:

I thought we actually defended quite well. Anderson was a busy bee in midfield and made sure Messi and co know he wasn't going to let them simply have all the joy in the world with the ball at their feet. Scholes played his part too. Who said he can't tackle?!?  Hopefully, Ando keeps this sort of effort as it's something we'll need throughout the season.

My word what a joy it is to see Rio and Vida play together. I know it's only pre-season but their partnership is just perfect.  Despite their age, there's still that sense of stability, cohesion and most importantly, comfort.

The interplay with Kagawa, Valencia and Nani was nice to see too. Will be looking forward to how our players continue to adjust to him.

My last positive has to go to DDG. Lindegaard is going to have to put in some effort to get a shout of being 1st choice. This lad's the real deal and although some of his saves may be described as unorthodox, I don't begrudge him for it as they teach keeping differently over there in Spain. Still cant get over how young he is. Sky's the limit for this boy.

Negatives:

Some of our common themes even from last season were on display (Note: most of these are intertwined):

1. Facing good passing and pressing teams.

    I swear this is the bane of our good play. Simply because the majority of teams we play, we enjoy the majority of possession.  However, when we come up against teams like Barca or who play in a similar style, not having as much possession and getting pressed consistently seems to unsettle the lads and we just never seem to really hit our stride.

2. Movement/Poor ball retention

   This partly ties in with the first point. Not sure what it is but we don't help ourselves with our movement. It's annoying watching us against good pressing teams because although we defend well, we let ourselves down by cheaply giving the ball away.  We work so hard to get the ball back which is hard enough when facing a good passing side.  Then we fuck it all up by giving it right back to them.

Against Barca yesterday, we were familiar with their pressing game but we were too slow to react. The amount of times our player would receive the ball with an oncoming Barca player ready to close them down but still dawdle on the ball was just baffling. You dont have all the time in the world. Find a teammate and get moving. Playing simple pass-and-move football is very effective to getting out of a good press.  I hope it's more out of lack of match sharpness more than out of habit.  Another thing to notice, Barca dont mind if you have the ball if they know they can lead you into blind alleys where you'll likely cede possession.  There were moments where our players were surrounded by 3 or 4 Barca players but wouldn't close us down. They just let us force the issue by being smart and closing off most of our passing lanes. It was less to do with their pressing and more of us not recognizing how to take advantage of the space.  It made me feel as if our poor ball retention was more self-inflicted than their pressing.  What's evident is we also need to do a better job of supporting teammates and quicker.  Too many times when Barca players decided to close some of our players down, we had nowhere to go and support was too slow to get there. This gets to my next point. Tempo.

3. Tempo

   If there's anything that cripples our play on occasion, it's our tempo. If you're ever going to get past the pressing game especially an efficient one, upping the tempo is necessary imo.  Fergie likes to mention how being patient in our play pays dividends. Whilst I agree, it's a completely different story when you're under the kosh versus being in control and trying to break down a 10-man wall behind the ball. Again, we were just too slow at times and it allowed Barca to get at us. If your teammates are providing good support and you let the ball do the work, you can get out of a jam pretty nicely. I certainly felt there were moments yesterday where we could have done such a thing but, our use of the ball was not good enough and we were too sluggish on the ball to take advantage of the opportunity. 

Again this might be due to lack of match sharpness but I am concerned this could arise in the upcoming season.

4. Use of the ball

   I'm of the opinion we like to play hollywood balls a bit too much. Part of this is affected by how effective the opposition's pressing is. From what I've noticed, the more effective it is, the more we hoof the ball. Now yesterday we made an attempt to keep it on the floor.  Despite our good spells, we couldn't quite get at Barca as much as I thought we could and how we used the ball played a factor.  This is why having players such as Cleverley, Kagawa, Nani (on form), Welbeck can't be underestimated. Their ability to keep it simple and make the right pass more often than not is helpful in not only maintaining possession but enables the team to have a bit more time on the ball when the opposition is trying to nip at your heels.

I wouldn't necessarily mark this (use of the ball) down as an outright negative as we can use the ball well but it certainly could be improved. As much talk as there is about how we possess the ball, I question how much we actually value possession with the way we keep the ball.

5. Using Kagawa

   This has been a negative for me ever since his first appearance. One which I'm willing to give the players some leeway as the boy just arrived. However, this doesn't excuse the times Kagawa has been wide open and somehow we fail to pass the ball to him. For whatever reason, our players still seem unsure how to work him out.  There were a few occasions yesterday where he was in a good position, we missed it, gap was closed by Barca and we tried to work it elsewhere.  At this moment, I think Kagawa uses the ball most economically out of anyone in our team bar Scholes.  He rarely gives it away and you get the sense he is likely to create something almost everytime he gets on the ball and turns towards goal.  It's a mystery we didn't get the ball to him more often yesterday and I hope we do it in the future. Guess this is what Phelan alluded to when he mentioned the squad are trying to adapt to his style of play. I've said it before but I think this kid is a gem. His slight body feint when he picked up the ball in the middle of the pitch to go past 2 barca players was just beautiful. Hopefully we use him more because the potential he adds to our link-up play is scary.