Thursday, May 7, 2015
Zlatan Ibrahimovic used to call him 'The Philosopher' but Pep Guardiola looked more like a mad professor in the first half against Barcelona on Wednesday night, frantically signalling to his Bayern Munich players to change the shape of the team after a flurry of early chances.The experiment to play with three at the back lasted just 15 minutes. Gary Lineker called the high pressing tactical suicide and Javier Mascherano said after the game: 'We know that Pep always plays to win whoever the opposition are and they came to press high but sometimes when you do that you take a risk and we know we have players up front who can make a difference.'Barcelona had expected the unexpected from their former coach. Guardiola's 14-trophy reign at the Nou Camp was a tapestry of brilliant tactical innovations but on Wednesday night he won the possession battle but not the match.
He started the match with right back Rafinha playing on the left of his defensive three. He is the quickest player in Bayern's defence and from that position he was closest to Lionel Messi… until Messi moved.
Once Luis Suarez starting running the right channel and Messi switched to the centre there was less point in playing Rafinha out of position.
It's not the first time a manager has used a right-footed player at left back this season to try to cut off Messi's diagonal runs towards goal – it rarely works and again on Wednesday it was like trying to hold back a tidal wave with a couple of sand bags.
