Kobi
I Know Who You Are
I was watching some videos the other day of Barcelona under Guardiola when Messi was a false nine.
They would build up in a 41212 with Messi in the hole and the front two very wide on either touchline, this makes the pitch big and pressing them very difficult.
When the ball has reached the last third (and the build up has done it's job) the front three (specifically the wingers/wide forwards) would have the freedom to go whereever they want, which was generally much more central and into goalscoring positions.
This is why they would play mobile forwards rather than natural wingers, Eto'o, Villa, Henry etc, they didn't actually require any of the attributes you look for in a wide player, they would never take on a fullback or put in a cross.
Aside from making the build up easy the other benefit of this is as a centre back you basically don't have anyone to mark and then suddenly a striker turns up at the last minute, it's much more difficult.
Also one fullback (Alves) would overlap so you would still have width in the attack while the other (Abidal) would stay back making a back three.
So where am I going with this?
Well it occurred to me that Auba and Laca have the perfect profile for the 'wide players' in that system, you could have Özil floating about in Messi's position and Kolasinac overlapping.
It would actually suit the players we have, not the tiki-taka just the shape and the way it develops from transition to attack, it would be a great way of fitting in both our strikers without sacrificing width when building up.
Of course it almost certainly won't happen but it was just a thought.
Henry talks about it a bit here for anyone interested
They would build up in a 41212 with Messi in the hole and the front two very wide on either touchline, this makes the pitch big and pressing them very difficult.
When the ball has reached the last third (and the build up has done it's job) the front three (specifically the wingers/wide forwards) would have the freedom to go whereever they want, which was generally much more central and into goalscoring positions.
This is why they would play mobile forwards rather than natural wingers, Eto'o, Villa, Henry etc, they didn't actually require any of the attributes you look for in a wide player, they would never take on a fullback or put in a cross.
Aside from making the build up easy the other benefit of this is as a centre back you basically don't have anyone to mark and then suddenly a striker turns up at the last minute, it's much more difficult.
Also one fullback (Alves) would overlap so you would still have width in the attack while the other (Abidal) would stay back making a back three.
So where am I going with this?
Well it occurred to me that Auba and Laca have the perfect profile for the 'wide players' in that system, you could have Özil floating about in Messi's position and Kolasinac overlapping.
It would actually suit the players we have, not the tiki-taka just the shape and the way it develops from transition to attack, it would be a great way of fitting in both our strikers without sacrificing width when building up.
Of course it almost certainly won't happen but it was just a thought.
Henry talks about it a bit here for anyone interested