ricky1985
Established Member
That was their swarm approach to pressing. If it's one player pressing you can use your body to hold them off and then manoeuvre the ball away from them, but, if you've got 2 or even 3 men pressing you at the same time, that becomes impossible. We just didn't have it in us to move further up the pitch and take that tactic away from them. It's one thing pressing like they did in our defensive third, but a different thing entirely to try and do in your own defensive third, as the last 25 minutes showed.asajoseph said:The thing I think that Barca did really well, particularly in the first half, and in comparison to most teams we play, was negate Diaby & Song's strength on the ball. Against most teams, these two have enough strength and skill to hold onto the ball that little bit longer under pressure and pick the best pass rather than the easiest.
Yesterday, Barca did an absolutely fantastic job of closing these two down in particular and disposessing them in situations they'd normally be more comfortable in.