El Pivote (The Pivot) is a totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa, a fully licensed coach in UK, about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

El Pivote is taking a look at the transfers that may or may not occur this summer, the value of stats and science versus an eye for talent and overall what history can and should tell Zubizarreta about players joining Barcelona.

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Tonight’s game against Levante UD can be labelled amongst the worst played by FC Barcelona during this season. It’s not because the team was bombarded with constant attacks by Levante, because they were not; Levante barely had a shot on target, and their time in the Barça half was minimal. It was a bad, or at best a mediocre game because the quality that usually defines our play was missing. The number of misplaced or inaccurate passes was higher than usual, and the starting frontline lacked any effectiveness.

However, the good news is that Bayern Munich wasted a plane ticket by sending a scout to observe the game. He returns to Munich bamboozled by what to report, since Barça gave up nothing of note other than that Abidal’s class is eternal, and that Fàbregas and Alexis play well when they are partners. More after the jump.

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Ever since Tito Vilanova was appointed as FC Barcelona’s new coach, the team has broken many records, scored tons of goals, and played some beautiful football. Perhaps not as breathtaking as some of the best of the 2010/11-Barça, but still, beautiful. However, it hasn’t all been all smooth, as Barça’s defensive problems have come to the point where the team has managed to keep a clean sheet only 7 times in La Liga. How have we come to this?

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Prior to Wednesday’s Champions League clash against FC Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain F.C. had given their supporters plenty of reason to believe that the big-eared Champions League trophy was within striking distance. However, Barça limped their way into a sixth consecutive Champions League semifinal (3-3 on away goals) despite the strong counterattacking performance of PSG. While this defeat is likely to prove a valuable learning experience for them in the future, for Barça, the match threw into sharp relief the pragmatic (albeit slightly bitter) reality of imbalances that exist in the team, as PSG clearly succeeded in disrupting the blaugrana passing game and exposed the limitations of an increasingly fragile Barcelona defense.

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Barça is often called a “one-man-team”. And the one man in the team is naturally Leo Messi. Now with Messi out due to an injury, Barça is more or less forced to look for other options, and the truthfulness of the term “one-man-team” should be revealed. However, I am not entirely convinced that this is an accurate term to describe Barça at all.

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El Pivote (The Pivot) is a totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

El Pivote is back with a bang, taking issue with a renowned Spanish football expert and adding flesh to the bone of the possession conundrum.

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On Sunday, against Rayo Vallecano, Dani Alves flaunted his new and rather flamboyant hairstyle. The Brazilian right back admitted that the shorter, faded-white hairdo was the result of losing a bet (surely something to do with Barcelona’s historic remuntada against AC Milan!). Yet, this wasn’t the most striking anomaly of the day. In Xavi’s absence, Barcelona looked to be a distinctively different side; just as effective but with considerable variation in their style of play. A closer look at the 3-1 win (with two of Barcelona’s goals resulting from well-executed counter attacks), reveals that quick transition between the lines replaced the cautious and meticulous build up from the back that culés are accustomed to. While this new style may be temporary, it is a sign that Barcelona is willing to reinvent itself.

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Barcelona smashes Milan

Apologies, apologies and a thousand more apologies. In the conclusion of the last match report after the fiasco in Milan, I lamented the end of Barcelona’s football empire. I have never been so thrilled to be wrong.

There were more than ninety eight thousand pairs of fingers crossed in the Camp Nou tonight as Barça took to the field. Turning around a two nil deficit had never been done in the history of the Champions League knock out stages and Jordi Roura was praying his troops would break tradition. Instead they smashed it.

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Barcelona have a tricky balance to strike in the second leg against Milan tonight: they must be offensive enough to make up a two-goal deficit against a disciplined Milan defense, but secure enough at the back to avoid conceding a single goal. It’s impossible to predict Barça’s starting lineup, but a look back at last year’s similar ties might offer one possible blueprint.

Barcelona played both the second legs against Milan and Chelsea last year at the Camp Nou, and both times needed to attack after being held scoreless in the first leg. Against Milan, Pep lined up Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Mascherano, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, and Cuenca. Against Chelsea, Pep started Alexis instead of Alves. The common theme in both: three central defenders, three midfielders, four forwards (two central, two wingers).

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Culés have endured what is arguably their most horrible spell since FC Barcelona was infamously subjected to the indignity of performing a pasillo (guard of honour) for Real Madrid in the latter days of Rijkaard’s reign at the Camp Nou. Barcelona lost two matches to Real Madrid in the space of a week, and the League match saw the extended suspension of Victor Valdes for uttering a mouthful to the match referee after the game. The team also trails AC Milan by two goals in their Champions League fixture. With this in mind, the Barcelona’s technical bench picked a much weakened side for the match against Deportivo. It is thus a blessing that the match preceding the Champions League encounter with AC Milan was with the team at the bottom of the League table.

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Mundo Deportivo has published an article on its website in which some of the problems of FC Barcelona are highlighted with possible solutions.

1. Problem: Messi is caged and Ronaldo has too many one on one chances. When Messi was far away from the penalty area, both AC Milan and Real Madrid placed many players around the attacking midfielder position. That is why Messi always had to deal with three or four defenders. Ronaldo, on the other hand, was allowed to play his preferred game. He had 50 meters of space to run into and only one defender to beat.

Solution: More movement in attack and help in defence. If Messi is being covered by three defenders, then there are two players who are unmarked. If Barça’s players are moving well, then this should be an advantage. Regarding Ronaldo, reviewing old videos will do some good. In the past, if he escaped from Alves or Puyol, then Piqué was there to help.

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After the win over Sevilla on Saturday, Jordi Roura explained, “At half-time, I discussed the tactical changes with Tito. We asked the players to stay calm, not to hurry.” Though Tito has presumably been in contact with the coaching staff during each game in 2013, Roura’s comment indicates a new degree of urgency and involvement – whoever actually has the final say on in-game decisions, Saturday’s substitutions were unmistakably Vilanovan in nature.

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11 – 11 games consecutively without a clean sheet. With the multitude of positive “number of the day” and “stat of the day” over the last years, the time has come for a genuinely negative one.  This is the worst consecutive goals conceded run since the 1998/1999 season.

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El Pivote (The Pivot) is a totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

Back from its winter break, El Pivote will focus on what Tito Vilanova and Jordi Roura should be concentrating on when it comes to team affairs in order to bring important trophies back to Catalunya at the end of this season.

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Barcelona increased their lead at the top of La Liga with an emphatic 6-1 home win over Luis Garcia’s Getafe, in a match that was literally one way traffic from beginning to end, with six different players scoring the goals.

Read the ratings for this game after the jump!

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While most cules are busy arguing over whether it should be Alexis or Villa in the starting eleven, a much more important change is underway: Lionel Messi is playing further and further away from the opposing team’s goal, dropping back to the center circle to distribute play from the midfield. No longer playing in the space between the opposing team’s defensive and midfield lines, as a so called “false 9”, Messi can now be considered a midfielder. A goal-scoring midfielder, an attacking midfielder, but a midfielder nonetheless! Especially noticeable during the 1-1 draw in Mestalla, the little Argentine suffers when he doesn’t get enough touches on the ball, disappearing for long spells of the game. This lack of participation was most worrisome during the beginning of his career, when he played as a right winger. However, these concerns, which had pretty much vanished entirely, have recently started to resurface because of the enormous expectations and what he is capable of. Messi’s new positioning on the pitch raises important questions over where he is most effective. Does he play better as a right winger, creating deadly one-twos with Alves, going on unstoppable diagonal runs when cutting inwards towards goal? Or is he better as a false 9, a goal-scoring machine unprecedented in the modern game, as Guardiola had envisioned? What will this newest reincarnation of Messi, what I call Messi 3.0, mean for the blaugranes?

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This image maps the frequent of possession based on areas of FC Barcelona versus Real madrid.  The final possession statistic at the end of the game was 62% from 664 passes, but what we see from the map is the areas in which the ball was held most, based upon the darker red color.

Image Credit: fcbarcelona.es

Three clear storylines have emerged in the aftermath of the most recent Clásico:

•  RAPHAËL VARANE!
• Wasteful Barça
• A surprisingly end-to-end affair replete with heroic defending

There is a fourth, perhaps limited by its tactical scope, but it deserves mentioning: Real Madrid employing a 4-2-4.

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As FC Barcelona prepares to take on Malaga CF for the third time in less than two weeks, here are the things to keep in mind as we get ready to watch the game:

1- Malaga is and has been one of the strongest sides in Spain, and in Europe, judging by their Champions League group stage performance this season.

2- Malaga was dangerous in both games so far, including the first of these three matches that they lost 1-3 at home.

3- And as always, it’s Barça’s level that will decide this game.

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El Pivote (The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona.  From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana.  We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

This week on El Pivote, we will assess the tiny dip in form since the fantastic victory at Malaga 10 days ago, and look ahead to the trip back to Andalusia followed by the La Liga visit of Osasuna.

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El Pivote (The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

El Pivote is back with a bang to fully discuss the controversial decision from Víctor Valdés to announce that he will not be renewing his contract at the club past 2014.

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Málaga CF can be described as having the least straightforward journey thus far as one of the game’s nouveau riche financial powers. Officially acquired in June 2010 by a member of the Qatari royal family, all seemed well when money was spent both on transfers and wages to attract promising talents like Santi Cazorla as well as veterans including Ruud van Nistelrooy and Argentine Martín Dimichelis. Then highly rated Director of Football Fernando Hierro left in a cloud of mystery and speculation. Then rumors began around failure to pay tax authorities as well as their football players’ wage packets. Reports even emerged questioning the legitimacy of the sale, with stories of charlatans and crooks posing as royalty to defraud the club. Come the summer of 2012 and things really looked like they were imploding. Money appeared frozen, the owner AWOL, and players wanted gone and several did leave, most notably the jewel purchase
thus far Cazorla.

This season however had gone quite well under the steady and reliable stewardship of Manuel Pellegrini, with the team qualifying 1st in its Champions League group in a debut year and its league position remained solid. Sunshine and roses were back, right? Not quite. UEFA first withheld money due to the club then dropped the bomb right before Christmas that Málaga was banned from UEFA competition next year as a result of those outstanding payments mentioned above, the club was fined, and given a 31 March 2013 deadline to pay outstanding debts or face further years added to the ban.

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El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

El Pivote returns for the new year with a discussion about expectations for the second half of the season and we comment on a few players, some of which is fallout from Monday’s Ballon d’Or awards.

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El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

Here is the second instalment of El Pivote’s Christmas Holiday report cards!  The first instalment can be found here.

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El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona.  From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is Blaugrana   We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

As millions of young Barcelona fans around the world will be bringing home their report cards from school this week, El Pivote will attempt to give the players their respective grades as well.

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With the startling news that FC Barcelona head coach Tito Vilanova will be out of action for at least six weeks as he battles a tumor relapse, the directives at the club decided late Wednesday that, like Vilanova post Guardiola, assistant coach Jordi Roura and his staff will be the ones to shoulder the load as Vilanova undergoes surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. While all of us at totalBarça are deeply saddened by this news, we understand the obligation to our readers to answer the question, “Who exactly is Jordi Roura and what qualities can he bring to the table?”

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On a triumphant evening for the city of Barcelona, the number of consecutive defeats for Atlético Madrid at the Camp Nou extended to seven.  And while it wasn’t at the level of humiliation as some of the spankings in recent memory, a 4-1 victory this evening leaps FC Barcelona 9 points ahead of the Mattress-Makers.  A 2-2 draw earlier in Madrid, inspiring the fans of the Camp Nou to sing “We love you, Mourinho stay”, has widened the gap from Real Madrid to 13.  The match started shakily enough but the spirited response to going behind was simply too much for our opponents.

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El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona.  From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana.  We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

We return this week* with more discussion on Messi’s dominant role in the team and also whether or not his brilliance is somewhat overshadowing a few factors that Vilanova still needs to work on. totalBarça looks to redress the balance.

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Tito’s luck ran out tonight as things did not go as planned at the Camp Nou. Vilanova had the luxury of guaranteed top spot in the group and tinkered with the lineup, eager to blood youngsters he felt deserved a shot at the big time. Messi started on the bench even though he was only a single goal adrift of Gerd Müller’s record of 85 goals in a calendar year.

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