8. Change the Question

Marti Pernanau 'Just when Jose Mourinho thought he had the answers, Pep Guardiola changed the questions'.

 10/12/2011 Real Madrid 1 FC Barcelona 3

Barcelona went to Santiago Bernabeu by not losing there in their previous 3 years and 5 games. But this time Real Madrid were 3 points clear and a game in hand. The pressure was definatley on Barcelona and Guardiola, people were also wondering if he goes with 3 or 4 man defence against Madrid, but the outcome was somewhere between it, as you can see here on this picture whcih shows the average position of Barcelona players during the game.

Barcelona still started the game with 433 formation. Valdes - Alves Pique Puyol Abidal - Busquets Xavi Cesc - Messi Alexis Iniesta

Barcelona conceded a goal in the first minute and after about 30 minutes, they changed their formation. It was something between of 3 and 4 man defence because Busquets played like a false defender, just like Messi as False 9. He switched very intelligently his positions between the defence and midfield.

When Barcelona needed to defend, he droped between the defence and made it a 4man defence, leaing Dani Alves furter forward.

He could also play just ahead of the back 3 and mark Benzema here, leaing Pique as the sweeper.

Here you can see that he plays in midfield and Dani Alves is up there, with Puyol covering his space, while Busquets plays in midfield.

Also check out the longer video analysis that I've made previously about this game.

Real Madrid Analysis