Quotes About Tactics

Pep had analysed Real Madrid in detail and, an hour and a half before the game, he got Messi, Xavi and Iniesta together: 'You three against Lass and Gago have got the game. If you do it right, three against two, we've beaten them.' Lass and Gago were going to find a third man to defend, Messi would position himself as a false striker in between the centre backs and those two.

Jerome Boateng spoke pre-season after the World Cup in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and described how Guardiola told him in every training session exactly what he had to do in different defensive situations.

He'd apply his three basic rules, none of which related to what people know as tiki-taka: they were, rather, intense attack, quick pressure when the ball is lost and having one more player in the midfield than your opponents.

where his side could gain the upper hand in two v ones; endlessly replaying the key battles.

We have to be able to dominate the game, and make sure that we aren't dominated ourselves.

He said that if you pass the ball well, you receive it well and have good control; then you have far more possibilities.

Superiority in midfield, as predicted by Pep, was the key to the game.

When we have the ball, we can't lose it. And when that happens, run and get it back. That is it, basically.' The squad, the group, was seduced. Not for the last time; far from it. Upon leaving the room, Xavi commented to a team-mate that everything that they had needed to know was there in that talk. A breath of fresh air, order and discipline. A reminder of the style he wanted to reinforce. All that was established from day one.

Ronaldo also dropped deep to receive the ball, turn round and run towards goal – and he always found space as the centre backs didn't follow him closely.

Pep and Bielsa have much in common: they love teams that dominate, that want to be protagonists on the pitch, to seek out the opposition goal as the main priority.

he explained that elements of his behaviour in front of the media were a necessary evil: a vital cog in the psychological machinery that he used to win football matches.

During this period, Pep perfected other weapons that were going to be used during the rest of the season – and from then on. A high defensive line, quick pressure after losing possession and allocation of space for each player was the order of the day.

a passer of the ball positioned in front of the defence who could provide the platform from which every Barcelona attack would begin.

He gave a different edge to the defensive side of the game and that is where Barça became strong and attractive: losing the ball but then, within five seconds, trying to win it back. The principle is simple and comes from as far back as van Gaal: after losing the ball there are five seconds of pressure to win it back; if it isn't recovered, the defensive phase would begin and players should quickly drop back.

Believe, believe with all of your hearts that we can score, because then we will definitely score.' There was also the tactical instruction: they should play fast balls down the wings, because Chelsea allowed them to start moves from the back and neither Anelka nor Malouda closed down that area particularly well.

always accumulate more players than your rival right from the start of a move to gain the initiative. So, having three players near the ball if the other team have two, or four players if they have three.

Abidal explains that before he arrived at Barcelona, every time he was called into action on the pitch, as a defender he'd been taught to focus on winning the ball. As soon as he arrived at Barcelona, he was taught to think one step ahead about what he could do with it once he'd got hold of it.

the ball goes to the other central defender and this one makes a vertical pass – not to the midfielders, who have their back turned to the ball, but to those moving between lines, Andrés Iniesta or Lionel Messi, or even directly to the striker. Then they play the second ball with short lay-offs, either to the wingers who have cut inside or the midfielders, who now have the game in front of them.

More than ever we must move, move, move and constantly create superiority. We'll open up the pitch and we'll look for the wings and then there will be space down the centre.

In future they must place themselves more cleverly to receive the pass, and to start pressuring their opponents more quickly.

Thirdly – and crucial for Pep's position as the midfielder in front of the back four – he had to dispatch the ball to the wingers to make the pitch bigger, wider, to create spaces all over the pitch.

Regarding positional play, he insisted on making sure the player stayed in his corresponding area, especially when the ball was lost.

You get the player, based on what we need, and I will make it work,' has always been his take on signings.

Alegabas que el amor se demostraba de muchas maneras. Los golpes, los gritos, los encierros, el terror no eran abuso, sino amorosas tácticas para sacar lo mejor de nosotros.