FC Barcelona - A Tactical Analysis: Defending Paperback – February 7, 2012

the book contains the base and advanced topics of how Barcelona defends. written for advanced coaches who can design or implement from the basis of this book. I was able to implement the lessons and techniques to design practices/drill and to create the defense philosophy in a U17 to U19 team with great success against physically superior teams (ie: college teams).

goes into depth about barcelona's philosophy of defending from the front by making your next pass predictable andforcing play towards where they want you to go, which is towards the sidelines where they can quickly outnumber you and overload the area. I would definatly recommend if you are a coach that you you def aquire this book.

Good analysis

Save yourself the $... Just tape a Barcelona game, stop the video along the way, make a diagram of where the players are, then roll the video, stop, draw a diagram of where the players are.... If you know soccer, you are already aware of everything in the diagrams. If you don't know soccer then purchase a real book about coaching that actually explains the why of the movements (soccer coaching bible or something similar). Felt like I was reading a comic book when I was hoping for a worthy novel.

Excellent service and product; will buy again!

Bernie review is not a fair assessment. Details are explained below. In short the Attacking part really needs to be read as this helps to understand and demonstates however FCB press quickly winning the ball and counterattack.These books (Attacking and Defending) include over 450 diagrams detailing Barca's tactial patterns in all areas from defence to attack, it's almost like a blue-print that will enable a coach to emulate with practice.Indeed the defending part of the FC Barcelona's tactical analysis does not include the 5-second rule either how the team dealt with the opposition's counterattacks which are mentioned in the above review.However this book part analyses with every detail how Barca dealt with many opposition's formations during the pressing application (which is Barca's main characteristic) and also gives an idea of how the team dealt with the opposition when the pressing application wasn't possible (this analysis stands either the team were defending in the final third or in the middle third or even outside their own penalty area).There are also several situations presented about how the team tried to defend against long balls directed on Barca's weak side (like the Alonso's ones) and what were the players' positioning in and around the box in order to neutralize the potential crosses.Furthermore there is a detailed report on Busquets' positioning near the ball zone or in the box as a third central defender according to the situation occurring in the field of play.Finally I would accept that this defending part of Barcelona's tactical analysis lacks in information about how the team dealt with the opposition's counterattacks and the 5-second rule. However both the positive and the NEGATIVE transition are presented in great detail in the attacking part of this Barcelona analysis.There you can find how Barcelona during the attacking phase maintained the superiority in numbers at the back either playing with a two (Pique, Puyol) or with a three men defence (Pique, Puyol and Busquets) in order to deal with the opposition's counterattacks.You can also read about who was the safety player (the player who applied immediate pressure after the possession was lost - there is a special report about Busquets' positioning).Furthermore there is information about how the team maintained the balance in midfield in every second during the attacking phase.These three factors (balance at the back, balance in midfield and the safety player) were the main elements for the 5-second rule which is clearly and with great detail presented in the ATTACKING part.It is for sure that 168 (defending part) + 280 pages (attacking part) are not enough to fully analyse tactically this Barcelona side, the greatest in football history in my opinion; however there was a lot of effort to present the main elements of the team's playing style.

Whilst there was terrific detail about how Barca defend in their attacking half and third, I was a bit disappointed as there was little on how Barca defended in their own half (pp146-156). I expected to see extensive detail on how Barca set up to deal with counter attacking, their main goal threat. Another aspect not covered is how Barca defend crosses as they are not a tall team. There is nothing on how Barca deal with long diagonal balls, such as Alonso makes, which changes the point of attack.Also it would have been useful to have drills to help train teams to defend like Barca.The main emphasis is how Barca aim to win back possession by forcing the opponent to pass out wide. Then Barca work collectively to close down space and mark players in the ball zone (area around ball carrier). This limits passing options. Barca tries to make the situation 1 v 2. From pages 27-116, elaborate detail is provided and for many opposition formations. Essentially it is the same message. This detail is good but repetitive.don't be mistaken, a lot of effort went into this but the main analysis is narrow.There is no specific statement on Barca's 5-second rule: upon a turnover, Barca chase down the ball and close down players to win back the ball in 5 seconds or 3 passes. If the ball is not won back in that time, Barca set up their compact defensive shape and work collectively. Barca also use this tactic when there is a difficult ball to control or when a player is facing his goal. This generalised rule helps simplify the tactics employed by Barca which is detailed in the book.Simon Kuper article "Barcelona's secret to soccer success" summarises the key elements of Barca's game.Bernie, Youth Soccer Coach & Barca Tragic