Barca - Football from another planet - But West Ham could do it!

Now I'm not being silly here, we can't do the Messi bit in the final third I accept, but that apart, we could learn a lot from watching Barcelona tonight. It's not the attacking that left me breathless, but the way Barca play when they DON'T have the ball.

Arsenal did not have a single shot all night. Why? Because they couldn't get the ball out of their own half! Inside twenty minutes I was calling for the introduction of Arshavin and Chamakh and for Arsenal to go long ball. Their attempt to play the ball out from the back was clearly not working because of the way EVERY Barcelona player pressed. In effect, Barcelona defended on the edge of the Arsenal penalty box!

So time and time again, Arsenal managed three or four passes and then lost the ball and, because Barcelona were winning the ball in Arsenal's half, and more often than not in the final third of the pitch, launching an attack was then easy. When you win the ball that high up the pitch, you only need two passes to open up a shot on goal!

The other thing that was fascinating was the number of times Barcelona players drifted offside, looped behind a defender and then came back on in a "blind" position. The ball retention was beautifully simple with Barcelona lining up five players across the pitch like a rugby three quarters line and moving the ball sideways, backwards, sideways, sideways, sideways, waiting, waiting, waiting, then Messi steps back onside and the ball is released and everybody springs into action. It is almost counter intuitive. Instead of piling players into the box, Barcelona ignore the penalty box until the trap is sprung, with until that point, all bar one of the players parallel to or behind the man in possession. There is no centre forward, there are no strikers as such, it is fascinating to watch and a whole new way of playing football.

Of course Messi has sublime skill but it is his movement and patience that opens up teams more than any devastating passing or fantastic dribbling. I'm not saying we can do what Barca can do with the ball but we can reproduce the movement of the man furthest forward, this tactic of going offside and looping behind the defenders whilst the ball is retained.

We can also press like Barcelona, pinning opponents in their own half rather than closing on the half way line. It won't work against the likes of Bolton, they will go long ball, but it would work against Spurs for example.

Arsenal will moan about the sending off but Van Persie was always going to see red after that flare up in the first half. Wenger should have pulled him off at half time. I don't believe for one moment that he didn't hear the whistle but the red card was ridiculous regardless, as absurd as Piquionne's sending off at Everton. What a mad game it is when Carragher doesn't see red for that potential leg breaker on Nani but Van Persie sees red for having a shot after the whistle was blown. Common sense? Referees are devoid of it obviously!

Anyway, I hope Grant was watching tonight and that Ba, Cole and Piquionne start working on the offside, onside routine. It's pretty easy to do, providing you have midfielders with the intelligence to retain the ball until a player steps on unseen and in space. In Noble and Hitz, we have players with that ability!

And Barca play in their version of claret and blue!