So the 2012-13 season in completely over. It was a never ending season complete with highs and lows. It was very much bitter sweet. If I wrote down on paper the achievements many would say that was pretty good, but having watching it was a little frustrating and exciting at the same time.
The Liga is ours again and yes that was a big accomplishment. The hot start was amazing and I was hoping that it might never end and we could tease being undefeated, but Sociedad put an end to those hopes. I was massively impressed with our finish considering we lost Messi and had really very little to play for, 100 points aside. If was strange how Barca had wrapped up the league in December, but didn't clinch until all the other major leagues already had. I didn't like the season going on so late. I hope La Liga will address that and end the season sooner next year. I'm sure they will with the WC looming.
I felt like the season started really exciting with the many comebacks and the thriller against Real Madrid. I thought the high point was the home win against Altetico, which put everything out of reach for both Madrids. The young Lion Flacao scored and it looked like we were in trouble, but then we imposed our will and choked the life out of them and the season. Once we lost a game it seemed like the energy was gone from not only us, but the teams we played. The worst Classico I've seen to date was the away leg at Real. Just a snoozer of a game and I don't mean the play, but the energy in the stadium. Everyone kind of new that one didn't matter. Usually Classico's are on a knife's edge, but this one was played on a dull blade. Because Real was playing on Tuesday in the UCL the match was played during the day time and that did not help.
This Liga felt like "give us back what's ours and don't plan on getting it back anytime soon." I hope that's the way we treat it next year, but I will address that in a later post. It's a massive accomplishment to win the 2nd biggest league in the world that easily and get 100 points while doing it. A season to remember no doubt.
The Supercup was a major let down for me. In the first match we really bossed the game. Up 3-1 the entire tie was pretty close to being over. We just needed to hold firm or add. Messi got a late ball in the box and Iker made a huge save. It keyed a counter and mistake by the defense leading to a goal many thought didn't matter. I felt it did and we paid for it in the second leg. It was heart breaking to lose a tie that way, especially down a man, but I will never forget Barca staying on the pitch while Real got awarded the trophy. Stay classy.
The Copa was a let down. That was the first real crack in the Barca armor and it came in the second semi final leg against Real Madrid. (When I say crack I mean over the last four years, we have never looked this exposed.) Again we bossed the away leg and had numerous chances to go up 2-0 and put the thing away, but poor finishing did us in and a cracker equalizer left many with a bad taste in their mouth. In the second leg at home we got dominated by Madrid. I think this was in no doubt due to the tactics and the front 3 that were picked. It was the first two goal loss at home that I have ever watched. Some how in a season where we were whipping Real in the League they were getting the better of us at every turn.
A quick look back at the Classico's reveals they had our number this year. We won the Super cup leg one 3-2, lost the second 2-1, in league drew 2-2 at home and lost 2-1 on the road, Copa drew 1-1 on the road and lost 3-1 at home. Real had our number this year. I think it was because they became a pure counter attack team and it worked. Real made themselves too focused on perfectly beating Barca and therefore struggled against a wide variety of styles. Perhaps the lack of trophies was proof of this. Still we had 1 win (preseason really) 3 loses (ok one preseason) and 2 draws, not good. by our standards. The great Jose had sold out to get better against us every year. Maybe that's why so many Barca players are taking unnecessary shot at him. Sure they are protecting Iker, I believe that.
The UCL was as bitter sweet as you can get. First we bossed our group stage, but lost that leg to Celtic away, which was baffling. It was again a bad front 3 and we caught them playing well. It was the first true loss of the season (I don't see the Supercup as anything more than a preseason situation) and it would be the only one in 2012. It didn't have to happen, but it did. The final match where Messi got hurt had us all on pins and needles for a few days. I really didn't need that to happen. We looked brilliant, but then at the same time you were questioning why we needed a late goal at home to beat Celtic? In the end we moved on with relative ease and a few questions.
The KO stage was not much different. I think everyone had us sunk after an uninspired away leg at Milan. We made a team we should have been able to boss look viable again. All credit to them they were playing better, but on form we were better as we had lost two games all season to this point. Again it was a situation where we started the wrong front three, which became a common theme throughout the season. It felt like we had a cloud over us at this point in the year. It might have been missing Tito or just all the retribution for not addressing our ills.
For me the crowning moment of the season was the comeback win against Milan at home. Messi's first goal was a thing of brilliance. I've watched it 100 times. He gets it to his shooting foot in the blink of an eye and guides it through four defenders that were swarming him. The goalie doesn't even move as the laser beam shot flies in the corner. That is one of the greatest goals of all time. For all the shots from distance, and bender free kicks we see on highlight reels you might miss this one because it happened so fast. Watch it again and tell me you don't agree.
The comeback was completed and we went on to PSG to teach them a lesson. That lesson was if we lose our best player we have no faith in our other strikers and will play three guys who combined for less than 15 goals upfront to that point. (It could have been less than ten if you toss out the Copa goals Villa and Cesc scored against third division clubs) Is there a theme developing in this post? Yes there sure is. Messi showed his greatness in the second leg coming on as a super sub causing the winning goal and we escaped, but I didn't feel like we were favorites after that.
It was pretty clear that Messi had not suitably rested his injury going in the next leg against Bayern. Who can blame Tito for starting the best player in the world against the world's hottest team on the road. It became pretty clear that maybe we should have done things a little more tactical in that first leg and tried to get away with a survivable result. Instead we got stomped so bad we all lost hope. I can't blame Tito at all and I wouldn't be a Monday morning QB on this situation. He did what we all would have done, but the result was inevitable. Some say if Messi was 100% we get by them, but I say the tactics and lineup had to change and if they didn't Bayern was still 4-2 better than us. So in a UCL where we made the semi's for a record 6th straight time it felt like we were pretty far away from it.
Just on a side note when do you remember Barca last losing 4-0? I bet you can't even remember 3-0 at home either. Those were the signs that had everyone yelling for center backs, but that is common thinking when you allow goals. It's your defense, but in the case of Barca it is their tactics.
On a whole I was very happy with Tito early on. The team had more life offensively and at times defended really well. He couldn't help it that his back line broke down with injury and give him credit as he kept it together for the first part of the season pretty well. He also couldn't help his own illness, which the team felt once it got prolonged. Despite all that as the season wore on I started to see a few cracks that really had me wondering if he was the right guy.
The first was his selection of the front three. I believe Messi works best when surrounded by good attacking wingers. It doesn't even require those guys to score, but to be threats. Inesta and Cesc are not major scoring threats. Tito continually picked them over a rusty Villa and green Tello. He also chose Pedro over Sanchez. I would have chose Pedro for the first part of the season he did well, but then he just went ice cold. I mean ice cold. He needed the bench, but Tito didn't see it that way. Sanchez didn't give the team a ton of inspiration as he kept botching really easy chances and was earning a reputation as a diver. I have to say I can't blame them for picking Pedro early, but they ignored the signs that Sanchez was coming on and late in the year he finally spread his wings and showed the player he truly was. I felt that Sanchez was just rusty and not getting enough time. He was getting into dangerous positions and even if he wasn't scoring we seemed to score more when he was out there attracting attention. Pedro just put on a show running himself into the ground and missing key chances.
I could probably spend an entire post on Tito's selections, but I will simply say there was a clear lack of trust in certain players this season. Cesc was chosen often because he was more experienced and asked to play out of position. Pedro was giving cart Blanche to be a non-factor and everyone seemed ok with it. All while Thiago, Bartra, Tello, Villa, and Sanchez were not shown a lot of love this year by their coach. He seemed to prefer the safe line up over the right one. It's not a wonder they are all linked with transfer rumors. Tito has to start trusting them because Neymar and Messi can't play 11 positions and those guys can play. Villa probably gets moved I know, but the other three are valuable beyond belief.
The last critique of Tito, which bothered me all year, was how he allowed Jordi Alba to play left back. It's tactically incorrect for Alba to play up as high as he does when Alves is doing the same. Again I can write a blog about this situation alone, but I'll simply say that Alves shouldn't be sending crosses in on a consistent basis to Alba. If that's happening then we are opening ourselves up to counter attacks. I think by mid season teams like Milan and Real picked up on this and took advantage of the space Alba was allowing. Our center backs aren't that bad and certainly not as bad as people think (remember Pique was on FIFA's starting 11), but when they get put in those situations against world class players there is little they can do, but look bad. Tito needs to reign that play in next year and keep him solid on the left side. It was our major tactical flaw all season.
Messi was phenomenal. Just look at his goals to game stats and conversion ratios. You are not likely to get shut out if he attempts five shots. It looked like he would top his record tallies from the prior year, but in yet another bitter sweet twist he got hurt when it mattered most and it was tough to overcome. It was really bad when he got hurt in the league and was gone for our last few matches. Cost him a chance to break 50, which he would have easily done, but it gave Sanchez the minutes to show that he will be a force for us next season. His tally of consecutive league matches with a goal was insane. What is his ceiling? He's been a little flat since returning from injury in international play, but scored three last night and dispelled any thoughts that he was still hurt. I'm just glad he's on our side, he's the best player in sports to watch right now.
It was sad that Tello still saw so little time with the season decided and the internationals having a busy off season. I was puzzled that Deulofeu saw zero minutes down the stretch. Why not see if he's something special. If that top level competition brings it out of him? Instead we let David Villa kill his transfer value. Why was Thiago only used in easy matches all season? It goes back to that trust thing, but here are three guys that I think can be big pieces of the futures. Are you catching the Tello could be really good if given a chance like Sanchez theme? (Oh yeah, he's definitely not Bojan so please don't go there.)
Xavi was solid for us. He spent a little time hurt, but it seemed like less than last season. He seemed to drop back a little bit and be more defensive while Inesta roamed with more freedom in the attack. I was very happy with both of their seasons. Often times when Xavi is in we can hold the ball in midfield for large amounts of time, but when he's not the opposition tends to pressure the other mids and make us work faster. I fear the day he retires for this reason, but I'm hopeful the improved front line can back the defenders off and give our younger mids space to work with and build confidence. Once Xavi hangs them up it will never be the same. He's a once in a lifetime type player.
Winning the league four out of five years is a big deal and I think it's still the most important trophy. The UCL is a big deal, but luck can play a roll in the KO stage so I can't view it as the definitive tournament, especially when no one felt Chelsea was the best team last year when they won it. (I like Liverpool, but they have never won the EPL, but hoisted this trophy, does that even make sense?) Don't get me wrong I want that glory for the club, but I understand that it's not decided on skill and play alone. The league on the other hand is a 38 match grind and the best team usually wins. So, the season was a moderate success. Expectations will be higher next year...much higher.
For some it's Barca 1 and Real 0 and they are happy. For others it was UCL or bust and for some it was just a good ride to be on. I feel like Barca have 6 guys that are top 50 of all time. Some in their primes and some just past it. You just don't want these players to miss chances at titles. I think next season we need to hang a few more loses on Real and grab at least 2 pieces of hardware. We may need to win the UCL to remind everyone who we are. I said to many if we won the UCL and league this year it would be valid to argue the best team of all time. We came close, but next year we need to finish it and make it happen.
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