at the end of Ernie's first preseason we played acfc and signed hicks and Riera, just as last minute.
And this A Rod into defence thing is totally a tactic barca and spain use with busquets. Site search zonalmarking for some nice diagrams, possibly even a gif. Even the McGlinchy as a forward reeks of barca and Spain's use of false 9. Gareth will be pleased :p
A key part of how Barca play though is having their defensive line pushed extremely high up the pitch so they can press hard on the opposition and win the ball back quickly if they lose it. That doesn't work if your defensive line is deeper because there's too much space between your forwards and your backs for the midfield to try to cover. If the opposition beat the first line of pressing they have effectively released the pressure. The flip side is Barca are vulnerable to counterattacks into the space behind their defence, so the keeper often acts as a sweeper. Although then he risks getting caught off his line by long shots, like happened in the game against Roma a couple of weeks ago. Because of Barca's high line, the distance that Busquets has to cover between being in a good position for a CB role to being in a good position for a DM role as is required isn't very far and they can transition easily between the two shapes. Pep has also done a similar thing with Lahm at Bayern too.
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From the Nix perspective, we can't play a high line effectively because Siggy and Dura are too slow, and Moss isn't the sort of Neuer-esque sweeper keeper we require. I'm not saying A Rod dropping into the backline when fullbacks advance can't work for us, but I don't think it'll work the way Barca use it.
People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can't trust people.
"Phoenix till they lose"
COYN