Born Free - Bielsa the Lioness

Bielsa returned to Liga last month much to the unanimous hail-mary sof all liga (and hence “football”) fans. What’s bigger news though, is I’ve finally read a thoroughly enjoyable and intelligent football article. Of course, I still turned my nose at some parts, called it stupid, unresearched and media-slutty at other parts (hey I didn’t say it was “THE article”...and haha I just got the pun. Damn I’m good!) ... But overall, an excellent article more than worthy of selling out this blog by posting external links! http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/08/08/marcelo-bielsa-tactics-athletic-bilbao/

Now of course my 2 cents / thoughts/ random musings/ wonderings – I saw all of just 5 Bilbao matches last year. 2 they got raped by Barca. 1 they dominated Madrid and lost. The last 2 I couldn’t glean much from...buffering 10%...because I mostly...buffering 20%....saw them in still shots...buffering 30%...as I illegally streamed their...buffering 50%...matches against Valencia (although I gleaned enough from the still shots to know Valencia was F*****g AMAZING and blew them out of the sky). Not everyone can be a red-card holder after all. However good Muniain, Gabilondo and Javi Martinez were last year, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Bilbao’s largely “direct” style.

While in England, this is a euphemism for Van der Sar – Rooney – goal seeking to mitigate its own meaninglessness, the Spanish version (no its not the same..despite the way the ZM article bastardized it) is more like Roma, mid-2000s Ajax and the distantly dreamt ideal that Arsenal fans believe they are playing towards – fast movement and 1-touch play that leads from goalkeeper to other goalkeeper in a flash (Arsenal fans please note : in Liga, this style is as opposed to tiki-taka. The sheer magnitude of ignorance when fans claim Arsenal play Barca-football used to be hilarious, but now I wonder if brain cell death caused by continued exposure to such lack of distinction between the most basic set of opposites, might just make me also gradually dumb enough to claim ManU can win the Bundesliga.)

So I didn’t like it since the wingers cut in less, Llorente’s tremendous touch and passing ability was used less (sites and media seem to be under the annoying impression he’s a Zigic or something...), and wingers’ inside link from skewed central midfielders (like the mega-awesome Etxeberria – Yeste, Ezquerro link of 2003-5) was sacrificed for a front 3. The San Mames, on-field ferocity to match Osasuna, youth players (u-21,20,19 teams have 2^nd most no. from Bilbao, after Barca obviously) and my hate for Nihat-Kovacevic era Sociedad have meant a traditional soft spot for Bilbao, but now my biggest hope remains their 3-4-3, ok my biggest hope for football is 3-4-3 so that’s a little too obvious, with wingbacks on the overlap and hence wide players of front 3 tucking in closer with LLorente. The part in ZM about a wingback problem was crap, apart from Bilbao I can think of only present Inter and 2005-6 Sevilla who have/had the squad to pull off a middle 4 of the 3-4-3.

Di Marcos and Iraola’s careers and style have pretty much mirrored the early years of Sorin and Zanetti, who will always be my favorite memory of the greatest formation and fluid game play ever seen (not Barca.. Not Valencia.. Not Roma) and along with Javi Martinez will form the bottom 3 of a midfield diamond that makes or breaks the 3-4-3. Gabi, Muniain and Llorente are sealed as the front 3 leaving the only question mark at the top of the diamond midfield. Last season, I didn’t see of the Herrera ZM marks there, and instead saw Javi saddled with too much of creative burden (and last week he was pushed into Central defence for the Tottenham friendly!!) For all my drooling over Sorin, Samuel, Ayala and Lucho, it was that god of gods Riquelme at the top of the diamond who made that team what it was, which is why I fear Bilbao’s 3-4-3 might ultimately end up being FAIL!!! Haha and here you thought the length of the post had to mean I would predict Champions League spot for this team. No squad depth, annoying keeper = bottom 10 finish. But Bielsa man! Most entertaining bottom 10 team in Europe this year!