There are still those, remarkably, who ask whether tactics really matter, still people who persist using the Luddite insistence that the best players will win out come what may. No matter that Lionel Messi never produces his Barcelona form for Argentina or that Dani Alves regularly flounders for Brazil, Barcelona, these flat-earthers continue to say, win simply because they possess the best players.
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What happened within the Bernabeu on Saturday, surely, will disabuse them. Good players are essential, of course, but this was a game title turned on a tactical shift, a game Barcelona won because Pep Guardiola created a formation to which Jose Mourinho could not find a solution.
For that first quarter of the game, Barca was rattled. Real Madrid, slightly surprisingly starting avoid a 4-3-3 however with a 4-2-3-1, pressed solid, often a highly effective type of five bearing down on the man in possession, with just Lassana Diarra (used as a midfield anchor and not, as numerous had expected, as a back, where Fabio Coentrao fought an increasingly vain battle to prevent Andres Iniesta) left to support the rear four.
It had been the rate of that pressing, allied to an ill-conceived and ill-executed pass from Victor Valdes plus some doziness from Gerard Pique, that led to Real Madrid's opener, and in addition it prevented Barca developing anything like its usual fluency or rhythm early on. Barca's system would be a little odd, resembling less the familiar 4-3-3 having a false nine than the usual 4-4-1-1 or perhaps a 4-3-2-1. Alexis Sanchez, beginning to the left, worked across the forward line, with Lionel Messi less an incorrect nine than an orthodox 10, tucked behind him. Cesc Fabregas had what was presumably intended like a free role, but he often seemed too advanced, denying Xavi and Iniesta the easy short passing options on that they thrive.
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In those opening stages, Real looked dominant and, frankly, it seemed the title was already won, it was time for you to invoke the Three-Year Rule of the great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann and explain how rarely the very best sides, and specially those based on intense pressing, sustain their success right into a fourth season.
But midway with the half, Guardiola made the tactical switch that turned the sport and, perhaps, the growing season. Dani Alves was pushed forward into an attacking right-sided midfield role, with Carles Puyol moving to back, a far more naturally defensive presence to stifle Cristiano Ronaldo, who had been further neutered incidentally Alves could prevent Marcelo getting toward support him. Ronaldo's contribution, while not overly significant early on, dwindled to zero next, one badly misplaced header along with a couple of unsuccessful free-kicks his only notably involvement within the other half. By the end, Mourinho had shifted him right, away from the attentions of Puyol, but at that time the sport was lost.
That meant Sergio Busquets dropping in to the back four, although he continued to come out into midfield. In turn, Xavi and Fabregas fell deeper, with Iniesta going wider left, Messi floating inside a trequartista position, and Sanchez becoming the central forward. It was the triangular interchange of Alves, so much better as an attacking wide man who makes the odd tackle than as an orthodox fullback, Sanchez and Messi that proved key in an attacking sense.
That was seen most obviously with the third goal, an excellent break begun when Pique won possession and fed Iniesta, who darted through two challenges before giving the ball to Messi. He laid it on for Alves, whose cross was ideal for Fabregas, arriving late, to score with a diving header.
The equalizer came from Messi dropping deep from any markers, obtaining possession and surging forward to tee up Sanchez. In the Super Cup, Mourinho had used Ricardo Carvalho to track the Argentine, but the fact he wasn't a false nine here coupled with Sanchez in front of him meant the 2 center backs needed to stay in place. Perhaps if Mourinho had used three holding midfielders, one of these could have tracked Messi, but he chosen the additional creator in Mesut Ozil who could facilitate our prime press -- as well as for Twenty minutes approximately, he seemed to have got it right.
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Just like essential as the Messi-Alves-Sanchez triangle was the battle between Ozil and Busquets. Looking at towards the back four gave Busquets additional time and space and allowed him to initiate moves in the way he usually does, from the intentions of Ozil. Leaving the opposing playmaker free is a gamble, obviously, but it worked here, not least because Ozil isn't a particularly quick distributor, almost an old-fashioned No. 10 who requires a second or two to consider his options. Often that capability to create calm -- what Argentines revere as "la pausa" -- within the hurly-burly of a game is an asset; here it gave Barca breathing space, and Busquets could come out and close Ozil down.
This, perhaps, may be the ultimate result of Guardiola's use of a back three this season: on Saturday, he used a back three-and-a-half, with Busquets operating partly as a center back and partly like a holding midfielder, to an extent doing what fullbacks have been doing for a long time, and using the space afforded defenders in an attacking sense. That development was logical and may be foreseen.
What's startling, though, may be the juxtaposition of Busquets' role with the events of Thursday evening, when two sides -- Universidad de Chile in winning the first leg of its Copa Sudamericana final off to Liga de Quito and Rwanda in its Cecafa Cup semifinal win over Sudan -- used a 3-1-4-2. There is, it may be added, a typical source for the reason that Guardiola and Universidad de Chile's coach Jorge Sampaoli, are generally devotees of Marcelo Bielsa.
Perhaps that's the future, revealed on three continents in the space of Two days. More prosaically, Saturday involved Barca reasserting itself, about showing it's not gone stale. Guttmann always insisted that after 3 years in a club either the manager or the players had to be eliminated to prevent staleness and complacency. Guardiola has tinkered with personnel, but more crucially, his side is still evolving tactically, which gives him options like the one he invoked on Saturday.
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