I will be writing three blog posts about the positions/roles of our front three and how they can work together to benefit the whole team. This is the final post. Thank God for that because typing about them is starting to get boring.
I will go through their roles in their respective positions and also what they like to do as a player and how this fits into the formation. These are just thoughts I have had during and after our matches and what I have taken from watching the players play in different roles and since Suárez became a Barça player.
Formation 3
Suárez and Neymar up front playing as somewhat roaming strikers and Messi playing at number 10.
Here, Messi is at number 10. This is a normal position for Leo and he can play there without a doubt, unlike on the right-wing. Messi is basically playing the exact same role that he does whilst in the false 9 position, but instead of having to drop deep, he starts deep.
This could be a good thing or a bad thing. The pros are that he doesn’t have to waste time and energy dropping deep. The cons are that he can be easily marked up by defensive midfielders, especially if the opposition are using a double pivot, and also it won’t give the opposition the unpredictability that the false 9 does, where Leo can run onto either wing, drop deep and even make runs through the defense.
I like this position for Messi much more than the right-wing position. This position still give him freedom to do what he wants and he is much less likely to get isolated.
This goal shows Messi drifting from a deep positions to play a one-two with Neymar and then place a first time shot into the bottom corner. He was not necessarily playing the number 10 role during this game but this shows that he can do the things that a number 10 should be doing.
Next is Neymar, playing as a left-sided striker.
This is similar to his role as a left winger but it means that he can contribute to the attack more and take more of a direct role by having more shots and being able to play short, quick passes.
We all know that Neymar is a decent enough finisher and can do well in this role. This position also allows him to make runs through the defense, with or without the ball, and take a shot across the goalkeeper on his favoured right foot.
Finally we come to Suárez playing as the right-sided striker.
Suárez would be good in this role as it gives him a chance to play up-front and a chance for him to score goals. It is needless to say that Suárez should be finishing his chances 99% of the time, but we are yet to see this consistency during his time at Barça, he needs to adapt quickly before even more fans lose patience with him, after all he has been a very expensive signing that everyone was expecting a lot from, even more so after his Premier League and WC campaigns.
This formation, like every formation, is adaptable during use. For example, Neymar and Suárez could swap thus confusing the opposition and opening up space for Messi and co. Also by swapping, they can open opportunites for a turn and a strike on goal, like Suárez did vs. APOEL.
I prefer this formation a lot over the Messi right-wing option but still stand by my opinion that the best option is Neymar left-wing, Messi false 9 and Suárez right-wing. This is mainly because it is the formation that benefits the team the most, where-as the other two formations are only being talked about because of Suárez, who isn’t performing up to standard. Maybe if Suárez hits a good run of form, he can be used in a more central role, but I will always want Messi playing at number 10 or false 9.
This concludes my 3 piece blog on our attacking trio. Something I didn’t talk about during these posts is the use of rotation and using players like Pedro, Munir and Sandro but I may talk about them at some point in the future.
Be sure to give me feedback on twitter 🙂
Thanks for reading!
tw:david4bcn
ig:bcn4david
BCNDavid 