Tactics Recreation – Barcelona 08/09 at Juventus

FC Barcelona, one of the best team in the world football. The Spanish giant has a rich history, winning 26 league titles, 30 Copa del Rey and 5 Champions League. They have produced a number of legendary footballers from the past till now, including Johan Cruyff, Michael Laudrup, Ronald Koeman, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Carles Puyol, Lionel Messi and others. From 1988 to 1996, the legend Johan Cruyff was appointed as the manager of the club. He then won 11 trophies, including 4 consecutive league titles with Barcelona, which was also known as “the Dream Team era”. 12 years later, one of the players from the Dream Team was appointed as the manager of the club. He spent 4 years in the club and won 14 silverwares. This guy, he is the legendary manager in the modern days football – Pep Guardiola.
On the other hand, Juventus, another big club with rich history which is located at Italy Turin, has dominated the Italian Serie A for almost a decade after returning to the 1^st division in 2007. The Old Lady also produced a lot of legendary footballers, for example Dino Zoff, Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane, Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet, Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon and others. In summer 2018, Juventus signed Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the best footballer alongside Lionel Messi, from Real Madrid.
Now, what if we combine this two teams? Pep Guardiola’s Tiki Taka system at Juventus? Let’s find out in this chapter of the FM20 Tactics Recreation!

Rules and Objective(s)

Tactics will be created on our own
All game will be stimulated
Assistant Manager will be picking the starting 11
No transfer will be made
Win the Serie A
Win the Italian Cup
At least reach Quarter Final in Champions League

Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona 2008/09 Tiki Taka

Let’s have a brief introduction on Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona 2008/09 Tiki Taka.

Pep Guardiola is known as playing Tiki Taka since the day he took charge of Barcelona in Season 2008/09. The most significant playing style is short passing, fluid movement and maintaining possession. The term ‘Tiki Taka’ came from a Spanish commentator, Andres Montes, back in 2006 during Spian vs Tunisia. Apparently, the Spain National Team has been playing this style of football since 2006. However, Pep Guardiola is the person who makes this tactics invulnerable. Tiki Taka requires intelligent and technical players. In 2008/09, Barcelona had a bunch of talented players who possessed both attributes, for example Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi.

Pep Guardiola’s 2008 Barcelona usually starts with a 4-3-3 formation. This formation seems to be the best suited formation for the players to rotate their positions finding spaces and create attacking plays. Unlike the traditional back four, the defenders should be comfortable with the ball and decent short passing skill. The midfield trio is a reversed triangle, with a defensive midfielder sitting between the defence and the midfield and two centre midfielders are assigned with more attacking duty. Two wingers will be staying out wide at the build up play, however, they are free to make runs and score goals at the final third. The most unique role in Tiki Taka is the false nine. The striker will be dropping back to the midfield position and help out with the set-up play, allowing the wingers to cut in from the flanks. Yet, the false nine is also a goalscoring threat when it comes to the final third.

In terms of defending, pressing is one of the important elements in Tiki Taka system. However, the pressing style is not having constant pressure like Gegenpressing. The players will only close down the opponent right after they lose the possession. This defending instruction is clearly influenced by Johan Cruyff and Marcelo Biesla. Pep Guardiola once mentioned that the philosophy is to win the ball back as fast as possible to regain possession and begin another attacking sequence.

Pep Guardiola is also very strict in the players’ positioning. He wants his players to be disciplined and stay at their assigned area during the build up play. Back in the first season in Barcelona training ground, Guardiola painted the training ground with lines, separating the pitch into different zones. The reason behind this is to train the players’ positioning, make sure they are familiar with moving from zones to zones, changing and finding the spaces perfectly during the game.

Why Juventus?

The reasons are clear and simple:

Juventus’ reputation is similar to FC Barcelona.
FM20 predicted both teams to finish at the 1^st position in the league.
Both teams are competing in one league, one domestic cup and Champions League.

Roles

These are the roles for the players. We have 1 goalkeeper, 4 defenders, 3 centre midfielders and 3 attackers.

GK – Sweeper Keeper on Support
RB – Complete Wing Back on Attack
DCR – Ball Playing Defender on Defend
DCL – Ball Playing Defender on Cover
LB – Wing Back on Support
DM – Anchor Man on Defend
MCR – Deep Lying Playmaker on Support
MCL – Advanced Playmaker on Support
AMR – Inside Forward on Support
AML – Raumdeuter on Attack
STC – False Nine on Support

Sweeper Keeper – Victor Valdes was the first-choice goalkeeper for Pep Guardiola since 2008. Other than Manuel Neuer, Valdes is probably the first few Sweeper Keeper in the modern days football. He is considered as the 11^th outfield player. To quote Guardiola “take the ball and pass the ball”. Even, a goalkeeper.

Complete Wing Back – Think of the legendary Brazilian right back Dani Alves. The guy that always running up and down at the right side of the pitch. His attacking ability as a right back is incredible. He was always doing overlapping run at the right side, making crosses and even scoring goals for Barcelona. A Complete Wing Back on Attack is definitely the best role in this system.

Ball Playing Defender – Everyone remembers how solid Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique were in 2008. The two Spanish centre backs were the deadly duo at the back. But let’s not forget how good their passing ability was as well. They were the Ball Playing Defenders, always looking for spaces and making short passing to open teammates without rushing.

Wing Back – Eric Abidal was the regular starter at the left back position. Unlike Dani Alves, Abidal was more defensive. His positioning was deeper and narrower compared to Dani Alves’, but he would still go forward if needed and link up with the attackers at the left flank.

Anchor Man – Yaya Toure was the starting Defensive Midfielder in the Season 2008/09 for Barcelona. His main duty in the game was very simple – win the ball back and pass the ball to the playmaker.

Deep Lying Playmaker – The legendary Spanish maestro Xavi was the key player in Pep Guardiola’s system. He is technically gifted and an extremely intelligent midfielder. His duty was to create play at the midfield position, sending out short passes or long passes to find his teammates.

Advanced Playmaker – Beside Xavi, there is another midfield maestro, Andres Iniesta. He was also assigned to create play like Xavi, however, he his position was more advanced than the Deep Lying Playmaker. The advanced playmaker on support would make dribble attempt, finding himself at the final third and provides assist to the attackers.

Inside Forward – Lionel Messi, the elite attacker, was the first-choice right winger in the Season 2008/09. Due to his exceptional dribbling ability, he was assigned to run with the ball often and cut in from the right flank. He was the top scorer in the team in that season, scoring 38 goals in 51 appearances.

Raumdeuter – In the left winger position, I picked Raumdeuter as the role. In Season 2008/09, Thierry Henry was the regular starter in the left winger position. Henry scored 26 goals in that season. Most of his goals came from his incredible attacking positioning rather than him running with the ball. He was always looking for the right time to make a run into the empty space, that’s what a Raumdeuter does.

False Nine – False Nine is the key role for this system. Samuel Eto’o or Lionel Messi started as the False Nine in that particular season. The False Nine usually finds himself positioning at the attacking midfielder position rather than the striker position. He puts himself in the build-up play hence creates the spaces for the wingers. However, playing as a False Nine doesn’t mean you can’t score goals. Eto’o was the 2^nd highest scoring player with 36 goals.

Team Instructions & Mentality

In Possession
- Much Shorter Passing
- Play Out of Defence
- Low Crosses
- Dribble Less
- Work Ball Into Box
- Overlap Right
- Much Lower Tempo
In Transition
- Take Short Kicks
- Hold Shape
- Counter-Press
Out of Possession
- Defend Narrower
- Much Higher Defensive Line
- Much Higher Line of Engagement
- Extremely Urgent
- Prevent Short GK Distribution
- Use Tighter Marking
- Use Offside Trap
Mentality
- Positive

So, we have now complete setting up our tactics for the rest of the season. It’s time to stimulate the game and see how Pep Guardiola’s Tiki Taka works in Juventus FC!

Half Season

We are now on 1^st January 2020 and we have completed 17 games in the league. Let’s have a look at the league table and see where we are at.

We haven’t lost a single game in the league at the first half of the season! We had 15 wins and 2 draws, sitting at the top of the table with 47 points. The current runner-up is Roma and they are 5 points behind us. We are looking very good at this stage and hopefully we can do the same at the second half of the season.

In terms of the European competition, we also finished at the top of the Group A. We had 15 points and we were qualified to the knockout stage after playing 4 games in the Champions League. We did pick up a lost against Benfica at the last game of the group stage. In Round of 16, we are going to face Bayern Munich! What a big game. Our objective is to at least reach the Quarter Final, so hopefully we can beat Bayern Munich in the Round of 16.

We actually picked up a silverware this season after winning Lazio 1-0 in the Italian Super Cup. Well, I wasn’t aware of this competition when I started the save. Funny enough, the board does not see this competition important as well. However, it is great to see us picking up a trophy this season. It could be a confidence boost for our players.

Without further ado, let’s continue our stimulated to the end of the season.

End of the Season

We have done it! We are the Champions of Italy! To be fair, I personally feel like this is expected because Juventus has a really really strong squad. We finish at the top of the table with 98 points. We have 31 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses. In terms of goals, we have scored 67 goals in the league which is the 2^nd highest goalscoring team, but look at Atalanta, they have scored 85 goals in the whole season! However, on the bright side, we only conceded 13 goals in 38 games, which is very impressive.

Now, let’s have a look at the 7 games that we didn’t win in the league. We actually lost to Atalanta 2-0 and Sassuolo 1-0. Both of them were away games, but I kind of expecting we will lose against bigger team. We drew Napoli, Udinese, Fiorentina and all three games were away games as well. However, we failed to beat Torino. None of our players even manage to score a single goal at home which is quite shocking.

Moving on to the 31 wins we have in this season and the results are amazing. There aren’t many high scoring matches, but we manage to keep so many clean sheets. The 3-2 home game against Inter Milan is considered as one of the highlights of the season with Dybala scoring a hattrick in 30 minutes including 2 freekick goals. 4-1 win against Parma is the highest scoring game we have this season. Gonzalo Higuain scored a double playing as the False Nine. Moreover, the 2-0 away game against Roma during April 2020 is a very crucial game for us. Miralem Pjanic scored the opener at 35^th minute and Paulo Dybala scored the winner.

Serie A title: Passed

In terms of Italian Cup, the result is shockingly bad. First, we did not win the cup. Second, we are knocked out by Hellas Verona, the club that finished 14^th in the league this season. Third, we are knocked out in the First Round and we lost in the penalty shootout. It was a home game and the assistant manager picked the first team. We had players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala, Matthijs de Ligt but we did not score a single goal in 90 minutes. It is disappointing and I don’t really have anything to say.

Italian Cup: Failed

On the other hand, in the Champions League, we had a decent run. Our objective is to reach at least Quarter Final. With this Tiki Taka system, we actually reached the Semi Final. However, we suffered a lost against Man City 4-1 facing Pep Guardiola. In the Round of 16, we beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in aggregate. In the Quarter Final, we beat another German team RB Leipzig 2-1 in aggregate. Sadly, we did not make it to the Final, but it was a good run in the European competition.

Champions League: Passed

Tactics Analysis

After looking at the results, let’s move on to the analysis report regarding our tactics. In general, we have a -10 in chances for/against which is shocking. According to the report, we used this tactic for 4706 minutes in total. We only create a chance every 134 minutes, and the chance against is every 104 minutes. It looks quite bad, considering most of our players are top class players. However, we successfully win the league, so I don’t see any problem even though it is a -10.

In terms of goals scored, we only scored 8 goals outside the box. We score most of our goals in the penalty area (34 goals) and 28 goals in the six-yard box. Obviously, this means the Work Ball Into Box instruction works well. In terms of the assists, 32 of them comes from the right flank, which shows that the Complete Wing Back on Attack on the right is extremely crucial in this system, as well as the Overlap Right instruction works.

Player Stats

Let’s us have a look at the player stats now. In the league itself, we scored a total of 67 goals. Surprisingly, only two players have scored more than 10 goals across all competition – Cristiano Ronaldo with 38 goals, Paulo Dybala with 16 goals. At the end of the season, Cristiano Ronaldo won the Serie A top goalscorer award with 32 goals. He had 5 goals in the Champions League and 1 goal in the Italian Super Cup Final.

In terms of assists, most of the assists come from the right wingbacks. Our first-choice right back Danilo made 13 assists, and the rotation right back Juan Cuadrado had 9 assists as well. Miralem Pjanic, who played as the Deep Lying Playmaker, had 13 assists, which is also the 2^nd highest in the league.

Other than that, Wojciech Szczesny only conceded 9 goals in the league in 29 apprearance, however, he did not win the golden gloves award with 22 clean sheets, just 1 clean sheet away from the winner Alex Meret.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I personally think Juventus are having a great time under this Tiki Taka system. The result of the Italian Cup is such a disappointment, but we still win the league and reach Semi Final in the Champions League. We even pick up the Italian Super Cup after beating Lazio 1-0. So, at the end of this chapter, I’m going to give my comment and rating on the tactics in three different section.

Tactics Accuracy: 6.5/10 –
It wouldn’t say it completely replicate the Barcelona 2008/09 Tiki Taka, but there are still some similarities you can see in the gameplay. First, the possession. We achieved more than 65% of possession in most of the games. Second, the passing the style. From the replays that I have seen, I would say the passing style is very similar to Barcelona 2008/09. We have a lot of short passes going on in the midfield, building up slowly towards the final third. On the other hand, I feel like there are two inaccurate things in this system. One of them being the roles, especially Inside Forward and Raumdeuter. I was expecting more goals from the Inside Forward, however I feel like the role itself isn’t that effective in the recent FMs. Cristiano Ronaldo obviously play most of the game as the Raumdeuter and he has scored 38 goals in a season. Maybe Ronaldo’s heading is way too overpowered in this FM, because he scores most of the goals using his head rather than his legs. This issue brings me to another inaccurate instruction, which is the right back. Dani Alves is obviously a great attacking fullback, but I kind of feel like I have overused the right side for attacking. The right back himself provides so many crosses and Ronaldo just score every header. Tiki Taka is a tactics that focus their attack at the half space, but I kind of switch the focus to the flanks. In short, there are positives and negatives, but I would still say it kind of replicate the tactics pretty well.

Tactics Funness: 8/10 –
To be honest with you, I am not a manager who enjoys playing Tiki Taka in FM. For me, I think it is boring to see players moving the ball slowly, do short passing around the midfield area. However, I actually enjoy this tactics. Unexpectedly, I found roles like Raumdeuter, False Nine and Anchor Man are really underrated in FM20. This is also the first time I play Complete Wing Back, and I am amazed by the way the role plays. I even import this tactics to my personal save because it is very fun.

Tactics Recommendation: 9/10 –
According to the stimulation, this tactics does work very well. However, you will have to take note that this tactics is only suitable for teams with great players. If you apply it to a newly promoted team, you will probably struggle. The players instructions and team instructions require technical and intelligent players, so if you are managing a top club, I would recommend you to have a go with this system.

Well, that’s all I have got for you today. If you enjoy reading it, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @abt_fm and join me on the discussion of football. Make sure to share this article with your friends and families. Leave your comment down below and let me know what you think about this tactics. What changes you will make? Also, do let me know which tactics you want me to recreate in the future. Take care!