One of my favorite hobbies is studying and understanding how some of the great teams play/played, and today I get to talk about the Barcelona team of 2010/2011; One of the greatest sides I have ever seen play football. What made this team great? How were they able to blow opponents away so easily? What was their football system composed of? How did they attack? How did they defend? So many questions, but I will try to touch on all by the end of this write up. Enjoy the ride..

When you hear the words "central midfielder", certain players pop up and come to mind; Xavi Hernandez, Paul Scholes, Andrea Pirlo, Xabi Alonso, Zinedine Zidane, Austin Okocha,Toni Kroos, Sergio Busquets, etc...Who or what is a central midfielder? What does he do? Why is he important? What are his primary duties? What skill set does he need to possess? And most importantly, what does he need to know, learn, and understand about this position to make him play better? Or to make

It's the Manchester derby, what more can I say. Always a battle when these two come together, and the current league positions makes this even better. City are top of the table and lead Utd who are in 2nd place, by 8 points. City win this, they go 11 clear; a draw, still 8; and a loss, Utd cut it to 5 and we have a title race. As a Man Utd fan, I obviously want a 5 point difference come end of the game, so how can Utd set up for this? I will try and give a broad tactical plan

A football system can be pretty much summarized as what a team does in broadly these situations; With the ball Without the ball While bearing in mind the major aims: To score, and to prevent the opponent from scoring. Personally I place the same amount of emphasis on both aims (football is just as much about preventing a goal, as it is about scoring). People view the game differently, and this shows in the way they think a team should play (predominantly attacking, predominan

So Manchester United are going away to the Emirates to take on Arsenal. There is little room for error as Manchester City are setting an incredible pace at the top, and the derby looms. At the very least, an 8 point difference should be the maximum point separation between the Manchester clubs come derby day, and this means Manchester United absolutely need to beat Arsenal; 3 very crucial points. So how to set up for the game? I'm going to try and give a broad plan ( there ar