Tag Archives for " messi "

10 Messi’s New Position at Barcelona

By Stevie Grieve

Despite the criticism of Luis Enrique this season, he has made an improvement on the work by Tata Martino last season, by re-introducing a pressing game and adding an aggressive offside trap, while finding a way to play the front 3 of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar. Earlier in the season, Luis Suarez and Messi failed to connect with enough regularity so Enrique had to find a solution; change Messi from being the false 9 and instead play Messi in a right sided free role with Suarez central.

Obviously, having Messi on the side and not in the centre would make him less effective, so to allow him to drift inside and have Suarez occupy several defenders, there has been a newly formed right sided triangle created with the occupation of the wide zone rotating between Messi and Rakitic, with Alves playing slightly deeper due to his declining physical prowess.

Normally, we will see Ivan Rakitic as the right sided central midfielder, with Messi as a

4 Failure, Success and the Birth of Creativity

We develop through failure…it’s how we learn.

For players to truly develop their skills or talent to their fullest potential, we need to keep them engaged in the process. Adversity, challenges and failures can be tremendous learning opportunities that motivate and engage players that train in an environment designed to teach them to adapt and overcome. Or, if not utilized correctly, failures and challenges can be stumbling blocks of discouragement that hinder a player’s progression towards their goals. It’s all about the way we view failure, and the path we take to persevere through challenging times. This all comes to fruition in the teaching and learning strategies we as coaches implement with our players.

In our programs, we try and attack this within each repetition, each drill, in every session.

1 Who Would Be Your Pick For Best Player?

Lionel Messi was just named as the FiFA world player of the year.  The awards were based on the votes of the coaches and captains of national teams as well as global journalists. Messi scored more than any other player in Europe's top five leagues in 2010, with 42 goals in 36 La Liga games,

1 Argentina - Primed To Implode?

Most people I talk with, think Argentina will win the World Cup or it will take a special effort from a special team to beat them.  Let's face it, Messi is on fire as is Tevez.  They have other players playing exceptionally well.  And the team chemistry seems wonderful.  Maradonna, seems to have a great

3 Who Would Be Your First Pick?

Since I was kid, I have always enjoyed playing the game of choosing who you would pick as the first player in your team.  Not for the kick about game but when picking a team of the best players in the world...or for the England team. So let me get right to it.  The first