From Patrick O’Brien : Arsenal v Barcelona
Myles,
Hope today finds you well in chilly London.
I am wondering what you think Arsenal’s tactics should be against Barcelona next Tuesday, and what they will be?
There is an argument to sit deep and try hit them on the break, and there is also an argument that says, ‘hey, they’re going to score goals regardless, so let’s go toe to toe with them and try and grab two or three of our own’.
It’s the second leg I’m really fearful of. They have the capability to beat us 8-0 at the Camp Nou. Perhaps if they get a satisfactory result at the Emirates they’ll go easy on us?
Myles says:
Relax, Patrick. Stop worrying now.
No tactics can stop Suarez-Neymar-Messi.
Success in club football requires, above all, imaginative and decisive recruitment.
The player Messi and Neymar needed was NOT Lewandowski or Griezmann but the alpha-male Latin gladiator we call Luis Suarez.
Just as Rooney and Ronaldo needed a third superstar forward, Carlos Tevez, to galvanise them to another level, so Messi and Neymar needed the combative Uruguayan.
Last season Luis Suarez raised their games and that allowed coach Luis Enrique to win the treble in Berlin, beating Juventus.
Barcelona can make history by retaining it. No team has ever won the Champions League and then retained the trophy. To win it once is a huge ask, twice has been beyond mere mortals…until now.
Suarez makes that dream possible. Without Suarez, I would not mention that double, or even think about it. His rage to win makes most footballers look like charlatans and pussies.
When Suarez is living every minute of the action, so am I.
Denis Law used to do that for me before most ANR readers were born.