He broke his leg last month, whats the excuse previous?
Agree with the 3-4-3 in theory, although its nothing new to what they were doing last season, only now the media have decided to call it what it is, rather then a 4-3-3 with Alves never defending.
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Mascherano last year > Puyol this, shame he's the captain tbh
Yes and no, Puyol won't get back to form without playing, and he isn't always to blame, infact he's had some outstanding games, he was epically bad against Real in the first(and much of the second half) not sure how much of that was down to this daft, lets play Alves everywhere thing.
Also, its a bit unfair to have a go at Alves, in reality last year he bombed forward a lot, but not all the time and he definately still played as a right back who got forward. In the unfortunately awful 3-4-3 games he started in midfield, didn't go back and played closer to a, Walcott or something.
Also when he was switched back to 4-3-3 the difference was night and day, its less about where Alves was exactly(he still got back) it was the tactics the back 3 then used. In 4-3-3 the cb's start wide and high and come in to the middle as they drop deep, with the back 3 their position was woeful and the whole thing simply didn't work.
It's easier to describe last year as a back 2 when the wingbacks were pushed forward, the "bad" games it was a back 3. Thing is those poor games and dropping points suddenly put them under pressure the manager and that team hasn't faced in a ruddy long time(5-6 years?).
Also Alves has impressed with his defending this season when he's played right back properly, maybe not against Real but for 6-7 games before that I was actually surprised how well he did, getting forward less but his tackling and stuff was spot on, he was even diving less. These El Classico's bring the worst out of EVERYONE on both sides though, they all behave like school kids in those games.
