Frank Rijkaard's Last Stand

Barça's success is Dutch 4-3-3's success.

For how gigantic a club Barça had been, its record really wasn't all that impressive. Before Frank Rijkaard, there had been only 1 Champion's League title from Johan Cruyff's stint, and the last domestic triumph was from the 90s when another Dutchman, Louis van Gaal, was manager.

Before Frank Rijkaard took over in 2003, Barça was 6th domestically and at the edge of dropping out from European competitions. Given there was Ronaldinho, Rijkaard's first year was still a remarkable success. Barça was in the relegation zone at one point during the 2003-04 season, yet by the end it was 2nd in LFP and secured itself a Champion's League spot. Frank Rijkaard showed tremendous tactical flexibility to ensure the turn around, something he hasn't displayed again in the past 3 seasons.

Because Frank Rijkaard came to play 4-3-3. By 2004-05 season he's already gotten rid of Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert and Michael Reiziger (Roman, Sorin and Overmars were already gone), and 4-3-3 had become his fundamental strategy. By the 2005-06 season, it's pretty much all he played.

Barcelona lost to Chelsea by a narrow margin in '04-05 Champion's League but won the Spanish league by 4 points. Frank Rijkaard continued strengthening his formation and by the end of the subsequent season, they not only won CL, but were also 12 points ahead of Real Madrid in La Liga. That wasn't just a successful year for Barça, it was one of the greatest success for offensive football and dutch 4-3-3.

The big additions to Barça's first squad in 2006 were Thuram and Zambrotta. Then there were Gio Dos Santos and Gudjohnsen each got a backup slot. Thuram just wanted out of Juventus to get some more high end games before retiring, so Zambrotta was really the only starter addition in 2006, and it was quite clear the llama wanted to keep his formation going.

It's really a 4-1-2-2-1, with 1 holding midfielder and 2 attacking midfielders that utilize both the inside and the wing spaces. The main difference from the traditional dutch 4-3-3 is that the attacking wingers and midfielders need to restrict space by maintaining the V-shape, much like in the 3-5-2 "V" midfield once played by Argentine NT. If too much freedom are given to these players, the two wings will become vulnerable to infiltrations since congestion will be inefficient.

In the Dutch 4-3-3, the offensive focal points are on the wings. The middle is less guarded upfield, but the vulnerability is also better dealt with by the holding midfielder who positions himself in the center.

What 2006-07 season proved was that Frank Rijkaard's 4-1-2-2-1 wasn't perfect. If the 0-2 away lost to Real Madrid was ignorable, the 1-3 against Espanyol should of definitely rang a bell. After that, they were tied by Real Betis and then lost to Valencia. At which point, it was obvious that the 4-1-2-2-1 had problems defending counter attacks and it wasn't very efficient breaking down some the tough defenses in the league.

As the season progressed, injury, fatigue and other stupid problems started compounding. By march, Frank Rijkaard's faith in 4-3-3 (4-1-2-2-1) seemed a little shaken. He went to 3-4-3 and still lost to Sevilla, then he readjusted the formation (into 3-4-3 with diamond midfield) and barely walked out alive from their at home meeting with Real Madrid.

The cause of Frank Rijkaard's headaches is Deco.
Iniesta and Xavi are both capable of playing dedicated wing roles as seen in Spanish National Team. Deco isn't. Deco is more of a center attacking character, and his best performances were on the Portuguese National Team where he played CAM. Frank Rijkaard adjusted the 4-3-3 into 4-1-2-2-1 to give Deco a more natural position to play at, but the formation has flaws and wasn't good enough. So he attempted 3-4-3 variations trying to find a more suitable strategy with Deco at CAM. When Barça lost by 1 goal to Real Zaragoza, it was clear this experiment had also failed.

Frank Rijkaard also tried 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1, but with less than 10 league games to go, he was forced to stop experimenting and stick to the 4-1-2-2-1. The problems with the strategy persisted and a 0-2 defeat against Villarreal really set them back. Barça went on to tie two more times and ended up 2nd behind Real Madrid.

With Zero trophy at the end of season, Frank Rijkaard had been under attack all summer long. If he continue like this for another season, Joan Laporta's own ass will be on the frying pan, let along protecting Franky and the way of the Dutchman. There's no more time for experiments. His only choice was to stick with what was known to work (the original 4-3-3), and readjust his team bearing necessary sacrifices.

Besides Deco, Frank Rijkaard had some other issues to deal with. Gudjohnsen couldn't fill Henrik Larsson's shoes; Thuram's age; Van Bronckhorst-Edmílson-Sylvinho dissatisfactions; Lack of dedicated holding midfielders. These were all problems he had to address with the summer signings, and apparently he did a good job.

He bought 2 defenders (Eric Abidal €15 million, Gabriel Milito €17 million) to build a new line. Abidal-Puyol-Milito-Zambrotta backed by Silvinho, Thuram, Oleguer and Belletti.

He then bought a DM (Yaya Touré €9 million) to fill the holding midfielder position with Rafael Márquez. Iniesta and Xavi can play their outside midfielder roles and shift the formation back into the Dutch original 4-3-3. The real loser in the midfield is of course Deco, since he had dropped to Crosas and Thiago Motta's level in the pack...

Up front Rijkaard bought Tierry Henry for €24 million. That's more than enough to duplicate Henrik Larsson's old role. In fact, Henry will put pressure on all the offensive players and force them to play 100%, this move showed Frank Rijkaard's determination to make a last stand with Dutch 4-3-3. However, in order to compete in both CL and Spain with the 4-3-3, he probably still need another dedicated winger to backup Iniesta, unless he's ready to play Crosas.


In unimportant matches, Frank Rijkaard could still be experimenting with 3-4-3, 4-4-2 or even 4-2-3-1, but for the majority of this upcoming season, expect Barça to field the traditional 4-3-3. There are other teams in Champion's League playing offensive strategies (OL, Ajax, etc), but none of them could be considered realistic contender for the title at this point. If Barça fail again, European theater can effectively be considered dominated by neutral formations.