The Importance of Dani Alves to Barcelona's System

Is Dani Alves slightly undervalued?

Barcelona is a system. The team is an organic, constantly shifting, free in motion, confusing and befuddling many teams which face them. Yet looking at the side which defeated Athletic Bilbao 2-1, I realized something I had never before. Throughout the entire match, although Bilbao were doing their best to cope with Barcelona's tight passing, they were truly unable to cope with Dani Alves.

The Brazilian right back was a monster, fearlessly tearing up the right wing, providing sumptuous crosses for the rest of the team. During the match I repeatedly saw Xavi with the ball at his feet, chipping through the left side of Bilbao's defence for the waiting Dani Alves. The Spaniard's impeccable passing accompanied with the Brazilian's tireless ability to get behind the Bilbao defence was devastating throughout the match.

While often Dani Alves would be a step too far ahead and be caught offside, when wasn't, he decided the match. Although during the build up of the first goal Dani Alves was offside (not noticed by the linesman or referee), in the second he wasn't. All it took was a piercing pass floated through by Xavi for Alves who cut into the Bilbao penalty box, and from there Alves took one touch to pass it off to David Villa who smacked it in. The second goal was even more delightful, from Xavi's pinpoint pass, this time Alves took two touches, one to control and the other to square the ball to Messi for a tap-in.

The right-back was truly instrumental in Barcelona's victory. While of course he is surrounded by Xavi (who serves delightful passes with ease), Messi, Villa, and many other players who make things easier for him, Dani Alves is under-appreciated for his importance in Barcelona's system.

While Messi made some mind-blowing slaloms through the entire Athletic Bilbao team, the Argentine was unable to score. He needed the help of Dani Alves on the right wing to make a timed run, and serve him the ball to score the winner. Now with 19 assists in 34 appearances this season for Barcelona, maybe Dani Alves is a much more important player for Barcelona than many people think.

Soccer Books to Read: Inverting the Pyramid, Tor!, and Morbo

I'll admit it, I'm not a big reader. While back in the day I used to devour books of any topic, nowadays I tend to sluggishly skim through books, mainly because the ones I read are uninteresting to me. So, I decided that it was time to change that, and to get some books I would read, enjoy reading, and learn something from.

I browsed, looked around, and found plenty of interesting choices. Ultimately I narrowed my list to three, and ordered them off of Amazon. They are, Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson, Tor!: The Story of German Football by Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger, and Morbo by Philip Ball. I chose these three because I need to brush up on all three subjects. I know little about football tactics, my knowledge of La Liga is limited, and my knowledge of the Bundesliga is near to nothing.

I've heard great things about these books (especially Inverting the Pyramid), and I really look forward to reading them. They should come within four to seven business days, and by the time I begin reading them it'll be a few weeks from now.

I'll be reviewing each book once I've read it, hopefully giving you a little taste of the books, what they're about, and whether you'd like to read them yourself. Links to the books on Amazon are below, and if you've already read any of these books, or have something to say about them, do comment.