Solbakken wants Wolves to emulate Barcelona

Stale Solbakken wants Wolverhampton Wanderers to borrow a few tricks from Barcelona this season.

moreStale Solbakken wants Wolverhampton Wanderers to borrow a few tricks from Barcelona this season.

During the Norwegian's team meeting with the players earlier this week, he showed the players DVD clips of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi in action for the Catalan giants, who have become regarded as one of the greatest club sides in recent years – if not all time.

But while nobody is expecting Wolves to suddenly start playing tika-taka in the Championship, Solbakken believes his players can learn from how Barca play when they don't have the ball.

Solbakken is determined his Wolves team will have a distinctive style this season.

And a central theme to that involves reducing the gaps between players to make it difficult for the opposition to play through them.

Left-back George Elokobi explained: "He wants the whole team to work in a certain pattern whereby we don't have too many gaps in between players.

"If you look at the best teams such as Barcelona, they all work together – they attack together and they defend together.

"Obviously we can't play like Barcelona, but he wants us to be more compact instead of players being too far apart.

"He wants us to keep a solid line but, more importantly, he doesn't want the back four to become isolated from the midfield and for the midfield to become isolated from the strikers.

"He wants those gaps to be equal, so we're all pressing as a team.

"I think that's going to help but it will only come from practise on the training ground.

"He isn't going to ask us to play like that (Barcelona), but the team can play in that same compact way.

"Anyone is coming into the side will know straight away what they're doing.

"It's good that we're practising the system on the training ground so we can get used to it and it clicks into place before the season starts."

Fellow defender Ronald Zubar believes the changes made will see Wolves have a distinct style of play.

"He showed us a couple of DVD clips of Barcelona to show us what he wants and it was interesting," he said.

"Defensively, he wants us to defend high up the pitch in a solid group.

"It's something new and I think he can change a lot of things for us in those terms and try to win more games and be successful together.

"Hopefully the players understand what's needed.

"It wasn't to show us that we should be playing like Barca because that would be impossible, but to show us a direction and to give us an idea of what he wants.

"He wants us to play in a proper style of football and, wherever we play, he wants everyone to know that we're Wolverhampton and we play in a certain way.

"I think he will play a 4-4-2 system or maybe 4-4-1-1 depending on who's on the pitch.

"He's talked about what we can do with the ball to score goals and how we can develop the play with the ball, but we have to make sure we play football.

"On Wednesday we practised for the first time what he wanted on the pitch and it went alright.

"But we need to build it up because we're only coming to the end of our second week of pre-season." Despite the uncompromising nature of the Championship, Zubar believes Wolves can play their way to success as Solbakken wants.

"I've played in France and England and sometimes here, without being disrespectful, it's more rushed," he said.

"He wants us to take our time more and play with our heads.

"I know the Championship is a tough league but teams such as Swansea two years ago and Southampton, Cardiff and Blackpool last season showed they can play football. But we'll be playing against good players so we have to be respectful of them because they will make it hard for us."

Solbakken soon got to work on the training pitches at the Carton House Hotel, stopping play to advise Kevin Foley he had broke from the back four too early to join the attack.

But all the players are keen and eager to learn, as Zubar pointed out.

"He knows what he wants and we have to listen and learn," he said.

"It was his first real session of showing us what he wants from us tactically, so he had lots to say."

Both Zubar and Elokobi have had brief one-to-one chats with Solbakken and been impressed with him.

"My first impressions of him are very good, both as a manager and in terms of what he's said he wants from us," said Zubar.

Elokobi added: "It's good that he wants to see us all as individuals.

"He's got to know me as much as he's got to know all the other players, which is good."