David Moyes fools Barcelona

David Moyes is in the spotlight again, but this time, it's because his seemingly antiquated tactics helped his side pull off an incredible upset. Real Sociedad beat Barcelona 1-0 on Sunday, the only goal a hysterical Jordi Alba own goal in the 2nd minute, allowing La Real to set up in the signature Moyes shell. The Blaugrana had no answer, no way to deal with Moyes' approach.

Moyes built his reputation on games like this. Previously, he guided Everton to a consistent level of achievement they had no business obtaining based on their resources. His teams were competitive every year, and he even broke up the Premier League's near-monopoly on Champions League places on one occasion during his tenure, finishing in the top four in 2005.
But he did this using tactics that were largely considered boring, his teams were fairly one-dimensional, and most Evertonians weren't particularly sad to see him go when he was named Sir Alex Ferguson's successor at Manchester United.

In his current job, at La Real, Moyes is still the same manager. He hasn't changed a bit, but old-school Moyes is something that's very new to La Liga, and it had Barcelona baffled. Real Sociedad set up with a flat midfield four in front of a flat defense, an attacking midfielder ahead of them to put pressure on Barcelona's deepest midfielder (Sergio Busquets), and a goal-poacher to act as a counter-attacking threat. José Mourinho has seen it a dozen times at this point and Arsène Wenger much more than that, but to Luis Enrique, this was something original, and Barcelona couldn't figure out how to break it down. Even with Moyes using midfield playmaker Xabi Prieto on the right and career attacking midfielder Sergio Canales in a defensive position, the Blaugrana couldn't find any holes to exploit. Anyone can find some success playing with two banks of four, someone man-marking the opponent's regista and a goal-poacher. Real Sociedad's success while using ill-suited personnel is evidence of that. But almost no one in Spain does it, and for whatever reason, Enrique wasn't ready for Moyes' standard Everton tactic.

Moyes' base tactics for big games aren't a gimmick, but they're not impenetrable either. Every La Liga manager now has the knowledge that Moyes is willing to use the same tactics that he used in England -- and they now have a game to study. He'll have trouble pulling off this kind of result with any consistency, but for now, he can take pride in the fact that he fooled one of the biggest clubs in the world.