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What exactly is wrong with Barca?
Let’s look at the core of the team. Pique, Lenglet, Alba and Busquets. Same players today, and the same players against Bayern and Liverpool. Replace Lenglet with Umtiti and you get Roma. @RonaldKoeman made the same mistake as his predecessors.
Let’s look at the core of the team. Pique, Lenglet, Alba and Busquets. Same players today, and the same players against Bayern and Liverpool. Replace Lenglet with Umtiti and you get Roma. @RonaldKoeman made the same mistake as his predecessors.
Secondly, Barcelona cannot sit back and allow their European opponents space. It’s never been Barca’s game, especially since the last decade. Barca’s game has always been about controlling the midfield and winning the call back high up the pitch.
From the start of the match, it was obvious that Barca tried but couldn’t press. Why? It comes down to the training and the player profile. The tactics can be seen in Barca’s other matches even against weaker opponents, Barca font press high.
How do you achieve a midfield dominance? Well, first of all play the technical players. Top if the list — Puig. As soon as he came on, Barca gained control of the midfield. Secondly, you gotta have a better pivot. In this game it would’ve been Pjanic. Busquets isn’t CL level.
How not to get over run in the midfield as PSG did multiple times? The focus has to be on fast defenders. Araujo was missed. But again it comes back to the core. At this point I’d go with Mingueza. Even if he’s rash, he’s improving and he’s much better than the finished players.
The best thing Barca can do right now is plan for the summer transfer window. Offload all these core players. Go for the free ones. There’s a long list to choose from. Aguero, Depay, Alaba, Eric Garcia, Wijnaldum and many others. Look at Mathew Hoppe too.
In football, it’s never over till it’s over. Prepare for the next match by changing your core team in La Liga. Start playing a midfield trio of Puig, Pedri and Frenkie. If it needs some stability, then give Pjanic the preference in the pivot. There will be ups and downs.
Araujo will be back by the next match. Pair him up with Mingueza. Play a high press. Abandon the mid block/ low block play. Barca have to practice suffocating their opponents with a tight counter press every game. The 5 sub rule goes in their favour.
Focus on fast one touch passing to progress the ball through. Trincao should be a preference player in the attack. Have a look at Konrad as well. He’s a player that has amazing speed. Why hasn’t he even made his La Liga debut?
Another question that arises is — do Barca even go trough counter attacking drills? Barca are always forced into more counter attacking and less possession during the CL knockout stage.
Hopefully @RonaldKoeman makes some of these changes before the next leg. Plenty of matches in between to try out the new midfield and fine tune the tactics. Even if Barca don’t win, at least they can give it their best fight. Surprises do happen in football.
