Match summary
Barcelona exploited Madrid's lack of pressing and narrow shape in the first half. In the second half, Madrid came back into the match by switching to a 3-5-2, but Barcelona (and Valverde) exploited the wingbacks' aggressive positioning, along with Madrid's lack of a defensive midfielder to win the match.
Lineups
Barça XI: Ter Stegen; Sergi, Pique, Lenglet, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur; Rafinha, Suarez, Coutinho.
Bench: Semedo, Dembele, Cillessen, Malcom, Munir, Vidal, Chumi.
Real Madrid XI: Courtois; Nacho, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Casemiro, Kroos, Modric; Isco, Bale, Benzema.
Bench: Navas, Mariano, Valverde, Vazquez, Odriozola, Asensio, Ceballos.
Tactical points
Real Madrid sits deep, Barça's midfield trio gets space
Neither Barça or Madrid have started the season particularly well, but it was still relatively clear who held the edge coming into this match -- Barça had won 3 of their last 4, drawn the other, and were at home for this fixture, while Madrid had lost 3 of their last 4 matches. Therefore, it wasn't surprising to see the latter play a more reactive, cautious game.
There wasn't anything particularly interesting about either side's approach. Real Madrid simply played a 4-3-3 with Isco and Bale out wide. Without the ball, they shielded their full-backs to become more of a 4-5-1, leaving Benzema upfront. Lopetegui was clearly wary of Barça's creative threat as well (specifically Coutinho and Rafinha), and had his defenders and midfielders tuck into narrow positions, preventing them from exploiting the space between the lines.
Meanwhile, Messi's absence didn't particularly change Barcelona's style of play. Both wide forwards attempted to drift into the middle of the pitch (with Rafinha in particular moving to the middle and even all the way to the left), the fullbacks overlapped, Suarez battled against the defenders and played on the last shoulder.
Without the ball, they moved to a 4-4-2, with Arthur moving upfront, and Coutinho dropping back to a left midfield position.
What was of tactical interest came from the way both midfields set up against each other. Madrid's midfielders didn't press, and instead kept their shape, preventing Arthur, Rakitic and Busquets from sliding passes through the middle. This would normally be an issue, but Barça's solution was to 'shift' their midfield trio
Busquets would move up as the most advanced midfielder,, while Rakitic and Arthur dropped deeper, where they found space to play long passes to the flanks.
This freedom, along with Madrid's narrow shape meant that Barça found joy down the flanks -- the main catalyst for their victory.
Barça exploit Madrid's right
Madrid's compact 4-5-1 prevented Barça from slicing through them, but instead of forcing their way through, they simply elected to go around them -- specifically, on the left. Jordi Alba has long been a consistent source of width for Barça, and he proved to be the key player of the first half, exploiting Nacho's narrow positioning and reluctance to attack in no less than 4 separate incidents.
The first leads to a blocked cross, but the second created the opening goal, and stemmed from two factors. One, Benzema doesn't close down Rakitic, who's free to move the ball to Alba. Two, Nacho is caught in no-man's land, unable to close down Alba, or provide support to Varane.
One might think that conceding a goal would have convinced Madrid to change their gameplan, but they continued to play far too passively, and conceded yet another goal from their right. [Both Alba and Coutinho are left free in a huge pocket of space on the left.]
This time, Arthur is left free to play a pass into that flank, Coutinho and Alba swap passes, and the resulting cross causes Varane to give away a penalty, which Suarez converts. Later on, Alba tries another cross, and it barely gets cleared.
While Madrid's initial approach was understandable, it's baffling how Lopetegui didn't make tactical tweaks to prevent Barça's dominance in this half. He could have tasked Benzema, Bale and Isco to pressure their midfield trio when they moved deep, man-marked Alba, or simply shifted the entire team to the right -- Sergi Roberto could have overlapped, but wasn't as fast. But none of this happened, and as a result, Madrid went into the break down 2 goals, with a huge gap of quality in open play.
Madrid go to a 3-5-2
If Lopetegui is to be criticized for his tepid first half tactics, he deserves some credit for the changes he made at half-time. Real Madrid went from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2, with Casemiro and Nacho moving into the back 3. Marcelo and Vasquez (who'd been subbed in for Varane) played as wingbacks, Bale partnered Benzema upfront, and Kroos was now the deepest midfielder, while Isco and Modric took turns to push up the pitch, with one of the two usually sitting alongside Kroos, so not to leave him isolated.
This injected some impetus into Real Madrid, and for a 15-minute spell, they dominated, before it gave way to a more even 10 - 15 minute period. They didn't have many chances in the first half (their only chance of note came when Madrid managed to break through a press, before countering quickly), but this tactical switch gave them more options on the ball, which manifested themselves in Madrid's two best chances.
First, Marcelo and Vasquez were positioned much higher than Marcelo and Nacho were, almost like auxiliary wingers. This led to Madrid's sole goal -- Vasquez gets forward, and his cross leads to a scramble in Barça's box, with Marcelo eventually converting. This wouldn't have been possible in the first half, with Nacho (a converted center-back) not quite as attacking as Vasquez (a winger), and lacking the proper structure to get forward.
Next, Madrid's two upfront varied their movement, moving wide into the channels to stretch Barça's defense and allowing midfield runners to exploit those gaps. One of those runs allowed Modric through, and his shot hit the post -- it was Madrid's best chance to equalize, and the turning point of the match.
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| Madrid's two upfront varied their movement, moving wide into the channels to stretch Barça's defense |
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| and allowing midfield runners to exploit those gaps |
Barça figure out Madrid's new vulnerabilities
Modric's shot marked the end of Madrid's good spell, and although they managed decent chances after (like Benzema's shot in the 67th minute, none came quite as close). Barça, however, had begun figuring out their new formation's vulnerabilities. Valverde's substitutions played a part as well. Semedo shored up the right flank and freed up Sergi Roberto to attack, while Dembele offered an injection of energy on the left.
For starters, Madrid still weren't pressing that much, and remained passive off the ball, giving Barca's deep midfielders time to pick a pass.
But what proved more fatal was the wingbacks pushing up too high. Their third goal was the perfect example; Alba gets past a rare Madrid press (involving Vasquez), moves the ball to Dembele, who charges up the pitch into a 3v3 situation, with the wingbacks nowhere near close enough to offer defensive support.
From here, the game was effectively over. Madrid had only 15 minutes to score at least 2 goals, and their back 3 became increasingly exposed; the 4th goal came from a 'route one' pass from Lenglet that exposed Ramos and Casemiro to a 2v2 situation,
and the fifth repeated the left-sided theme of previous goals. At this point, Madrid had reverted to a 4-3-3 after Marcelo's departure, and Dembele found space out wide to cross to Vidal, sealing Madrid's utter and complete defeat.
Conclusion
Every good team requires possession, penetration and clinical ability. But Real Madrid, aside from the first, showed little sign of the latter two qualities. Bale was supposed to be Ronaldo's heir, but provided little penetration, let alone goalscoring ability. Benzema had multiple shots, but couldn't convert a single one, and Nacho was simply abject today; he wasn't defending, or attacking well enough. The 3-5-2 stabilized them temporarily, but they didn't make the most of their chances, and Barça figured them out anyway. As of now, Lopetegui has been dismissed, and while he wasn't afforded the chance to properly revamp the squad, he probably wasn't good enough to begin with -- Madrid require a far greater tactician, in the wake of Ronaldo's departure and the heavy expectations given to a winner of 3 Champions Leagues in a row.
Meanwhile, Barça (and Valverde's) success own much to their minor tweaks. They didn't radically change their gameplan, but the cornerstones of their victory (possession in deep areas, exploiting space down their left) came down to basic tenets of that gameplan, altered to match their opponents' approach. In this sense, Valverde is both reactive and progressive, something Barça will need as the season develops. Their substitutions probably should have come a bit earlier, but did a great job in stemming Madrid's momentum and reestablishing Barça's dominance, and ultimately one can't really argue too much against a 5-1 victory.
Source : https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/9sqy7x/postmatch_analysis_barcelona_51_real_madrid/
Source : https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/9sqy7x/postmatch_analysis_barcelona_51_real_madrid/
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