Match date: 29 September 2015

Barcelona come into the match having lost Messi to a knee injury in their last Liga match against Las Palmas. With the Argentine out for two months, regardless of the other talent in the side, there were questions raised about how Barcelona would cope.

In Messi’s place, Luis Enrique started Sandro on the right side of Barcelona’s 4-3-3. Interestingly, Jeremy Mathieu started at left back over Jordi Alba, with the rest of the starting XI lining up as expected.

Roger Schmidt set his side out in their usual 4-4-2 / 4-2-2-2 with Bender and Kramer in centre midfield and Calhanoglu and Kampl on either side. Bellarabi and Javier Hernandez were partnered up front.

Bayer Leverkusen Press, Get Their Chances

Roger Schmidt faced Barcelona with the same plan as he does every other match; press the opposition high up the pitch with persistent intensity. Some might question this tactic against Barcelona, but under Luis Enrique the Catalan side have never looked as comfortable or disciplined coming out of the back as they did under Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova. Regardless, Barcelona still have quality and teams rarely look to press them, especially at home, but that’s just what Schmidt had Bayer Leverkusen do.

In their 4-4-2 / 4-2-2-2, Leverkusen typically allowed Pique and Mascherano to have time on the ball, only pressing the two Barcelona centre backs when Leverkusen had significant numbers forward from an attack and had just lost possession or the centre backs were receiving without immediate options, when they were facing their own goal, or very deep in their own half. The focus, instead, was to play with a high block, but to cut off the passing lanes from Pique and Mascherano into Iniesta and Rakitic, while also blocking the passing lanes into Suarez, Neymar, and Sandro. Below is an example of Leverkusen’s pressing when Barcelona had the ball deep in their own half. Whereas Leverkusen’s pressing excels when they are able to press as a compact unit, here Barcelona have made the space huge with Alves and Mathieu on the touchlines and the midfield three of Busquets, Iniesta, and Rakitic spread. With that said, Ter Stegen also has no comfortable pass available to him. Alves is an option on the right, but not with the position of the ball and Ter Stegen’s body.

As Barcelona moved the ball up the field, the same problems continued as Leverkusen ensured there was never a particularly ‘easy’ pass for Barcelona to play. Much of Barcelona’s play in the opening 45 minutes came in their defensive third and the middle third and with Leverkusen playing a relatively (relative to what one would typically see against Barcelona) high line, the German side were able to keep Barcelona at bay. That is not to say that Barcelona did not have their chances, Sandro had two good opportunities, but the chances were to be expected for the amount of possession Barcelona had. However, Leverkusen, because of their pressing and direct, high tempo attack, were able to create two excellent chances from open play in the first half. On Leverkusen’s first ball into the box, Hernandez forced Ter Stegen into a save. After already being 1-0 up through Papadopoulos’ goal, Bellarabi easily beat Pique and maybe should have scored, but Ter Stegen saved what was right at him. So not only did Leverkusen, in particular Hernandez and Bellarabi, put Barcelona under constant pressure through their pressing, but their attacks were incredibly quick and Barcelona struggled to keep up, especially when either Pique, Mascherano, or Mathieu were isolated in a 1v1 situation.

Barcelona’s Struggles

As mentioned above, Bayer Leverkusen’s pressing was fantastic for much of the match and the German side persisted for the entire 90 minutes. Barcelona struggled to bypass Leverkusen’s pressing. The passing lanes, especially in the first half, were closed out well by the Leverkusen forward and midfield lines. Coupled with this was what seemed like little movement or fluidity amongst the front three of the Spanish side. Neymar was pinned to the left, Suarez did his best to stretch the field, and Sandro stayed on the right. In theory, against Bayer Leverkusen (and all teams really), the opposition wants to make the field as big as possible as Leverkusen want to press in compact groupings. There was little room for the Barcelona front three to move in fairness, as Leverkusen did their best to keep the field compact. Below you can see Leverkusen’s compactness, but also notice that Barcelona don’t have clear wide options at this point in the match.

Perhaps the biggest issue for Barcelona was the ability for a player to break the lines or evade defenders on the dribble. When no forward passing lanes are available, the best way to take away a line of pressure is to bypass it on the dribble and Barcelona have one of the best players in the world capable of just that, however, he is out injured. With Messi, the match would have been very different. The Argentine’s movement into deep, central areas would have allowed him to get on the ball, at least as often as Iniesta and Rakitic and this would have then allowed him to break the lines with his dribbling. There were times when Neymar and Iniesta did this very well; both would typically make diagonal runs with the ball angled from the left half space to the right corner at the top of the penalty area.

Above you can see that both Neymar and Iniesta did well to take on players, but there was still an inability in their dribbles to really break a line of pressure and free up Barcelona’s attack. It did happen occasionally, but was mostly muted. Again, credit to Leverkusen’s disciplined and compact defensive shape, whether they were defending high up the pitch or in a mid to low block, the German side looked very much in control of the match for the first 70 or so minutes.

Roger Schmidt Takes Away His Outlets

Ten minutes into the second half, Schmidt opted to replace Javier Hernandez with Stefan Kiessling. It was a surprising move as Hernandez’s movement in and around the Barcelona penalty area had been excellent and the Mexican should have extended Leverkusen’s lead just before he was replaced. Taking off Hernandez also partially took away Leverkusen’s ability to play behind Barcelona’s high line. Kiessling can hold the ball up well and bring others into play, but he was not an option for Leverkusen in behind and his pressing wasn’t as intense as Hernandez’s had been. Interestingly enough, Schmidt’s next substitution was to take off Bellarabi and replace him with Julian Brandt. Bellarabi had been Leverkusen’s brightest player during his time on the pitch, so in that sense it was interesting that he was taken off, but it was also odd because of how much success Bellarabi and Hernandez had found in opening up Barcelona’s back four. Whereas in the first half, Barcelona had to be wary of Leverkusen’s quick attacks, it is of little coincidence that after Hernandez and Bellarabi were taken off, Barcelona rarely had to defend.

Luis Enrique’s Changes

There were two rather significant changes that Luis Enrique made at half time that helped Barcelona change the complexion of the match and were then aided by the Spaniard’s substitutions. The first change was the positioning of the holding midfielder. At the start of the half, Barcelona looked very much like a 3-4-3 rather than a 4-3-3. Busquets and later Mascherano were very deep and sat in between the centre backs. This did two things: it allowed Mathieu and Alves to move further up the pitch and provide a wide outlet for Barcelona and it also allowed Barcelona to be in a 3v2 in the middle of the pitch at the back rather than a 2v2 against Bayer Leverkusen’s forwards.

The Spaniard’s first and second substitutions came quickly. The first was Jordi Alba for Iniesta, though it would have been interesting to see who Alba would have been taking off had Iniesta had injured himself. The second change was Munir on for Sandro. The first was more significant. With Iniesta off, Busquets moved up to fill his spot in midfield, Mascherano slide over into the middle centre back position, Mathieu dropped to left centre back, and Alba played high up the pitch on left. The new left back did very well acting as an outlet and created a decent chance.

The second change that Enrique made was the position of Neymar. The Brazilian was not getting on the ball too much in a wide position in the first half. He was high up the pitch and Barcelona struggled to work the ball his way. So at half time, Enrique instructed Neymar to come inside and play just off of Luis Suarez. This allowed the two to combine easier and for Suarez to move into that left channel when he wanted to, but it also allowed Neymar to find the passing lanes that Leverkusen were not as careful closing, typically in the half spaces. He still drifted back out into a wide left area, especially before Alba came on, but he now had freedom to move around the pitch and it allowed Barcelona to outnumber Leverkusen (remember Busquets/Mascherano were acting as centre backs, though Mascherano moved back into a holding midfield role around the time Sergi Roberto came on) in the middle of the pitch.

Sergi Roberto’s introduction was important as well. He added forward runs both with and without the ball, but it occupied the Leverkusen centre backs. Without Neymar and Sergi Roberto’s central presence, Suarez certainly would not have gotten the space he did to score the winner.

Conclusion

An excellent tactical match. Bayer Leverkusen and Roger Schmidt came out and pressed Barcelona, allowing the German side to have complete control of the opening 45 minutes and they certainly should have been ahead by more than one goal going into the half. However, Luis Enrique’s subtle changes at half time allowed Barcelona to get a better grip on the match and their task was significantly aided by Schmidt’s decisions to take off both Javier Hernandez and Karim Bellarabi. Without those outlets, Leverkusen rarely put pressure on Barcelona, allowing the Spanish side to play at will.

While Barcelona won the match, and Enrique’s changes were subtle yet effective, there are still questions on how Barcelona will cope without Messi for two months.