Barcelona 3-1 Leganes: Dembele steps up

Barcelona faced Leganes on Saturday evening and chose to rest Lionel Messi aheas of a midweek Copa Del Rey tie with Sevilla. In the front three were Suarez and Dembele as usual, and Phillippe Coutinho was given a chance to impress in his favoured left forward role. The game couldnt have gone much differently for the pair, Dembele was a constant threat, regularly driving the team forward and creating chances, whereas Coutinho looked sorely lacking in confidence, an attitude which seemed to be shared by his teammates, who looked reluctant to pass the ball to him, and when they did he was unable to create much.

In midfield Ernesto Valverde selected Carles Alena and Arthur alongside Sergio Busquets - slightly surprising to leave out the likes of Rakitic on a day Messi was also not in the lineup, but Alena was impressive on the ball and linked up well with Dembele on the right.

Opponents Leganes played with 3 in defence, switching to 5 when Barca were on the attack. They pressed very agressively when the Barcelona defence were in possession, hoping to force errors and to their credit they did make the home side look a lot more sloppy than usual and caused a few misplaced passes. Unfortunately they lacked the quality to do a great deal with the ball once they received it, and when the ball reached Barca’s midfield, Leganes retreated very deep into their half and put nearly everyone behind the ball to try to keep it level.

Leganes’ tactics made it a slightly scrappy game, with 6 yellow cards dished out, and not a lot of quality from either side in the first half. With Barca rarely involving Coutinho, most of the play came down the right, through Sergi Roberto, Alena, and Dembele, and the latter pair were at the heart of the opening goal. Pique dribbled out of defence under pressure from four Leganes players, managed to release it into midfield at which point Alena and Dembele linked up to bring the ball forward. Dembele played the ball wide to Alba who found the Frenchman in the box for a well controlled first time finish into the corner.

In the second half, Leganes continued to cause problems and scored an equaliser just before the hour mark. Two names that may be familiar to English football fans, Allan Nyom and Martin Braithwaite, were both involved - a long ball down the right flank was crossed in for Braithwaite to tap in, with Alba unable to properly intercept the initial pass. Thomas Vermaelen was the only defender who is not a regular starter, and while he didnt make any particular mistakes, Barca certainly looked less comfortable in defence, although much of this could be attributed to Leganes’ pressing in attack. Roberto took a cynical yellow card shortly after the equaliser to stop Braithwaite from breaking through on a counter attack.

At 1-1, Valverde quickly introduced Messi and Rakitic for the young midfielders Arthur and Alena, and kept Coutinho in the front three despite Messi’s presence. A few minutes after the substitutions, Dembele went off with an ankle injury and again Velverde chose to keep Messi in central midfield, introducing Malcom in Dembele’s place. Alena should count himself very unlucky to have gone off - he looks like he could develop into a perfect player for Barca’s style.

It was unfortunate for the game to lose Dembele, but in Messi an even better dribbler and passer was now in play, and he impacted the match in a similar way, offering dynamism like his young teammate, although with far more all round quality and a better final ball.

Barca took the lead again after Messi created an opening from outside the box and let off a brilliant long range strike. It was matched by Cuellar in the Leganes goal, but he could only parry into the path of Suarez. The Uruguayan did not have one of his better games, but it was a fine poacher’s goal and he looked happier with Messi on the pitch.

Barca still didnt have total control of the game, as their wide options Malcom and Coutinho offered staggeringly litte to the general play, meaning most of Barca’s good moves came through Messi, Rakitic and Alba. Malcom was almost nonexistent, playing very safe passes when he received the ball and not providing any goal threat. Coutinho was just as bad, he looked nothing like the player we have seen at Liverpool and got in the way of any attacks his teammates dared involve him in. He was easily dispossessed and on the rare occasions he tried to make something happen, he was not successful.

When 7 minutes of added time were shown, it could have been a nervous end to the game for Barcelona, but after an exchange of passes with Alba, Messi finished a move with a terrific right footed strike from inside the area to ensure there would be no late drama.

The big takeaway from this game for me was how good Dembele was, and how he is able to offer a very similar threat to the team that Messi does. His dribbling is excellent and he is an extremely positive, dynamic player and is always making things happen - it’s a real shame he and Messi didnt share much time on the pitch this evening. Messi offered another reminder of his brilliance, controlling the game from midfield when he came on and losing none of his goal threat. He looks likely to move into a permanent midfield position in his later years and on this evidence, he will have no problems at all adapting. Barca will be wondering what on earth to do with Coutinho, they went out of their way to let him have a full game in his favoured position, having apparently decided he can’t be trusted in a central midfield role. Perhaps he could be successful in a number 10 role if they were willing to tweak the formation, but his confidence is on the floor and that is the biggest challenge they face with him.