Tactical Analysis: Barcelona – Levante

-By Sagar

Despite the age old ‘cliché’ of “anything can happen in football”, Barca never looked like they would be troubled by this Levante side. Considering the form that Barca are in, the only questions asked were, ‘What will the starting XI look like?” and “By how many goals will Barca win?”.

Lucho stuck to his rotation policy this time around by resting quite a lot of players from the mid-week CDR match. Only Messi, Neymar and Mascherano were the players who started both the matches.

From what we have seen so far this year, it was pretty evident how Barca would play.

We’ve come a long way from the days of ‘Pep’, where we were more technical and graceful almost like we were conducting a ballet session, to the days of ‘Lucho’ where we are more B-boying, street dancers with an ‘in-your-face’ attitude.

And it was more of the same as Barca took on Levante.

Starting off with the defense, Mascherano was chosen to marshal the defense and he did a good job of it. The line was very high, and the defense played with such intensity that the whole of Levante’s side was pushed back by a couple of yards. The pressing from the top to the back-line was flawless.



Here is the play leading up to the second goal, where none of the Levante’s players are beyond their own half and you can see Bartra, who is normally tasked with staying back alongside Mascherano, making a vital interception well inside Levante’s half, and then puts Messi through on goal.

Even Bravo had his average positioning, in the game, at the edge of the penalty box and was the perfect example of what it means to be a sweeper keeper. Especially when he came well out of his box to clear the ball when a counter was on.

The fullbacks and their constant changing of positions with the wingers was definitely the key to this side, and shows how well Barca’s game-plan inter-connects all the parts of the team.

The fullbacks, both Montoya and Adriano, had clear instructions to be very economical with their runs into the box and more often than not they were found occupying the left/right midfield area, just beyond the half-way line, especially when Neymar and Messi hugged the touch-line. By doing this, the midfield area had another extra body for Barca players to pass to and at the same time they weren’t straying away from their defensive positions, and this also let Neymar and Messi push up a little, where they could do more damage.





As you can see, Adriano spent a lot of time playing more central than a full back would and offered that option in midfield, leaving Neymar with a lot of space to work in.

This had a lot of advantages. By doing this, Barca overloaded the midfield area and drew in the Levante players into more central areas, leaving space for the wingers to utilize, and whenever Messi dropped back to the midfield area, Levante just couldn’t stop Barca from executing their plans. Barca owned the midfield and it’s pretty clear.

The point of Messi and Neymar on the wings was so they could get more space to operate in and even if they didn’t, they could cut inside more effectively than the full-backs. Also, when compared to the full-backs, they are better suited at finding the diagonal runs of their destructive counter-part from the other side.

Whenever Messi or Neymar moved towards the middle, the full backs did offer support on the wings and Busquets would drop back a little to help the center-backs.

This way, when Barca did lose possession, Rakitic, Neymar, Pedro and both the full-backs pressed hard and high, and Busquets did well to read the plays and intercept the passes.

Another tactic that Barca utilized a lot of, was the long diagonal pass to the wings. By putting bodies in the midfield and opening up the wings, our midfielders and center-backs found Neymar in acres of space almost all the time, and if there was enough space, they would opt for the long diagonal passes along the ground. Xavi and Rakitic were in charge of making those diagonal passes as soon as they got the ball and they executed it perfectly, and even Mascherano and Bartra were quite successful in making those passes.



Another perfect example of how Adriano moves in towards the midfield, crowding it out (red circle) and opening up space on the left for Neymar, who then receives the diagonal pass along the ground, and Neymar from that position can be more dangerous and effective than Adriano in a similar position.



(Here, they crowded out the center and the right side of the field and Xavi then switches sides with a long diagonal ball to Neymar on the left).

Messi and Neymar invariably moved inwards, drawing in their markers and defenders, and that is when the full-backs offered those runs into the box.

This is where Messi used his “Messi ball” (over the top through pass to Adriano or Neymar) to full effect.



Here is an example of when Messi dropped back and into the center and Neymar too moved inside, and Adriano offered that run for Messi.



This is the first goal build-up. Here Messi cuts inside from the wings and again uses his ‘signature pass’ move to find Neymar, who finished it to open the scoring.

Messi was at his best on the right hand side and his new role of dropping deep once in a while is working wonders for Barca.

Messi heat map:



Another point of discussion in the beginning of the match was Pedro’s position. One would have thought Messi might end up playing in the false-9 position a lot in this match, but it wasn’t so. Pedro and Messi kept interchanging their positions like Messi normally does when Suarez is on the pitch. Messi looked his usual self when executing this, but sadly, Pedro never looked comfortable playing through the center, but whenever he moved to the wings, he looked like he got back to his natural habitat.

In conclusion, the game-plan used yesterday and in the recent fixtures proved that Barca have come a long way from tiki-taka, and passing from side to side to keep possession, to being more direct and also counter-attacking from time to time.

The average positions of all players in the match:



From the average positions chart too, it’s clear what Barca wanted to do. Pull the full backs a little inside and just in-front of the half-line to create space on the wings. Let Busquets drop back to cover the CBs, and then Messi and Neymar run wide during the build-up and then cut inside when the ball is almost near the final third. The midfielders look for those diagonal passes to find Messi-Neymar or the full-backs.

Barca have started being more direct and adventurous with their plays, even including counter attacks in their game plans. This does result in a lot of turnovers and loose balls but that is compensated for, by high and intense pressing by the entire team, and at times they revert back to controlling possession and tempo and look for a breakthrough patiently, until they again, decide to be a little direct in the final third. Almost flawless. Almost.

Problem with this is, that you can’t expect players to start counter attacking, and if it fails, to start pressing high up, right then and there. That would tire out the players and they would eventually burnout. A solution to this would be to rotate the players regularly. So, when it’s February or March, the business end of the season, players are well rested.

Basically, Lucho needed to rotate a lot in the beginning so the players can be fresh to carry out such game plans later on in the season.

Oh….wait…..Lucho did that, and got a LOT of grief for it.

Maybe, just maybe, Lucho knows what he is doing?

Let’s wait and watch shall we?