Match date: 25 October 2014

The first El Clasico of the year sees Luis Enrique, former player of both Real Madrid and Barcelona, return to the Bernabeu as manager of Barcelona.

Barcelona came into the match at the top of La Liga, with Real Madrid in third place behind Sevilla, but the biggest headline coming into the match was Enrique’s decision to start Luis Suarez in his first eligible match for his new side.

With Suarez, Enrique started Messi and Neymar in the forward roles. Suarez wasn’t the only surprising inclusion as Xavi, rather than Rakitic, started in the midfield with Iniesta and Busquets, while Mathieu started at left back.

Ancelotti set out Real Madrid in a 4-2-3-1 as James and Toni Kroos experienced their first El Clasico.

Barcelona’s Shape and Selection

With the introduction of Suarez into the side, it was going to be interesting to see how a front three of Suarez, Messi, and Neymar operated. Suarez played in wide forward positions during his time at Ajax, but has played as a centre forward for the majority of his career, including last season when he scored 31 goals for Liverpool despite playing just 33 league matches. What came about was largely Messi dropping behind Suarez and Neymar, giving Barcelona a diamond shape in midfield at times with Busquets anchoring it and Iniesta and Xavi on either side. At times Messi would drift into a wide left position, but more often than not, the Argentine would look to pick up the ball in between Real Madrid’s back four and Kroos and Modric.

Regardless of Messi’s position, whether it be at the tip of a midfield diamond behind Suarez and Neymar or further up the field between the Uruguayan and Brazilian, the result was freedom for Messi to roam and a narrow approach from Barcelona, which helped Real Madrid contain them well enough and allowed Los Blancos to set themselves up for quick counter attacks.

A midfield diamond, regardless of Messi’s occasional drifting into wide areas, inherently means that there is a lack of width in the team when going forward. Typically, full backs are made to be the providers of width and Barcelona adhered to this idea as Mathieu and Alves got themselves up the field. Unfortunately for Barcelona, neither full back had a particular good game going forward despite their opportunities. During Barcelona’s best years in recent memory, Dani Alves was considered to be one of the best, if not the best, right back in the world and used any opportunity to get forward effectively. In the last two years, his decision making and final ball have been a shadow of what they were and it showed again against Real Madrid. As a result, Barcelona attacked down the left, through Mathieu, with a little more success than through Alves. Mathieu, however, is primarily a centre back rather than an attacking left back, so it was interesting to see Enrique opt to start the Frenchman on the left rather than Jordi Alba, who was on the bench and had a good midweek game against Ajax. Below you can see that, despite the space that Mathieu and Alves found, they were unable to consistently find the likes of Suarez, Neymar, and Messi in the Real Madrid penalty area.

Under Luis Enrique this year, however, regardless of Messi’s positioning, the two midfielders in front of Busquets often cover the space in wide areas, especially Rakitic, who is often in wide areas, as he was against Paris Saint Germain in Barcelona’s only other loss of the season. When the likes of Iniesta and Rakitic or Xavi, in this match, get pulled out wide, it allows the opposition to counter attack through central areas much easier as it leaves Busquets with a huge amount of space to cover in front of the back four and was often over run with Ronaldo or Isco, who switched throughout, and Kroos and Modric running from deep. Below, you can see the huge space between the back four and midfield for Barcelona, which Busquets was left to patrol himself.

In a game in which Barcelona did not enjoy long spells of possession, but rather broken up with Real’s pressing and possession, it was surprising that Luis Enrique opted to start Xavi, allowing Madrid to play quickly through midfield with the Barcelona captain unable to contribute defensively against a quicker, physical side like Real Madrid.

Real Madrid Press and Go Forward

Ancelotti has been much more adventurous in his matches against Barcelona than his predecessor was and as a result, won the match at the Bernabeu while losing the Camp Nou Clasico last year. For this match, he clearly told his players to press Barcelona, regardless of the position of the ball on the field and it worked extremely well in breaking up Barcelona’s possession and made it hard for the Catalans to find any consistent possession to take control of the game and dictate the tempo. Below, you can see the amount or pressure that Real Madrid were putting on the ball when Barcelona had possession in their own half and the limited options that the ball carrier (Busquets) had.

Los Blancos’ pressing allowed them to take control of the match and allowed them to have much more control of the ball, which forced Barcelona to defend very deep at times, something that they are not used to. With this, Real Madrid’s forwards and midfield were very fluid in their movement; much more fluid than Barcelona and somewhat reminiscent of Guardiola’s Barcelona. Unlike Real Madrid, Barcelona were unable to find quick counter attacks. Though both Neymar and Suarez are capable of playing on the counter, they found themselves too narrow at times and Barcelona were too quick to look to play the ball to them after winning the ball back from Real Madrid in deep positions and simply gave the ball back to Madrid with errant passes.

Real Madrid’s third goal, which killed off the game, was an excellent example of their abilities going forward. It was quick and concise and came as a result of a mistake by Iniesta and Mascherano. The Spanish midfielder looked play a ball back to Mascherano, but the Argentine was coming into make a tackle, which allowed Real Madrid to counter with Ronaldo, James, Isco, and Benzema.

Real Madrid’s Full Backs

Perhaps overlooked because of the attacking players on Real Madrid, both Marcelo and Dani Carvajal had excellent games for Los Blancos. With Isco and Ronaldo taking turns on the left and James on the right, Ancelotti had his side set up with inverted wingers meaning that the full backs were going to have to provide width when going forward, which they did very well.

Marcelo and Carvajal did an excellent job defensively as well, communicating well with Ramos and Pepe about the outside-in movements of Suarez and Neymar, dealing with Messi as he drifted into wide areas, and keeping Mathieu and Alves from having a telling influence on the match.

Conclusion

Certainly a good test for Barcelona, who have now lost both of their matches against top competition (this and Paris Saint Germain). In both matches, the midfield three were too open and it was easy for the opposition to play through. Enrique’s selections for El Clasico were questionable. Without having proper control of the match and against a very quick Real Madrid midfield, Xavi’s inclusion in the starting XI left Busquets having to do much more work defensively. Pique over Mathieu as centre back and then placing the Frenchman in a full back position, when a top attacking outlet from the full back position was needed for Barcelona when playing a midfield diamond, was questionable.

Suarez looked good during his time on the field and should have had two assists on his debut, but Messi missed an opportunity to give Barcelona a 2-0 lead, which could have allowed Barcelona much more control in the match.

Real Madrid played very well and exploited Barcelona’s midfield well with their movement and pace. Modric, Kroos, and Isco all had terrific games in the centre of the park for Madrid. Modric and Kroos kept the ball moving well for Madrid, switching the ball nicely into Marcelo and Carvajal as they found space due to Suarez and Neymar staying high up the pitch, while Isco, arguably man of the match, was able to break the lines with vision and dribbling.