San Mames played host to Luis Enrique’s Barcelona side in the second round of La Liga fixtures. With Claudio Bravo departing for Manchester City earlier in the week, Marc-Andre ter Stegen would promote his case for being the new #1 in Enrique’s side whilst Ernesto Valverde’s men were looking to achieve their first points of the season.

Athletic’s Clear Pressing Scheme

Valverde had his side set-up in a 4-4-2 shape out of possession, particularly when pressing high in Barca’s half. The idea was to remove all passing lanes through the central areas, and more importantly to Sergio Busquets. In fact, this structure was superbly organized and executed – Busquets’ effect early on in the game was virtually nothing and Barca had a few eerie moments when playing out of defence.

In a typical fashion, the wide-men would pick up an areas which would allow to press either the full-backs or centre midfielders, depending who would receive, whilst Aduriz and Eraso would chase the centre-havles and goalkeeper, whoever which is in possession. Eraso and Aduriz worked particularly well as a pair to close passing lanes into Busquets. This worked as the original structure which would then set the tone for the following pairing of Iturraspe and Benat.

There were two key triggers to which would encourage the Athletic press – when ter Stegen would receive and when a defender received the ball in a position which wouldn’t allow him to play forwards.

Firstly, with Barcelona utilizing ter Stegen’s ball-playing abilities, it was imperative that Athletic were disciplined and organized well from the start. Frequently, on the ball-side, Athletic would match up with Barca players, whilst on the opposite side, the wide-midfielder would

operate in spaces between 2 potential receivers – this allowed them to cover both receivers well, and to apply pressure quickly to whichever player would receive. It was common to see at moments that ter Stegen would receive, Eraso would be the man pressing, which would trigger Benat and/or Iturraspe to move up to mark Busquets. This was a very common trend in their scheme, which ultimately reduced Busquets’ impact on the game, moreso in early stages.

The hope of this high press situation was that ter Stegen would be forced to play long into wider areas or into areas dominated by Boveda and Laporte

– however, after a shaky start ter Stegen became pivotal to Barcelona escaping the high press.

On the latter trigger, the key was to prevent passing lanes into Busquets who is ultimately the connector in this Barca side in terms of developing the player further afield. Athletic still operated the man-oriented pressing scheme, but would look to press Barca into wide areas and furthermore disrupt passing combinations when they do develop.

They idea of the system was to prevent Barca’s play through the central areas – and key to this was the prevention of passes into Busquets from early Barcelona build-ups. In situations where pressing the ball aggressively wasn’t a good decision, Athletic set-up shop in clear a clear 4-4-2 which would see the top pair preventing passes into Busquets, whilst the midfield unit would prevent passes through into further midfielder and/or striker options.

Overall, Valverde’s plan was well thought out and pretty well executed – Barca, however, did look comfortable on the ball and made good combinations in certain parts to escape the high press, but this aggressive style of pressing caused them a lot of problems in their early build up.

Barca Teasing With Ball Retention

In contrary to the above pressing scheme of Athletic, Barca picked up well in later stages of the 1st half and moreso the 2nd and used their famous ball retention to their advantage. Acknowledging the game plan of the opposition, deliberately playing backwards passes goaded Athletic into pressing higher up field and therefore creating much more space between Bilbao’s midfield and defending units – something which Barca utilized well.

Goading #Athletic with their ball-retention, #Barca creating gaps in their MF + DF units to escape the press. pic.twitter.com/kn67dHDU0k — Jack (@ainsfutbol) August 28, 2016

The video is a great example of playing passes in a non-progressive way to tease the opposition creates gaps in their units. Notice how Athletic are hugely concerned by the positioning of Busquets that they overload the central areas and get tempted into pressing high. One way as shown is the lofted pass, but as the game grew this type of ball-retention created different opportunities to progress the ball into attacking areas.

Especially in the second half and Athletic grew tired, more passing lanes became open, and the gap between the opposition was creeping open and viable for Barcelona to exploit. The worrying trend for Athletic was that it was always between their defence and midfield units, which was cleverly utilized by Rakitic in-particular as his role changed slightly which saw him use more spaces on the right hand flank.

Ter Stegen was massively imposed on the game (amassed a staggering 77 touches of the ball, more than Busquets’ 67) – sometimes very daring in his decisions but ultimately played a vital role in Barcelona’s first phase of possession deep in their own half. His performance was a fantastic example to those who need to see a goalkeeper comfortable with his feet – not just passing and receiving but also a bit of dribbling by the German.

With this type of retention, Barcelona looked as though they used deep possession as a tool to counter-attack upon those spaces created by Athletic – this was greatly fascinating and also very influential to Barcelona’s key attacking moments – using the ball as a sort of magnet to drag oppositions around is something that is apart of the Barcelona philosophy.

Barca Attacking 1/3

With Athletic blocking central areas in Barca’s early build up play, it was much the difference at the other end of the pitch. Messi and Luis Suarez picked up central positions and Arda Turan drifted centrally every so often which creates a dilemma for opposing full-backs – do they follow these movements in field and be dragged out of position, or stay in shape.

Messi’s movements infield often created plenty of space out on the right for Roberto to surge into allowing them to create opportunities from wide areas. Later in the game, Rakitic moved into a role which saw him play further more on the right, and also look to distract opposition players with movements out wide and also centrally.

These minor combinations allowed them to move fairly quickly in a direct way, whilst also maintain control of the attack – Barca had key scoring chances from cut-backs in wide areas. In theory, they overloaded central areas with movements and bodies in order to attract opposition players, when the outcome was to move the ball through central areas with the ultimate destination of the flank.

Conclusion

Athletic were organized, Barca were comfortbale – that’s perhaps the easiest and simplest description of the game. The game was fairly even, both sides created chances, one team through mistakes and pressing high, the other through patient and well-time explosive penetrative possession.

It was very important to make them move and wear them down. It’s very hard to come here. Athletic strive on pressure. – Ivan Rakitic It really was an even game. They had a couple of opportunities to close out but game was in balance right until the very end. – Ernesto Valverde

Athletic go into round 3 searching for their first points for the season, but the early signs for Enrique’s side are massively positive. The team looks younger, and the midfield has a great blend of experience and fresh feet. It could be a very joyous season for Barcelona fans.

Featured image via cornerkickbets.com