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No genuine defensive midfield
This is not strictly true about Barcelona all the time, although they do rely on the ability of their centre-backs to read the game more than most, they're usually fairly well equipped to win the ball in midfield.
Against Athletic, Barca seemed porous in defending any sort of attacks. For most of the first half, Inaki Williams himself had plenty of space to operate in between the midfield and backline. He managed to run in behind plenty of times as well and test Marc-Andre Ter Stegen making up many of the 5 shots on target that Athletic registered.
Raul Garcia's constant pressure on Frenkie de Jong also made it difficult for the Dutchman to settle. Though he did hold his own in terms of not giving away the ball and largely being press resistant, it did put a dent in his ability to start any coherent attack from midfield.
More crucially, neither in the 4-3-3 system, nor in the 4-3-2-1 were Barca able to keep defensively sound in midfield. It may be an anomaly in this game, but Valverde may want to keep a keen eye on it as they go into their next game.
