Leganes 1-2 Barcelona: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis | La Liga 2019-20

Barcelona scraped past Leganes in a tense encounter at the Butarque. The victory enabled the visitors to solidify their position at the top of the La Liga table while the hosts missed an opportunity to climb out of the relegation zone.

The home side started the better of the two sides and immediately pressed the Blaugrana into mistakes. And, Leganes were rewarded for their endeavours in the 12th minute when Youssef En-Nesyri curled in a sumptuous shot off the right channel.

The hosts controlled the game for the remainder of the opening 45 minutes to enter the tunnel with their one-goal lead intact.

After the restart, Barcelona upped the ante just a tad and were willing to throw more men forward in search of an equaliser. In the 53rd minute, Luis Suarez nodded home Lionel Messi’s free-kick to restore parity and establish a foothold in the encounter.

With 11 minutes remaining, Arturo Vidal capitalised on some shaky defending to stab home the winner and spare the Blaugrana’s blushes

Here is a look at the talking points from the match.

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#5 Barcelona produce a woeful first-half performance

Barcelona were especially poor in the first half

Barcelona came into the game against Leganes at the top of the table and several expected them to dispatch the hosts with ease, especially considering the latter had been languishing at the foot of the La Liga ladder.

However, rather surprisingly, the Blaugrana played like a team struggling in the bottom half whereas Leganes showed the requisite courage and determination to surge ahead in the opening period.

The visitors looked off the pace from the outset and were hustled and harried in the early exchanges. One such moment led to Sergio Busquets giving the ball away before Roque Mesa blazed his shot over the bar.

Thereafter, Leganes were content to press Barcelona in midfield, rather than high up the pitch, meaning that the away side enjoyed plenty of the ball in the defensive and middle third.

Yet, they weren’t able to carve open the hosts’ defence as their build-up play lacked tempo, ideas and conviction.

On numerous occasions, the Blaugrana just pinged the ball across the pitch without ever trying to penetrate the home side’s defensive lines. And, even though Leganes did well to minimise the space in between the midfield and defence, Barcelona were guilty of not stretching the play adequately.

CD Leganes v FC Barcelona - La Liga

Additionally, they gifted possession to the hosts several times, meaning that the latter counter-attacked at pace and put the away side under strife.

More worryingly though, Barcelona didn’t look like a team capable of either breaching the Leganes rear-guard nor did they seem an outfit that was well-equipped to keep things tight at the back. The Blaugrana were second to every loose ball and that contributed to the hosts generating a head of steam, one that helped them control the first half.

Over the past few months, Ernesto Valverde’s side has produced some awful displays away from home. And, one wouldn’t be too wrong if one mentioned the first-half performance against Leganes in the same breath.

#4 Is Antoine Griezmann becoming an acute misfit at Barcelona?

Griezmann had another poor outing

Back in the summer, Antoine Griezmann dominated the back pages across Europe, courtesy his impending move to Barcelona from Atletico Madrid. Eventually though, the Blaugrana managed to acquire his services, thereby sending their fans into a frenzy with many hoping for the Frenchman to act as the missing piece of the attacking jigsaw.

However, nothing of that sort has transpired so far, meaning that Antoine Griezmann has endured a tough start to life at the Camp Nou, a fact emphasised by the constant criticism he has received. And, he certainly didn’t aid his cause with another listless showing away to Leganes on Saturday.

Alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Suarez, the Frenchman seemed a fish out of water after being entrusted with manning the flank. He never really got into the game and was left to feed off scraps as the Leganes defenders swarmed all over him whenever he received possession.

More importantly, though, another aspect came to the fore at the Butarque. Griezmann has often been at his best when functioning as a secondary striker behind a target man or when deployed as a pure No.10, with the freedom of roaming across the field.

However, with Messi ahead of him in that pecking order, the Frenchman has found it tough to sprinkle his quality on this Barcelona side. Inevitably, he has contributed to the Blaugrana’s lack of width courtesy his tendency to keep drifting in-field.

A few seasons ago, a certain Messi, Suarez and Neymar trio had wreaked havoc throughout Europe with them being labelled the best triumvirate ever to have worn a Barcelona jersey.

And, though Griezmann, Messi and Suarez was never expected to scale such peaks, it probably has fallen exceptionally short, especially in light of the Frenchman’s suitability to the role.

#3 Ernesto Valverde’s two-man midfield experiment falls flat

Frenkie de Jong struggled in a two-man midfield

Ernesto Valverde sprung a surprise when he fielded four attack-minded players for the trip to the Butarque with Frenkie de Jong and Sergio Busquets functioning as the midfield pairing. The change deviated quite a bit from the Spaniard’s usual 4-3-3 formation, meaning that plenty of fans waited with bated breath to see how the experiment would play out. Unfortunately for Valverde though, it didn’t work out as expected, especially in the first half where the visitors barely laid a glove on the hosts.

The two-man midfield meant that Busquets and de Jong were tasked with protecting the defence whereas they also shouldered the burden of forming the link between defence and attack.

However, with the Spaniard’s lack of pace in transition a constant worry nowadays, the Dutchman’s attacking instincts were reined in, thereby forcing Barcelona to play at a slower tempo and wait for one of their forwards to drop deep.

On most occasions, Messi did so but that allowed the hosts to crowd out the Argentine in midfield, a ploy that also left Suarez isolated, considering Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele were hugging the touch-line.

Ever since Valverde has been at the helm, the Blaugrana have been slightly culpable of operating at a pedestrian pace, meaning that their approach play has often seemed lackadaisical.

And, though he tried to correct that particular aspect by opting for four outright attackers, it only ended up complicating his conundrum even more.

#2 Leganes’ tactics nearly work a charm

CD Leganes nearly got their tactics spot on

Leganes started the weekend at the bottom of the La Liga pile and faced a monumental task trying to take points off Barcelona. However, they nearly pulled off a tactical masterclass to emerge with a share of the spoils and were pretty unlucky to return empty-handed.

The hosts were willing to allow the Blaugrana possession in midfield and were content to block out the spaces ahead. The above led to them maintaining their defensive shape throughout the contest as the visitors pushed and probed for an opening.

Additionally, their wingers tracked back diligently to help minimise Junior Firpo and Moussa Wague’s threat. In turn, that forced Barcelona to look for avenues in-field, an area that Leganes had already compressed.

Moreover, the hosts left En-Nesyri on the shoulder of Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti, thereby allowing them to spring swift counter-attacking moves whenever the Blaugrana lost possession.

Thus, it seemed a bit of a travesty that Leganes conceded two goals from set-pieces, especially after they’d kept the visitors at an arm’s length from open play for the entirety of the encounter.

And, while the general consensus before the game would’ve been an easy win for the league leaders, Leganes certainly ensured that Barcelona had to work hard for it.

#1 Another victory for Barcelona but are they regressing under Valverde?

Are Barcelona regressing under Valverde?

In the past couple of seasons, Ernesto Valverde has guided Barcelona to the La Liga twice and has powered them to a Copa del Rey triumph once. However, speculation about his future has never been too far away, especially considering his propensity to prioritise calculation over creativity.

Consequently, a constant practise of those tactics have meant that the Blaugrana have failed to rekindle the tiki-taka of yesteryear, a facet that hasn’t gone down too well with the Camp Nou faithful.

Moreover, capitulations on the road, akin to those in Liverpool and Rome, have allowed his critics to jump on the ‘ValverdeOut’ bandwagon in a trice. And, though the club has shown immense faith in him so far, signs of Barcelona regressing under his stewardship might just be surfacing.

Against Leganes, the Blaugrana rarely looked like a team that was perched at the pinnacle of the league table and were lucky to come away with three points. More alarmingly though, they still seem to have not found cures to visible ailments that have existed for the past eighteen months.

Firstly, their defence, especially away from home, seems a disaster waiting to unravel while their midfield hasn’t been able to impose itself on those matches.

Subsequently, they’ve tried to mix a bit of pragmatism with a set of players used to playing a more attractive brand of football. And, the results have, at times, gone rather pear-shaped.

Furthermore, they seem to lack a cutting edge in attack against sides that are willing to sit back and counter punch.

There is an old adage in football wherein champions are distinguished from the others courtesy their ability to win while not playing well. However, the problem at the Blaugrana currently is that they fire on all cylinders quite seldom, thereby casting the above as the trend rather than the anomaly.

And, one reckons a club of the ilk of Barcelona wouldn’t want things to flow in a similar vein for too long.