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Midfield
Probably the most noticeable feature that marks the difference between Luis Enrique’s Barca to those of most of his predecessors is the functioning of the midfield. For years, the midfield has been a hub of attacking creativity for Barcelona.
However, this season the midfield setup has been modified in a defensive sense and yet, it has only further helped to bring the best out of the devastating South American front-three.
Much like the defenders, the midfielders drop deeper than they used to earlier. The inclusion of Ivan Rakitic has given the team a whiff of physicality which it lacked before. The Croatian is a tireless runner and makes his presence felt box to box, much like Claudio Marchisio does at Juventus.
Both him and Andres Iniesta have been crucial in covering the marauding full-backs on either side and holding off attackers long enough till the full backs track back.
Sergio Busquets drops very deep into his own half and almost acts as a supplementary centre-back. His excellent reading of the game helps cut out incisive passes on the edge of the box and release the ball quickly to a better-positioned player.
While on the ball, the three midfielders usually help in keeping possession and circulate the ball in different areas of the pitch instead of looking for the direct final pass themselves.
The passes have become largely horizontal and backward. This too, serves as a defensive strategy as the opposition cannot pose an attacking threat when they do not have the ball.
Statistics such as number of assists and goals scored may show that the midfield has not been up to the mark this season, but if one takes a look at the distance covered, tackles won, interceptions made, and passes completed one will realize just how vital its contribution has been.
Attack
What more can be said about Leo Messi and his two partners in crime, Neymar and Luis Suarez that hasn’t been said before. The world has run out of superlatives to describe the magic that these three have created time and time again, throughout this season.
Each of the three are individually brilliant and have enough skills and tricks up their sleeves to bamboozle even the best of the defenders. In addition to that, the understanding between the three is almost telepathic as each of them understand the way the other two play. They can anticipate each other’s runs perfectly and are always ready to make selfless passes to serve the common interest of the team.
With the midfield taking a rather sterile role in an attacking sense, the creative burden has fallen almost entirely on the front three, especially Messi.
‘MSN’ has been assigned the direct responsibility of making the incision into the opposition’s defense and they couldn’t have done more justice to their roles. In fact, it suits their playing styles as each of them are much more than just goalscorers and enjoy creating goals as well.
Messi is the one who drops deep to link up with the midfielders and make the direct passes to find either Suarez or Neymar. The latter two are extremely intelligent players who have incredible movement and are masters in beating the offside trap.
The first goal that Barcelona scored in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final at the Allianz Arena is a perfect depiction of how the three operate. Messi picked out Suarez with a sublime through ball from the deep, the Uruguayan peeled away from his marker and squared it up for Neymar to knock the ball into the goal. Such is the understanding between the three that it usually takes only 3 or 4 passes for them to create a goalscoring chance.
Furthermore, with Messi returning back to the right wing under Enrique, he makes beautiful cross field passes with the side of his foot to switch the play to the opposite wing and stretch the opposition defense.
Also, as mentioned earlier, the fact that the defense and midfield drops deep to recover possession makes sure the team is perfectly set up to launch counter attacks. The front three tremendously benefit from such type of situations as it gives them a free license to run into open spaces, something that they are excellent at. It is hard enough to contain them with a packed defense, let alone when caught out of position on the counter.
Adaptation was key
Lucho’s Barca has been exciting to watch and has managed to adapt to the changing times without really discarding its mantra of possession dominance. Dropping back at times instead of pressing up may have reduced their possession stats by 5-10% on an average per game as compared to previous seasons, but it has managed to make them that much more lethal attackingly.
The Asturian coach has shown that anything is possible when you can learn to adapt to your players and realize how to bring the best out of each one of them.
A fitness freak himself, he has brought back the emphasis on physical fiitness and squad rotation to ensure that the squad can keep up with the gruelling schedules of modern football. He has instilled a work ethic and hunger that has made Barcelona a ruthless, goalscoring machine.
If not anything else, Barcelona’s performances this season have reflected the most trademark features of Enrique when he was a player – pragmatic and hardworking, yet, creatively brilliant.
