Barça will begin a very important week tonight with three games in seven days and a classic on the horizon. Furthermore, the current casualty situation of the Barça team adds even more demand to all of this. The first station: the always complicated Athletic in Montjuic. Here are my 5 tactical keys for this match:
The big question for the eleven for tonight falls on the defensive line. And the fact is that the loss of the best defender at the beginning of the season is an important condition for Xavi. In addition, Araujo’s international journey (he played with Uruguay on Wednesday) adds more ingredients to the issue. Because the Uruguayan and Andreas Christensen are the only right-handed center backs available right now. Factor that causes a change in the Dane’s usual profile or an entry into the eleven of Íñigo Martínez and/or Marcos Alonso to be very possible. One of the last ones that will surely enter. Probably Íñigo Martínez because it is his former team and because he is short on minutes. With all the games in the coming days, it will be especially interesting to see how Xavi decides to manage the right-footed centre-back position.
Without De Jong, without Pedri, without Sergi Roberto and with Gundogan and Fermín having played during the week, the role of the pivot has to be important. Not just tonight but all week. Because until Pedri comes in normally and De Jong and Sergi Roberto recover, the midfield has three players for three positions. And Oriol Romeu is the only one of the three who has not gone with national teams. Good time for him to recover his best level. He and the team need it.
Today will be an ideal day to throw ruptures into space. Because Athletic usually leaves meters behind the defensive line. To which we must add that none of the defenders are fast and that Yeray’s loss affects them a lot. Against Barça and, in Montjuic, the height of the defense will not be so high but it will be enough so that there are spaces to gain the backs. Real Sociedad, Madrid… all the teams have created problems for him in this way. So it is important that forwards are active to break diagonally and potential passers are active to correspond with good movements.
Barring a surprise, Valverde will start in 4-2-3-1 with a marked double pivot and a line of three midfielders. Due to the idiosyncrasy of Athletic’s wing players, the reception areas will appear by themselves. Some reception areas that will be on the sides of the pivots. Because the wide midfielders will be left hanging at the top and because the full-backs will not always jump. So the Lamine, Fermín, Balde and company will be able to receive comfortably if they move well. The key is to lower your height slightly to increase your engagement.
Without a doubt, the lions’ most dangerous player is the speedy Nico Williams. He has been a doubt all week but he has been called up and will be available. We will see what use Ernesto Valverde makes of him but we will have to be very attentive to his actions. He hasn’t scored yet in the League but he has two goal assists and is the lions’ best dribbler. But if we talk about football, the most complete player on the Athletic squad is Sancet. Offensive midfielder with presence and great arrival. He has two goals and registers an interesting average of 1.10 key passes and two shots on goal per game played. In addition, he comes with the emotional boost of his debut with the national team.
He is less skilled than his little brother and does not finish as well as him, but Iñaki Williams is also dangerous. Even more so, in the context of large spaces that the party will design today. This is the explanation why he always has notable matches against Barça. He is the lions’ top scorer with four goals in the League championship.
