After a week of contrasting trajectories, Barça visits the Bernabéu with the intention of adding three points that will give them some hope for the League. But to do this, they will have to do many tactical things well to overcome the Madridistas. These are my tactical keys for this great game:
The first essential point is so that what they crushed in the Super Cup Final does not happen again to Barça: the management of defensive height. And the blaugranas made it excessively difficult for the madridistas to take advantage of one of their strongest points, the spaces behind the defense. Barça, as seen in the image, conceded two things that can never be granted in football, leaving the passers without pressure and maintaining a high line. If the opponent is pressured, the defense does have to hold the high line. If the opposing passer is not on top, the defense must gain meters back to guard his back. A rule as basic as it is important tonight.
The nomenclatures that in football analysis refer to High Pressure and Pressure After losing the ball. Two concepts that will be super important today and that will be of great help for Barça. And one of the best ways to create clear scoring chances for this Madrid team is to recover the ball in Madrid’s first passes. It is a team that tries to play inside to get out and, therefore, can be recovered.
When Barça can access the rival field, they will have spaces to receive and combine. And when the Madridistas defend near their area, they are not a team that pursues all the movements or that overwhelms the rival a lot, but quite the opposite: they defend very positionally in their own field. As usual, Barça’s midfielders will be able to receive between the lines and combine. But to do this they will need to be fine in their passing quality to filter good balls and avoid easy erroneous passes that could activate Madrid’s main danger: transitions.
The area in which Barça can hurt Madrid the most is in the right sector and through the connection of Lamine Yamal with Lewandovski. The youth player is, today, the most creative and overflowing player on the team and, if we combine this with the fact that Madrid loses its defensive position in the center when they are able to go deeper on the wing, the mix with Lewandowski could be very positive for Barça interests. Whether combining the two with center-shooting sequences or in an individual play by one of them.
It is evident that Barça will have to be good in defending the Madrid players. And it has been proven that the best way to do this is to not touch the current structure by moving Araujo to the outside zone. Among other reasons, because Ancellotti can place Vinicius further inside, leaving the lane for Rodrygo as he already did in the Super Cup or in the first leg of the Champions League Quarterfinals. But there is another element that is even more important than the direct defense of Vinicius, Belligham, Rodrygo, Brahim… and that is having good positioning on the field while Barça has the ball. The Catalans have to have the players who close the defensive midfield more staggered and very close to the dropped players that Madrid always leaves. It is no coincidence that Madrid is, with a total of seven, the team in the League that has scored the most goals against attacks. Close to overcome, to prevent the start of the race, to hinder the trajectory or, even better, to anticipate in the moment of the pass preventing the ball from reaching their offensive players directly. This last option is the most difficult but the best because it is the one that allows you to link one attack with another without leaving the opponent’s field.
