After making sure they were winter champions, Barça closed the first round of the Santander League this Wednesday by facing Betis again just 18 days after their duel in the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup. Both teams ensure high-level football. These are my 5 tactical keys for this great game:
The Girona game left Dembélé’s injury as a clear setback for Barça. Because he was a capital footballer for Xavi and because, right now, he was the maximum offensive generator of his team. But the Catalans have to learn and overcome this loss as they have done with others that have occurred during the course. That will make Xavi pull even more of the mid four variant, but it is clear that there will continue to be many matches for the purest 4-3-3. Betis’s is one of those days. Besides, it is the moment so that players like Raphinha, Ferran Torres or Ansu Fati take a step forward. They will continue for at least 4 weeks.
The Barcelona striker returns to the League after the sanction. And that, in addition to exponentially raising Barça’s goalscoring potential, generates some collateral benefits. On the one hand, he frees the attention of the two extremes and, on the other, magnifies the interior corridors for the midfielders. Two aspects that the Barcelona team has to take advantage of. One of the keys happens because Barça knows how to get revenue from the spaces that Lewandowski opens in the last third. And there are those close to them who have to act.
Xavi declared that he missed more daring in his team after the game against Girona. And it is that Barça is proving to have many difficulties to attack well-organized defenses in position, apart from other things that are also penalizing them in these contexts. With the interior spaces that Betis usually leave when they are in their own field, it is an ideal day for Barça to insist on these risky oblique passes. Especially, those that go between centrals or to the sides of these with the movements of the wingers or the short falls of Lewandowski.
By type of game, by profiles and because it is part of their game strategy, Betis is a team that ends up breaking at some point in every game. It is a scenario that ends up dragging the rivals and that, many times, means that Betis take the initiative of the game since they move very well in dynamic environments and with a lot of back and forth. One of the points that could be more decisive is that Barça knows how to read and select when to attack quickly and when not. That is to say, that he interprets and hits each time he chooses to run and lengthen.
It is not new to do so, but it is obligatory to speak of Borja Iglesias as an element to control. The Betic striker, with a total of 9 out of 20, is the footballer who has the most weight in the Betic goal (45% of the total). He is a basic footballer to understand the remarkable season of the béticos. He has been doubtful during the week but he will be available for Pellegrini.
On the other hand, highlight another name associated with a tactical detail. And it is that Canales, in the last matches, has returned to the right-handed profile that he already occupied in the past and his performance has been greatly enhanced. From there he can participate, touch, cross or assist with his excellent left foot. Without a doubt, he is at his best so far this year. He has played the last three games in full, including extra time in the Copa del Rey against Osasuna.
