Rayo Vallecano’s plan in the 1st half, how Valverde switched the tactical system, and a quick comment about players’ rotations & physical condition.
1/ Rayo Vallecano’s tactical system
5-4-1 with compact lines focused on blocking the central lanes, aware that Barça’s play on the wings is limited.
They controlled very well the Messi-Alba connection :
2/ Counter-attacks & ball progressors
Rayo Vallecano tried to counter using long passes towards their striker (Raúl de Tomás). When it wasn’t possible, 2 players emerged as excellent solutions : Bébé (right winger) and Imbula (central midfielder). Physically powerful and technically skilled, they were able to keep control of the ball under Barça’s counter-pressing and help the play progress forward.
Imbula rushing forward
Bébé under pressure
3/ Raúl de Tomás (RdT)
He is the kind of striker every LaLiga team would want : mobile, with good ball protection & technique, can provoke fouls & creates chances out of nothing, even if his team is not productive collectively. Shades of Cristiano in his style of play & movements.
4/ Alba’s defensive contribution 🏃♂️💨💨💨
Against these kind of teams who bet it all on the counters, I always felt that Alba’s work blocking them goes a bit unnoticed & undervalued.
Same could be said (to a lesser extent) about Sergi Roberto & Semedo.
5/ Barça’s problem in the 1st half
Rayo Vallecano’s block was quite static. And Barça played too many short passes. The switch of play from side to side in the last third was slow, and disorganizing such a packed defensive block with predictive short passes is difficult.
Barça needed to pass faster & be more mobile to create & exploit spaces better. Or get more players dribbling 1v1 to disorganize that block.
6/ The Dembélé solution
Valverde changed the system in the 2nd half : playing 4231, with Semedo & Dembélé on the right and Alba & Coutinho on the left, thus stretching the play way more. Rayo Vallecano players looked a bit tired. Closing spaces a split second too late. Empty spaces started to appear and Barça’s play became more fluid and productive.
7/ Rotations & players physical condition
Dembélé played 45 min & got injured.
Again a proof that those constant talks about the need to rest a specific player before an important game are useless. Bad luck. Shit happens. Whether you play 90, 45 or 15 minutes.
Without access to medical reports & detailed info about each player’s (because everyone is different) levels of energy, fatigue, resistance etc etc… it’s just guesswork.
Basing such guesses only on playing time is too simplistic : there are many more variables to consider and that we’re not aware of. The technical & medical staffs have GPS trackers on players monitoring them in real time during games & training. Troves of data. Managed by top professionals in the field. If there’s a risk for a player they would know it better and sooner than any fan.
8/ Suárez
Suárez had a very good performance : very mobile & useful, constantly dragging center backs out of the box to create space for his teammates. And scored this great tiki-taka goal. URUGUAYO 👌🏽
9/ Magical Messi 👑
10/ UCL
Winning 2 Clásicos at the Bernabeu in 4 days, reaching Copa del Rey final, solidifying our position at the top of LaLiga, surviving Hlebruary : the team looks solid and I hope they can confirm that in next game against Olympique Lyon in UCL.
Visca Barça 💪🏽🔵🔴
You can follow me on Twitter and YouTube. Or contact me here for collaborations or questions.
Captn ⚽ 