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Not One, but Two El Clasicos

With two El Clasicos this week, one being in the Copa del Rey, the other being in La Liga, I thought 

it’d be a great opportunity to not only cover two matches, but to continue branching out from the Premier League and the Champions League.

First I think I have to say that the build up to every El Clasico (and in the last few years there have been what seems like 6 a season), the media bills it as the most important game to be played in the history of football, even if there are two in one week. Each El Clasico seems to either be a really good display of football or a showcase of play acting by Pepe and Sergio Busquets (and now Jordi Alba) and a lot of poorly timed tackles and protesting to the referee. Every game though, at least here in America, we get to listen to Ray Hudson’s commentary and his pet names for Ronaldo, Messi, Xavi, Xabi Alonso, and Ozil.

Copa del Rey (26 February 2013)

Barcelona remained unchanged from the side that suffered the 2-0 defeat to AC Milan (a match analysis can be read here), except for Barcelona’s Copa del rey keep, Pinto, who was brought into replace Valdes. Mourinho started with Varane and Ramos as the two centre backs, opting to keep Pepe on the bench.

With the match ending 3-1, Barcelona’s weaknesses have now been thoroughly exposed in the last two matches. AC Milan scored one goal from a combination of a counter attack and defensive error and one goal from a set piece. Real scored two goals from counter attacks and one from a set piece.

Real Madrid’s Shape

Mourinho’s decision to play Varane and Ramos was a little risky for a few reasons. The first and less substantial is that this was the first time that Varane would be playing at the Nou Camp and while the former Lens teenager has been reliable whenever called upon, he is only 19 and the atmosphere could have left him in awe, it didn’t and he struggled to hold back a smile while defending Barcelona’s next attack after scoring his header. Ramos though, was more of a liability as he tends to be over anxious, especially when playing against Barcelona and tonight, having to deal with Messi, it could have been another struggle, but he performed well.

One key to Madrid’s succes was the play of Xabi Alonso and not because of his passing, but rather his instruction and defensive play. Ramos didn’t get sucked out too wide or too high following Messi around as Alonso acted as something of a conductor for a trio of players in charge of marking Messi. Within the first few minutes this was evident was Alonso was almost on the right side touchline with Messi and you could also see him communicating with Ramos as to when Ramos should step to Messi and when to drop in.

The video below is a minute clip that I captured that shows Alonso communicating to his centre backs when to mark Messi and when he has him and also his protection of Coentrao, whom Barcelona tried to attack. Just watch how many times Alonso looks for Messi in just this minute clip and how many times he works with Ramos in defending Messi.

Alonso made it hard for the likes of Xavi and Busquets to get the ball into Messi’s feet by putting himself in front the Barcelona forward. If Ramos had been tasked with the job of pressing onto Messi, it would have opened up the space in behind the back four, which was already playing a surprisingly high line. 

Real’s Pressing

During Mourinho’s era at Real, when they play Barcelona, he has typically liked to have his team press high up the pitch so that Barcelona can’t play it out of the back, which is one of the ways to neutralize Barcelona’s attack. However, in this game, while they did press at times, they were usually more content with allowing Barcelona to try to pick out their passes. When this happened, Real typically found themselves in a 4-4-2:

Barcelona’s Weaknesses

If you watched the Milan match, you saw Fabregas and Iniesta on the left side, switching between who was wide and who would drift in. It was one of the problems that didn’t help Barcelona’s cause that day and it continued again versus Real. The problem it seems is that Fabregas lines up on the left side of the middle three and wants to get forward to link up with Messi, however, with Iniesta playing out wide on the left and wanting to cut in rather than really hug the touch line and open up space for Fabregas’ runs, the two end up wanting to get into the same space. You can see it in the average position graph from Whoscored.com which shows the pair (4 and 8) almost on top of one another.

                       

So without any real outlet on the left side, with Jordi Alba being contained well by Arbeloa and occupied by Di Maria, Barcelona tried to attack on the right with Pedro and Alves. Alves was usually able to get space as Ronaldo would stay high up the pitch, he ended up being Real’s highest player, and would drift inside. Alves used the space well enough overlapping and providing width to the attack„ as he does so well, and put in a good ball in the 33 minute, only for Fabregas to fluff his shot. Pedro, however, had a hard time getting by Coentrao, only getting one good ball in which was Messi’s first chance of the game two minutes in.

It’s well known that Barcelona are poor when their opponent’s counter attack, but it seems to be getting a bit worse under Vilanova and Jordi Roura. The Whoscored average positioning above also shows Pique and Puyol about ten yards away from one another. They are much more narrow than they would have been under Pep Guardiola, who would have had them a bit wider to cover the full backs, with Sergio Busquets dropping in between them to create a back three. Prior to bringing in Jordi Alba, Dani Alves was really the only truly adventurous full back that Barcelona had, with the likes of Abidal picking his moments wisely. With both full backs pushing high up the pitch, it opens all that space up for counter attacks to occur, which is where Real’s started. The image below is from a La Liga match played at the Bernabeu on 16 April 2011. Compare Pique and Puyol’s average positions compared to the Whoscored positions.

The first Real madrid goal came with Ronaldo receiving the ball on the wide right with plenty of space to dribble at Pique who ended up giving away a penalty. The same could have happened even if Busquets was deeper, but Pique might have had Busquets as cover under Guardiola. The second goal came from a ball over the top to the left hand side of the pitch by Khedira to Di Maria, who dragged Puyol wide.

La Liga (2 March 2013)

Barcelona looked to make amends to their 3-1 against Real just days earlier, with both sides making a total of 11 changes to the sides that started in that match. There is certainly less to talk about as Barcelona were really able to play at their pace for most of the match, though were  unable to put together any sort of penetration even with a more direct option in Villa starting.

Majority of the action look place in the middle third of the field, with Barcelona completing 90% of their passes and holding on to the ball about 73% of the time while trying to address their problems from the last Clasico.

Barcelona’s Struggles to Make Amends

Iniesta started in central midfield alongside Thiago and Busquets, with the latter taking up a slightly deeper position than he did a few days early, allowing Pique and Mascherano to push a little wider. The absence of Fabregas and the placement of Iniesta allowed him to have a greater influence on the game as he was allowed to fill the space that he desired, with Villa pushing higher and wider up the pitch than either Fabregas or Iniesta would in that same role. Villa’s start meant that Messi played a bit deeper, allowing him to try to find space between Real’s midfield and defense. Below is the Whoscored average positioning for Barcelona in this match.

                        

Unfortunately, though, the wide areas were again a problem for Barcelona on both sides of the ball. Real’s goal was scored after Dani Alves was caught out of position and Sergio Ramos was able to find Morata wide, who then delivered the cross for Benzema’s goal.

When in possession of the ball, Barcelona lacked any sort of real width. Alba and Alves would get forward when they could, but despite Alves providing the assist to Messi, neither really had that big of an impact on the match. Pedro and Villa both struggled to get by Coentrao and Essien, respectively. 

Real Win It

The match was looking like it was going to end in a draw throughout most of the match, until the introduction of Ronaldo in the 58th minute. Up until that point, Barcelona were controlling the match, but were really unable to make penetrative passes. With the introduction of Ronaldo, Real stepped up their tempo and the momentum of the game shifted as it should when one of the world’s best players, who is incredibly direct with his play, comes on. In his 32 minutes on the pitch, Ronaldo took 6 shots and almost scored with his free kick near the end of the game.

The winner though went to Sergio Ramos, who scored from none other than a set piece.

Conclusion

It has certainly been a rough two weeks for Barcelona with three losses in a row, two in important cup games and one in a less important, but still morale crushing, league game.

The absence of Tito Vilanova has been crucial to Barcelona’s poor form. Without Tito’s tactical awareness and his ability to adapt to situations in games on the fly, Barcelona have certainly suffered. Jordi Roura doesn’t feel comfortable in a managerial position. It isn’t necessarily time to worry about Barcelona, as they have so much class and potential, but it can certainly be agreed that their form is off and needs to improve drastically if they are to beat AC Milan by at least 3-0 to progress in the Champions League. 

Real Madrid are in quite the opposite form to their rival. With these two wins, they are in good form heading into their Champions League clash with Manchester United that will include a return to Manchester for Ronaldo. Prior to these two matches, Mourinho found himself under a considerable amount of pressure from Real supporters, but with these two wins, his fortune has changed and will ahve full backing going into the Manchester United match.