- 7 months ago
Barcelona still have a number of problems off the pitch, but on it, Hansi Flick has done something spectacular this season. By combining the experience of Robert Lewandowski and Wojciech Szczęsny, with the energy and brilliance of Yamine Lemal and Pedri, they've become the most unpredictable attacking side in Europe.Adam Clery breaks down their system to show why teams are so scared of them, and their own glaring weakness.
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00:00Hi everyone, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel, ACFC. Yeah, you get it, I still think
00:05that's incredibly clever and uncharacteristic cold open for you here. In the first leg of the
00:10Champions League semi-final against Inter, Laminya Mal finds himself in this position.
00:15Now first off, he's got his back to go, which is obviously not ideal, but we just go through
00:20and we mark all these players off. You've got the entire defensive line here, you've got the
00:25entire midfield line here, so put all that together, the entire low block. And then just
00:30this other player randomly hounding him up the arse, and again, just to remind you, back
00:36to goal, facing the wrong way, and yet six seconds later, the ball is in the net. And yet even
00:43more astounding than that bit of individual brilliance, he is just one piece in the puzzle
00:48of Hansi Flick's Barcelona, who I think are one of the best things to watch in football
00:53right now. But the problem is that the vast majority of the audience of this YouTube channel
00:57are based in the UK, so unless you're paying £16.99 for that Premier Sports bolt onto your
01:04Amazon Prime package, you're probably not watching them. So let me show you what you're missing.
01:14Right, now this is going to start incredibly stat-heavy, okay? So at any point in the next
01:19two or three minutes, you are sat there going, oh my god, this is so dry, just some fucking
01:25goals, goddammit, then yeah, we'll get there, we will get there. We just, some important context
01:30first. So I think if you asked him, this would be Hansi Flick's preferred Barcelona 11 in this
01:374-2-3-1 shape, injuries permitting. But the main thing he's had to overcome is that there
01:43have been quite a lot of those. First off, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen ruptured his patellar tendon,
01:51which you'd never heard that before. Basically means he pulled the knee meat apart like it
01:56was a cheese string. Club captain Ronald Araujo, which I've never once pronounced right in my
02:01entire life, missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury so severe they're still
02:06having to manage his minutes now. Anders Christiansen is basically just on paid leave from his job.
02:11They've recently lost Alejandro Balde and Dani Olmo has been in and out and not just because
02:16they keep weirdly threatening to unregister him because of money. And then you've got Marc
02:21Quesada who became a guaranteed starter, but now he's out. Gabi missed loads of time with
02:26a cruciate tear. Ouch, and he's having to work his way back into importance. And Pedri,
02:31of course, as ever, has missed literally only one game this season. It finally happened and it
02:38wasn't even an injury. It was just ill. It wasn't because his hamstrings are attached with like
02:43brown packing tape. So yes, it's just incredibly dry and an uninteresting way to start the video,
02:48but it should illustrate how difficult Hansi Flick's job has been to pull a cohesive system
02:54out of this admittedly quite overstocked and very, very talented squad. He very rarely gets to stay
03:01unchanged for long periods of the season. So while this is probably his idealized 11 without injuries,
03:07this is in fact the team we've seen the most this season. And while it's not entirely different,
03:13I would argue it's different enough that if you made that many changes to any other major team in
03:18Europe, they would be struggling this year. Not going for a flipping treble. See, it's not just that
03:24they are top of La Liga. They've scored 20 more goals than any other team. They got the most number of
03:31shots. They got the best chance conversion rate. And while they don't have the best defense in terms of
03:35goals conceded, they have conceded the fewest number of shots. So it's not that they're wide
03:41open or more open than you're expecting. It's just that there is a way to get at them, which we will
03:47talk about in a bit. Basically, this is a high possession, ball retaining side that is still
03:52somehow incredibly direct and aggressive in its attack. And those are not normally two things you
03:59can ever really say about the same team, but you can about them. So why? It was actually classically
04:07Barcelona in a number of ways. They're the highest possession in the league. And this is actually
04:12incredibly annoying. The second lowest number of long passes and the second highest number
04:17of short passes. And I say that's annoying because I started doing the research for this video last week
04:23and they were top and bottom instead of second top and second bottom for those respective. It's
04:27just, it's literally just changed in the last week. It just makes it sound not as good. But that is kind
04:33of what you expect, isn't it? It's Barcelona. They'll play short passes. They won't play long passes.
04:37Just ignore those for a second. What they are top of is medium range passes. And they're not just top
04:43of that. They are top of that by absolutely miles. And those are any passes between 15 and 30 yards
04:52in distance. And that is what this entire system is built around. Every single time Barcelona come up
04:59against some sort of low block like this, the objective is for these four central players to
05:05just retain possession, keep it between themselves. And if you look at La Liga's total number of passes
05:11this season, three of the top five passes in the whole league come from this central core of Barcelona
05:18players. And interestingly, the fifth is their right back, which again, I will tell you why in a little
05:25bit. And what these four players do in the middle of the pitch is basically retain the ball while
05:29everybody else gets into position. So first off, Rafinha will drift in from the left into this sort of
05:36half space while Danny Olmo, whoever's at the 10, will get into this area. And the left back,
05:40usually Baldy, but anybody in the squad can do the exact same job, pushes all the way up and keeps the
05:45width on this side with Yamal stretching them on the other. And then from there, the objective is
05:50very simple. Any of these four players, their job is to play through and into the low block into any
05:58of these five players. They want to go from here into here as quickly and directly as they possibly
06:07can. It doesn't matter if one of them's coming short and they're playing into feet or if there's
06:11enough room to play in behind the defence. That's what they're trying to do. And it almost always
06:16falls in that distance between 15 and 30 yards. It's never a long ball, but it's way more ambitious
06:22and direct than a short ball. And I know, I know exactly what it is you're thinking. There is a
06:26word for those passes, Adam. We do have a term for that. They're called through balls, aren't they?
06:30Just a nice sort of low, but direct ball either in between the defenders or in behind the defence.
06:35That's a through ball, isn't it? And yeah, Barcelona aren't just top of that metric in La
06:40Liga this season. They have nearly twice as many as the next nearest team in the league. And what
06:46they're doing here really is they're trying to stretch opposition teams as much as they're able
06:52to do it. So keeping this core and this block here, rather than pushing all the defenders into
06:57the middle of the pitch, means you stretch the team out vertically. Like if they're going to press
07:01you, it's a long way to go from where their back line will be. But likewise, because you're moving
07:06one of the full backs all the way out here and your man likes to literally be getting chalk on his boots
07:10on this side, you're stretching them vertically as well. So if you want to try and keep all these
07:15players marked, the only way to do that is by spreading out quite a long way across the
07:19pitch. And if you spread out one way and spread out the other way, you then create the space for
07:24those balls to get into. And what every team they've played against this season seems to really
07:28struggle with is there's not one obvious way to defend against that. Because if you sit off,
07:33if you try and be disciplined with it, then in Lewandowski, in Olmo, in Rafinha, sometimes they'll push
07:38Pedri into this position, Ferran Torres. They've got loads of players that really do specialise
07:43in this pocket between the midfield and the defence. They can get it on the turn and they can
07:48drive at you directly. Or in Lewandowski's case, you can drop off, get the ball, give it to somebody
07:52else, and then a chance comes about. But likewise, if you want to be really aggressive with it and
07:56deny them those pockets of space, then you leave room in behind. And Rafinha will run into that.
08:02Balde will run into that. Yamal will run into that. There's not one obvious thing to do that
08:08makes life difficult for them. And then you combine both of those problems, either players
08:12running in behind or players dropping off, with Robert Lewandowski's generational understanding
08:17of movement in the box. And you're in a lot of trouble because it doesn't really matter that he's
08:2436. If you're either getting players in behind looking for a cutback or he's able to drop deeper
08:28and instigate the play himself, he's got 40 goals at the time of me recording this video.
08:33And if he just continues scoring at the rate he's currently scoring, he'll finish on 45 goals in
08:41all competitions. It would be his third or fourth best season of his entire career at 36. And while
08:49that is, of course, an enormous testament to him as a professional and as a player and to all that,
08:53it also says a lot, possibly even more, about Lamine Yamal and Rafinha. Because in those two,
09:00you've got this pair of chance-creating machines who will just serve up this feast of finishing for
09:06one man to gleefully and greedily gobble down. And I've not had my lunch, sorry.
09:13You look at their numbers this season and their passes into the penalty area, which are almost
09:17always just to Lewandowski. They are first and fourth out of all the players in La Liga this
09:24season. And they both cross the ball either to the back post area for him to stick his bean on or
09:29low across the ground to give him a tap in, about as well as any player in Europe. So you can't
09:35stand off them in case they do that, but you also can't get too tight because they take on defenders
09:42better than any pair of wide forwards anywhere in the entire world. Like, you mean Ramal, remember?
09:49He's nine years old or something and he is number one, the king of it. El Presidente, top of the
09:56flipping pops at taking on a defender. He attempts to do it about 10 times per game. The average for
10:04players in his position is like three and he succeeds at doing it like five times per game. And the average
10:11for players in his position is just fractionally over once, which is just why you can have 10
10:17players between him and the goal. And he'll still turn, take them on and find a way to get that shot
10:23off despite five of them piling in on him at the crucial moment. There were periods in this game,
10:29by the way, where Inter did not just double up on Jamal. They tripled up on Jamal. Two wasn't enough.
10:36And I think that more than anything is the reason why Barcelona have just been so like incredibly fun
10:41to watch this season. Because with Rafinha and Jamal always occupying more than one player,
10:47it basically looks sometimes like they've got 11 players and the opposition like have nine. And I do
10:55think being in an era as we are, where so many of the top teams are so structured and so disciplined
11:01and so well drilled, that there's something about watching Barcelona which feels quite different about
11:06that. Because in Rafinha and in Jamal, when you watch them on the ball, you don't really feel like
11:12you're seeing instructions being followed. You feel like you're just seeing two people really enjoy
11:17ripping someone else a new arsehole. Now, of course, I do hear you. This all sounds great, Adam. And yeah,
11:23maybe I will give them a watch. But can you just get off their dicks for one second? And yes,
11:28I can. Because while this is great, I did say earlier in the video, there's a gaping horrible
11:33flaw about it. When they really, really get going, their line tends to be higher than Tottenham Hotspur's
11:41defenders in a Californian dorm room. Every single team tries to exploit this space in behind them.
11:48And thus, their out of possession style is simply to just throw as many players at the ball as possible.
11:55I've got to hit all four of those. I can't believe that. To stop those passes getting made. I bet I can't do
12:00that again once now. Yeah, look. Now, Inter got absolutely dominated in that first semi-final. Like,
12:06this is a scarcely believable momentum graph and possession spread for what was a 3-3. And yet,
12:13they will really feel like they should have won that game. Because, time and time again, they kept
12:20taking advantage of this high line. Like, the goal is a really obvious example. They were literally
12:26just a couple of seconds into the match. And they managed to end up in this situation. They don't
12:30stop the pass. But the offside goal, the one that didn't end up counting, actually shows you it
12:34slightly better, I think. As this ball breaks, Acerbi obviously wants to play it into here. Because
12:41if he does that, they're in. Barcelona are completely screwed. But then, and this is where you see the
12:46incredibly cerebral, very well-disciplined and structured Barcelona out-of-possession system,
12:51Pedri just throws himself in front of that. Like, I haven't got an analogy for this. Like,
12:58like a cat into a screen door. That'll do. It is in shape. It isn't structure. It's just
13:03recognise what's going on and hold yourself around to stop it. Which he does. He stops that ball going
13:10through, which is the real danger. But then they still just go out wide and the space is still there.
13:16But ultimately, if you're Barcelona, the decision you're making in these scenarios is that this
13:20situation is less dangerous than this situation. And the pass is, it's a great ball and it's a great
13:27goal, but it is ultimately offside, which it wouldn't have been if Pedri hadn't stopped this. So
13:31you'd argue it does sort of work. Sort of. And thus, Barcelona, despite having the lowest number of
13:39combined tackles and interceptions, because they've got the highest amount of possession, so obviously
13:43they're going to spend the least amount of time trying to win it back, do still have a really
13:48high number of tackles in the middle part of the pitch. Like, just look where Madrid are here. That's
13:53where Barcelona should really be. And the highest number of tackles in the opposition third. And
13:58while they have had all sorts of drama about who plays in goal, like, honestly, I could do you an
14:03hour-long video on how Wojciech Czesny is somehow having this huge career reinvention,
14:08purely because Pena turned up late to one team meeting, and Hansi Flick just does not put up
14:14for any of that. But regardless, the stats behind their goalkeeping are nuttier than a Snickers factory.
14:22Hang on. Do Snickers have nuts in them?
14:26Yes. Just look at the number of goalkeeping actions they have outside of their penalty area,
14:33compared to every other team in the league. Like, again, just for a bit of context, both the Madrid
14:39sides are the exact opposite end of this spectrum, barely ever asking their goalkeeper to come out of
14:46the box to deal with anything. Whereas Czesny, or whoever's in goal for Barcelona, is doing it four to five
14:51times every single game. That is the high risk they're playing with this back line. And it's all sort of based
14:59around whether or not they can scramble enough to stop the passes, and whether a 35-year-old can come
15:05sprinting out of his box quick enough to then mop up when they do. Now, you see what I mean, don't you?
15:10They sound like an incredibly fun team to watch. But I think the best thing Flick's done, which you don't
15:15really see anywhere in Europe now, right, is how he's made up this squad. If we consider 27-32 as a
15:21footballer's peak years, which apparently you are supposed to, look at how few of this team actually land
15:28in that zone. So many minutes are either going to wizened old veterans who should really be slowing
15:34down, or young players still learning their game. Yamal, Pedri, Kabasi, Balde, Cassano, Lopez, Gabi,
15:42Fort, like these are literal children that make up the first team. You could nearly get an entire 11
15:47full of people who could not drink in the United States. But at the same time, you've then got this
15:52spine of Chesney, Martinez, and Lewandowski, who it's fair to say have been around the block
15:58several times. It's a combination of youth and experience that simultaneously makes them
16:04very exciting and unpredictable, but also quite wily and street smart. And there's not many teams
16:11around Europe, especially not at the top level, you'd really say that about. And honestly, if there's
16:15any way we could petition Sky Sports to just bring Revista Della Liga back for just one week,
16:21then I think you would love, you would love to watch this team. I think Graeme Hunter follows
16:29me on Twitter. Yeah, I'll drop, I'll DM him. But yes, that is it. That is, that is why
16:34Milamo Barcelona. Do you think that, that's, is that I love? Or is that my name is? My name is
16:40Barcelona. Anyway, that's the end of the video. Please do subscribe to us here at ACFC, where we
16:45do brilliant footballing tactical insights, not foreign languages. And we're so close to 100k by
16:51the end of the season, I can almost, almost taste it. You can get me across all the social medias
16:54at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y. And I am still doing the Hackney Half for Calm, the campaign against
17:00living miserably in like two weeks or something like that. They're a suicide prevention charity in
17:04the UK. And if you have got five or 10 euros, because it's Spain, remember, kicking about on the
17:10back of the sofa, it goes so much further than you realize, and is greatly, greatly appreciated
17:15by me, who's doing the runny to raise that money. But until next time, Milamo, as I'm
17:22Cleary. Tu esta Barcelona. That's definitely wrong. Adios.
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