Barcelona 5-1 Valencia: Valencia do their Nou Camp usual – start well, then tire in second half
The starting line-ups
Lionel Messi hit four goals as 2nd-placed Barcelona thrashed 3rd-placed Valencia.
Pep Guardiola was without the suspended Daniel Alves, so Martin Montoya played at right-back. Xavi Hernandez was only fit enough for the bench. At the back, Gerard Pique returned after being left out in the 3-1 Champions League win over Leverkusen in the week.
Unai Emery was without Jordi Alba from the start, so played Jeremy Mathieu at left-back, rather than in the left wing position he’s thrived in against Barcelona in the past. Ever Banega’s strange injury ruled him out.
Valencia press
In the previous two seasons in this fixture, Valencia started very well before tiring and eventually getting beaten:
In 2009/10 they kept Barcelona scoreless before the break, then Barcelona switched to 4-2-4 and Messi got a hattrick.
In 2010/11 they were 1-0 up at half time, but Barcelona played much quicker in the second half and turned it around.
Valencia again started very well here, and pressing Barca was a key part of their approach. Pablo Piatti and Sofiane Feghouli moved forward and made Valencia 4-2-4 without the ball, pushing high up on Barcelona’s back four. The home side looked nervous at the back, and looked long much more frequently than usual, attempting to get out of the press.
Valencia had problems in deeper positions, though, because the pressing meant Tino Costa and David Albelda were moving high up on Cesc Fabregas and Andres Iniesta, and although the defence pushed up too, they left a lot of space between the lines. This played into the hands of Lionel Messi, who spent the first half playing as both a number ten and a number nine – collecting the ball deep, but also poaching in the six-yard box.
Messi
Messi started off by moving to the right-of-centre to receive the ball, similar to what he did in this game two years ago. Valencia tried to counter this by pushing Victor Ruiz forward onto him, with Adil Rami covering the space in behind.
But Messi often skipped past the first challenge, while Valencia also had a big problem in that Albelda picked up a booking after just four minutes, meaning their deepest midfielder was now scared to tackle between the lines. There was also the question of whether Jonas was good enough defensively against Sergio Busquets – the more responsible Banega probably would have started there.
Attacks
But Valencia opened the scoring, and although it was from the only shot they managed in the first half, there was some tactical logic to it. Piatti played very narrow, disregarding the attacking threat of Martin Montoya, who was clearly not as dangerous as Alves would be. That contributed to Piatti being in an attacking position to meet Feghouli’s cross.
In fact, the most interesting feature of the first half was that the sides effectively switched which sides they attacked down. Valencia had used the Mathieu – Alba combination to great effect against Barcelona previously, with the right-sided midfielder tucking in and becoming a goal threat. With Mathieu pinned back, they did the opposite – Feghouli ran with the ball and the right-back (Ricardo Costa, having replaced Miguel early on) overlapped – Piatti got into the middle.
Barcelona, meanwhile, were without the Alves threat which leads to them playing down the right frequently. Usually, 37% of their attacking play is on the right (30% in the centre, 33% on the left) but that figure seemed to be more biased towards the left in this game. Pedro set up Messi’s first (via a defensive error) and Iniesta laid on the second. Both did so from the left, and the injury problems in Valencia’s right-back zone (plus the fact the right-back was very attacking) certainly contributed.
Second half
The tactical battle didn’t significantly change in the second half. Barcelona were utterly dominant for long periods, and could have scored many more.
Montoya became more of an influence after half time, as if Guardiola had told him to take advantage of the space ahead of him, with Piatti coming inside. Montoya overlapped well, though he was pinned back midway through the second half when Alba replaced Piatti, meaning Mathieu moved forward to the left wing.
Closing stages
At 2-1, Valencia had a promising spell where they chipped the ball over the top for runners in behind the Barcelona defence, in particular Pique. His form has dipped recently, and he seems to struggle when forced to turn and run quickly. Barcelona’s pressing also dropped, however, allowing Valencia’s midfielders time on the ball to play the pass..
Still, Barcelona had extra attacking options, with Cristian Tello on for Pedro down the left. He dropped deep away from Costa, who looked tired, and ran with the ball to good effect – his end product was inconsistent, but Messi’s third came after his good work. Again, it was in Valencia’s right-back zone that the danger came from.
At 3-1 it was game over, and Messi took charge.
Conclusion
Nothing new learnt here – Valencia’s performance was what we expected, and Messi being brilliant is hardly a revelation. Guardiola didn’t seem happy with a couple of players (Tello and Fabregas) in the second half, possibly for their lack of pressing, but this was classic Barcelona – and in the classic Barcelona 4-3-3 shape, with wide forwards on either side.
Emery was brave and tried to press, and when sides are brave enough to do that – Villarreal, Arsenal, Espanyol, Real Madrid on occasion – it generally creates a brilliant game, though it generally ends in a Barcelona win too.
There is no way to contain Messi tactically. Mourinho tried to do it, but failed. He drops extremely deep and creates havok. Opposing defenders simply can’t track them.
Defending deep definately lessens his effect. Press like Valencia did without strength in the tackle and you get killed in behind.
Bielsa did a great job containing him using a man-marker on him across the pitch, where he tracked him into every single yard of the field.
Though to be fair, that was an unusual match because of the weather. The CdR final will be an interesting matchup
Valencia tried man-marking Messi up the entire pitch in the second leg of their Copa tie. Here’s a picture of Messi with the ball behind midfield and with Ruiz closing him down: http://i.imgur.com/tVkkj.png
Didn’t Essien also mark him pretty well in one of the chelsea-barca champs league games a couple of years ago? It’s not like every team has a player like Essien at his peak, but that could be a way to defend against him.
there is always a way.
What are you talking about? In every game that Pepe has played in midfield, Messi has been invisible, barely touching the ball, and if he did touch the ball it was with the back to the goal and forced a pass backwards.
Everbody can stop him if they are allowed to kick him all over the pitch and stamp on his hand if he on the ground and referee let it go. But oh, even then he will give a brilliant assist to score the winning goal.
????are you retarded ??? what does stepping on his hand have to do with containing him tactically ?
is Pepe a tactical method to stop Messi?
of course he is. but the problem, when you play against Barca, is not how to stop one player, even if he is the best. it’s how to stop the team. If you stop Messi (although that is nearly impossible to stop him for 90+ minutes), how will you stop Iniesta, Fabregas, Xavi, Alves, Sanchez or one of the defenders?
To look at the individual player is reactive, you should try to stop the team, to stop the machine, and then stop the individuals that are still a threat.
Make the team feel uncomfortable, destroy their natural environment, the biotope of beautiful football. How can you do that? Take the ball away. Guardiola said that years ago.
Valencia also lack a consistant out ball, Soldado is no target man. With one perhaps Mathieu’s accurate cross field balls would be more effective and allow Valencia’s dangerous runners time to get up the pitch in support.
Still, Guardiola looks out of his depth this season, which means he should be replaced sooner rather than later
lolz
10 points behind Madrid, enough said
lolz
^ That about sums it up. The last thing any succesfull club needs is a board of directors with twitchy trigger-fingers. Obviously, there is a thing as too much patience (Arsenal), but firing Pep is probaply the dumbest thing to do at the moment.
10 points are many points to lag behind, but looking at what the man has brought the club in terms of titles (one no more than 1 month ago!), an imaculate record against Madrid, and a sound tactical understading, i don’t see why he should go. And, not to mention, Barca is still going strong in CL and the Copa.
Luckily, Clarence Moratti ain’t calling the shots. ANd therefore, Pep is rougly as likely to get fired as SAF.
Yes, he is…but worthy of being replaced? I don’t think so. The man’s proved his ability, and he must certainly be retained at all costs.
Not to mention that he is the apex of the Barcelona philosophy. To bring in somebody else doesn’t really make much sense, unless you are trying to play another way (Mourinho, Biesla, etc).
Bielsa could adapt to the club style and bring in innovations.
And 3 wins and 2 draws in this year Classico too. We’ll wait until end of the season and compare titles.
He will quit long before they have the balls to replace him….Remember the club directors are politicians.
@Bob
Funny, after spending cash on Sanchez and Fabregas, do you expect Barca to play even better? No, Barca has been dreadful in away matches, as they failed to win against Sociedad, Valencia, Sevilla, Bilbao, Espanyol, Villarreal, etc, not to mention the loses against Getafe and Osasuna. Pep was responsible for misusing 3-4-3 against Valencia and Sevilla as both of them are strong at the flanks. Is it reasonable to say he is out of his depth?
13 trophies in less than 4 years would say that no, he is certainly not out of his depth.
out of his depth? let’s be real here,
Fact 1: you are a hater, plain and simple, just thought I’d get that out of the way
Fact 2: Guardiola has been experimenting with tactics and trying to evolve his team into something better than what they are rather than just win 6 trophies and let complacency sit in (a novel concept, I know). Most managers with such a successful record at such a successful club would merely plug players into the 4-3-3 and have a seat, Pep is not satisfied and wants his team to grow and evolve so that they have an answer to all of defensive tactics they encounter. You call switch to the hybrid 3-1-4-2 / 4-4-1-1 after 20 minutes in the first league Clasico out of depth? He completely outmaneuvered Mourinho, then won the Copa del Rey fixtures between them using that tactic the whole game. You are fool my friend, a fucking fool.
He got his tactics wrong against Valencia and Sevilla at the first place, that was why he forced to change the tactics against Madrid because it was a game that he needed a win. His inability to bring victory in the away fixtures is the reason why Barca is 10 points behind Madrid in FEB
In both those games he corrected the tactics quickly and got the team back into the game.
Your original post is so ridiculous that Cicero would have trouble defending it. Stop trying to justify the unjustifiable. You should quit while you are behind.
Come on, if he made his tactics right at the first place, he could even win the game, not even to talk about draw. Pep dropped points against Valencia because of his dubious decision of using 3-4-3 against 4-2-3-1, where ZM has mentioned it here. Nevertheless Pep did it again against Sevilla and Barca dropped points again. His obsession of 3-4-3 had definitely made Barca suffer in the League! Was not Pep responsible?
Is Guardiola perfect? No. Will he get his tactics wrong on occasion? Of course. Should he be questioned at this stage? Absolutely not. A ridiculous, biased argument like that might get you a few thumbs up from Real Madrid fans on a goal.com article but will win you no support on this website.
I also think that a really big part of the experimenting is concerned with developing the production line from la masia to the first team, and follows on from remaking the first time out of primarily la masia players. I’m pretty sure that is the legacy that matters most to Guardiola, perhaps even more than any season’s results.
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I can see that Guardiola is really trying to build a legacy. The exactly opposite is what Mourinho has done with Chelsea and especially Inter: building (=buying) a team for a short period of time for him to win trophies but not having a team that would last longer.
Chelsea weren’t the same after those two winning seasons even though they did win EPL once with Ancelotti, and Inter have absolutely collapsed as everyone can see.
I think that the biggest problem this season for Barca has been mistakes in defence. It doesn’t help that Barca has only two recognized senior team centre backs, both struggling with injuries. Barca has conceded many soft goals this season. Many times the score has been 1-1 or 2-2 but withou some ‘gifted’ goals they would have been 1-0 or 2-1 to Barca. When Barca are on the lead the opposite team has to open up and Barca eventually score more goals like they’ve done recent seasons.
I think the only way to beat Barca is to attack on their half and force the goalkeeper to long kicks the ball. Only then you can win battle in the middle area (especially in the air) and use the advantage of so many players which are use for pressing with a high line. Pressing, goalkeeper inaccurate kick, steal a ball in the air and make fast pass to your striker. Espanyol, Osasuna, Vilarreal, Betis, and Real last time did it and Barca had a lot of problems.
“the more responsible Banega probably would have started there”
Maybe, but Jonas is in better form and, perhaps more importantly, Benega ran over his own foot at a gas station the morning of the game. Missing the rest of the season for something like this does cast some doubt on his responsiblility
you’re surely right… the “responsible” player would have set his parking brake.
I thought that was an intended irony in ZM’s analysis
What did guardiola say to febregss during the substitution? He did not seem happy with him. Iniesta is back. I really like the player
i too wonder what was said. here’s a clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osfT3xrUS6E)
doesn’t look like Pep was made. whatever Fabregas said to him .. who knows. maybe Fagregas was being hard on himself, and Pep was happy with him.. so shoved him. you can see Fabregas smiling right after he was shoved.
This is vintage Pep he does this from time to time. For examples of his exuberance check out the documentary on his journey at Barca. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBvhp3k7KQI The part i’m referring to comes around the 7 minute mark.
He told him he should score more often, since he is such a talented player. They’re making the keeper look good too often.
Barcelona – In defense, Barcelona weren’t rock solid, but defended well enough. The center backs defended well against Soldado, with Puyol covering his runs in behind and Pique winning most battles in the air. But Pique was exposed by pace far too easily, usually from Piatti making runs in behind. Pique passing out from the back was pretty poor too, usually going long when he could have been a lot smarter. Abidal handled Feghouli pretty well, though Feghouli in turn tracked his runs forward excellently. Montoya looked a bit scared to get forward in the first half and expose the space left in front of him, but in the second half seemed more brave.
In midfield, Busquets did his quiet but effective job. I hardly saw Jonas the whole game with Busquets defending that zone excellently. He also kept Barcelona ticking away in possession, passing and receiving the ball excellently, in the spell of Valencia pressing it seemed more piatti who was pressing him, but he could keep it up and Busquets was allowed fat too much time and space on the ball. Fabregas was pressed well and didnt get time on the ball, so he couldnt quite get into the game, though the pressing of him left messi more space (the old problem of pressing one Barcelona player and leaving another free). Iniesta was given more space by Albeda after his yellow card, who seemed more keen on tracking his runs forward, but Iniesta was smart and moved to the left to expose the weak RB zone. A Brilliant trait of Iniesta, he always seems to know where to move to, to harm the opposition.
Further Forward, the front three seemed focused around creating space for Messi. Both Pedro and Sanchez stayed wide and strecthed the defense, with both making runs in behind the high line. This created even more space for Messi, who had two wide players stretching the defense and the opposition midfield pushing up and leaving him be. He would drop deep and then run at the defense, usually beating Ruiz. Rami isnt a great cover defender and had too much to do as the RB had a really poor game.
Overall, Barcelona did have some problems with pace in behind Pique, and they didnt attack very well from fullback. But in midfield and attack they played it smart, with Busquets keeping possession excellently, Fabregas drawing Costa up the field to give Messi space and Iniesta drifting to the left to expose the RB with Pedro. In attack both wingers stayed wide and stretched the play so Messi could dominate. This time it seemed Guardiola outsmarted emery, by dragging the valencia team around to create space for messi.
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Valencia – First, the injury to Banega is hilarious, what an idiot.
Anyway, in defense, the CB pairing got separated too much. Ruiz was dragged up the pitch by Messi to little effect (rarely won his challenges) and Rami was left covering the space for him and the RB who ventured forward far too much. Rami isnt the best covering CB anyway and was exposed badly. At LB, Mathieu was pushed back by Sanchez playing so far up and high, usually he would bomb it down the wing, but he was forced into defensive work instead. To his credit he defended his flank well, but didnt have the same impact as in previous games. He had a much better game when Alba came on and he moved forward, it kept the LB slot solid and game fresh impetus going forward down that flank. The RB was the real weak link, Ricardo Costa got forward far too much and left Pedro in too much space (who stayed high and wide), while never really having an effect going forward.
In midfield, Albelda was pretty poor. He got an early yellow and didnt push up against Iniesta as much (as well as that he didnt try and help out with Messi when he was running with the ball). Instead he tried to track Iniesta runs forward, but iniesta moved to left wing instead and Albelda was left up against no-one. This should have given him time on the ball, but while he had a good passing completion rate, he was too slow on the ball to expose barca on the break. Costa (in midfield) did a good job of pressing Fabregas and stopped him from getting into the game, but he left space in behind for Messi and rarely did anything when on the ball himself. Jonas was also poor (do midfielder ever play well when up against Barca?) invisible in the game and poor defensively against Busquets, leaving him free instead of trying to press him.
On the wings, they played different roles, Piatti moved into central roles well and had a good game, especially exposing Pique for pace when making runs in behind(his goal came from moving into a central position). He left Montoya free, though this wasnt much of a problem and actually pressed Busquets for the start of the game, though this stopped as he tired. Feghouli was kept quiet for most of the game (his cross for the goal his only real impact) but he did a decent defensive performance on Abidal, tracking him well.
Up front, Soldado rarely got into the game either; unable to hold up the ball, poor in the air and his runs behind either caught offside or covered by Puyol. The one good thing about his play, was that he tried to create space for Piatti but dragging Pique away from this position, this actually work pretty well.
Overall, Valencia were pretty poor, wide open in defense, inferior in midfield and there left hand side there only threat; with either Piatti getting into good central positions or Alba and Mathieu combining down the left wing. They should have paid more attention to Messi, its as easy as that really.
messi’s first 2goals was typical number 9, it’s like watching inzaghi’s golden years. then i stopped watching because valencia players’ facial expression tells everything about their confidence.
Spanish league is already done even there are many games left. It seems like Barcelona cannot beat lesser teams like Real in this season. It will be interesting to see how Pep shake thing off a little bit for next season. Oh Messi and Ronaldo are amazing players.
Barca have to still be huge favourites to win the CL. Their league situation is mostly due to points dropped away from home. But if you give them two legs to play they’ll beat you just about every time. Yes, they might lose the away leg, but unless it’s by more than a 1 goal margin you probably won’t withstand the onslaught at Camp Nou. You might be able to beat them over 90 mins but good luck over 180 mins. Only time they’ve lost over two legs is after the Icelandic volcano and with the round peg of Ibra in the square hole of their attack.
As they’ve shown, they’ve got the edge over Mourinho no matter what tactics Madrid play. Can only really see Barca losing the CL if it’s in the final and whoever they’re up against plays an absolute blinder.
Were only now starting to see the best of Alexis Sanchez who, it seems can even play target man with his back to goal. And it’s incredible how often he tracks back and wins the ball. Certainly creates a lot more space for messi
5-1 against the team below them in the league. Bit scary once Xavi, Alves and even Villa get into the team again!
two teams dominating the entire the league. must be a thrilling joy to follow la liga games regularly.
You go your way, and I’ll go mine.
Interesting to see barca left/right back’s aren’t offensive as they were once before. I.e. the fullbacks don’t push up 20 yards ahead of the centre backs when starting play from the back anymore..
Valencia were out of the game after the 2nd goal. Looked shell-shocked.
If Barcelona play this good, no set of tactics will counter them to the point of actually cancelling them out of the game. I’m not just replying in my typical bias fashion, and it’s hardly a revelation, but Barca’s players all have excellent tactical awareness. They can all read the game. It’s not just about there opponents trying to counter them. Barca counter them. There usual pressing was excellent, where in previous matches this season, they havn’t pressed as aggressively as they always usually do. Valencia could barely pass the ball and were reduced to long-balls, something which didn’t look like a plan because it didn’t remotely work.
The main reason Valencia lost is because they are not very good. Although this was 2nd against 3rd in Spain, it was not really worth covering. Emery showed why he is the perfect coach for Valencia, he is strictly small time. Has he ever coached a team to a great result or gotten more out of a player than anyone thought possible? No. Roberto Soldado is another great fit. A dreadful player who has reached the height of his career making it past the group stage of the Champions League. There is no facinating tactical battle to see here. Barcelona versus 3rd, 13th or division 3 – it’s all the same.
They beat Stoke on a rainy thursday, they can’t be that bad. Honestly, the difference in quality in La Liga is down more to Madrid and Barca’s amazing quality, not the other team’s lack of it. I think Madrid and Barcelona would be just as dominant in any league in the world.
Very true, I believe Barca and Madrid are such great sides who would be title challengers instantly regardless of what league they are in. Both sides have class and great managers.
Real Madrid and Barcelona are obviously great but SnootShism is right about Valencia. They are not a patch on the team that got to the Champions League final twice in a row – even a few years ago they had Villa, Silva, Albiol…. Mata was the poor man’s Silva and they couldn’t even keep him! No, this Valencia will never get to a Champions League final because it is composed of players from the reject pile.
Agreed. Two of the best midfielders in the premier league are Silva and Mata. It’s scary to think of what Valencia could do with enough funding to keep their best players…
A small nitpick – Banega wasn’t named in the squad even before his ankle injury because of a knee niggle.
Tactically speaking, Messi must have been playing FIFA and thought: “You know, I’ve tried this little bit in the game where a I play myself through to a one-on-one and I do this little cheeky flick over the keeper, I’m going to try this in real life. Right. Let’s have the ball.”
am I one of the few who think that beating Busquets will make anything easier? i mean, he’s like the connector between defense and midfield, and his link-ups with Xavi and Iniesta are incredible. many Barca players (take note of Xavi) and even Pep himself stated that Busquets is the man “who makes no errors” and “never loses the ball”.
Xavi-less formation is quite a bad thing, yes, but look at Bar-Val match. the last goal by Messi was from a brilliant through pass by Busquets. wow~
sure, he dives (which is I believe his greatest flaw, lol) but to destroy the build-up play by Barcelona (that is thru Barca’s creative midfielders) you need to stop BUsquets first, or take the ball as fast as possible from him. gonna be hard though, because the way he recovers possession has always been incredible
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