Xavi's honeymoon after taking office seems to have passed a bit quickly, with the last 3 games losing 2 and 1 draw, and Barca once again falling into a new crisis. With the injuries of Depay and Alba, and the inability of Fati, Pedri and Roberto to return, Xavi's manpower is indeed limited.
Placing De Jong in the front of the line, hoping that he would be the one leading the attack, the Dutchman handed over an answer sheet with 10 data of 0. Perhaps the gap between De Jong and Messi reflects Barca's helplessness to some extent.
01. Asymmetrical 3313 formation: Garvey frequently retreats against left-back
If Barca are to pick a player of the first half, the 17-year-old Garvey deserves no choice. Xavi first released the asymmetrical 3313 formation, so that De Jong's idea of playing the front was a failure, but Garvey as a left midfielder to protect the left-back defense area, but it is a stroke of genius.
A key change in Barca's offensive and defensive transitions is Garvey's movement and role switching. He is at left-back, the team will be more like 4411, and when Garvey returns to midfield when attacking, Barca will guarantee stronger midfield possession and creativity.
One of the highlights of this game is his sense of crisis and continuous movement ability when he retreats. This time the first wave of defense was Umtiti's cross, and then Osasuna's second time sending the ball into the box was to rely on Garvey's quick lateral movement to protect the space behind Umtiti.
Garvey not only followed his opponent, but even managed to block the shot and complete the defensive task extremely well.
On the offensive end, Garvey's forward insertion opportunities are not many, and there are not many bright spots. However, Barca's goal in the first half was precisely a clever pass from Garvey. Another young man, Nico, stepped in and let Barca take the lead in breaking the deadlock.
As you can see from the statistics, Garvey's defensive performance is very amazing. With 2 steals, 3 interceptions and 4 clearances, such a report card makes it impossible to believe that he is actually an attacking midfielder.
However, he was only 17 years old after all, and he suffered some losses in strength and confrontation. In the first half, 9 ground confrontations were successful 4 times, and in the second half, 7 ground confrontations were won only 1 time.
02. Which De Jong pulls the crotch more? Frankie's 10-point stats are 0 narrow wins over Luke
Barca's biggest defeat in this game was to make Frankie De Jong the front of the team. The Dutch midfielder was at a loss in this position and completely lost its way.
In this game's statistics, in addition to the goal assist and shot on goal, his defensive data is all 0, even fouls are 0, and the data for a total of 10 major events is 0 (strictly speaking, 13 items are 0). De Jong, who went to the front-back position, completely let go of the burden of defense, but all his contribution was just a key pass to form a shot.
Barca have a great advantage in their individual abilities at the wingers on both sides, with both Dembele and Abd being able to complete the feat and break through. The problem is that De Jong, who does not need to be distracted defensively, cannot play his proper organizational role in the middle of the road, resulting in Barca's attack making mistakes after coming to the middle.
Dembele's inward cut is really too easy, and De Jong's poor stoppage has led to his inexplicable back-to-back state. The Dutchman, who could not turn his waist, rushed to pass the ball, and as a result, Dembele had clearly entered the inside of the penalty area, but De Jong passed to the outside position, resulting in the loss of the golden opportunity.
Looking at this Bobasa counterattack, Aboud's first speed has a big advantage, but he is not the type of continuous acceleration. As long as 2 Dutchmen in the middle of the road, the weak side Dembele has also been given a vacancy opportunity. Unfortunately, Luke De Jong in the center position is not much better than the previous de Jong at the waist, and this time the pass is small.
Luke De Jong had all zeros on goal, which was bad for a starting centre-forward. Fortunately, he also delivered 2 key passes to form a shot (the quality of which was very high for Gavi), in addition to 4 clearances, 1 steal, and 15 one-on-one matches to win 7 (5 of which were high ball confrontations), which is somewhat tactical.
03. Barca need 2 Dembele: unfortunately there is no one left behind
According to this game's statistics, Barça has 62% possession, and although there are 10 shots on goal, there are only 2 shots on target, even 1 less than Osasuna!
The centre-forward and midfielder are all 0 shots, and Barca's attack with a winger and midfielder in front is indeed a bit of a laugh.
Aboud is active, but abd's physical fitness and skills are not up to par. He has the advantages of muscle elasticity and flexibility characteristic of North Africans, and the first start is very fast. But his subsequent secondary acceleration ability is very weak, this time Dembele transferred the ball to a large space, Aboud's first wave of assault was very sharp, but the back was sloppy, and even because the technology was not good enough, he took the ball out of bounds.
Dembele will have a much larger advantage in terms of his single-player advantage, and Dembele's handling of the ball gives a feeling of inattention, but he does seem to be able to easily solve the defender. It is in stark contrast to Aboud's first step in using the power of the flood. Dembele won 7 of the 8 1-on-1 matches, but the problem was 1 of the 9 crosses. Not only because he passed the ball casually, but his teammates couldn't grasp the opportunity in the middle.
However, Barca's second leading goal is still due to Dembele. This time he counter-attacked with a strong cross, the opponent failed to break the siege, and Aboud scored in the back point without being watched.
Unfortunately, Dembele was replaced after an 81-minute cramp, causing the team to lose momentum in attack. Was it an accident that it was finally flattened? Barca need a Dembele starter and a Dembele substitute to play.
Conclusion:
As the manager, Harvey's layout and tactical ideas in the last 3 games are good, but unfortunately, the team is really injured too seriously, resulting in no one to change the backhand. Any substitution will cause the team's combat effectiveness to decline by a large chunk and become Harvey's fatal injury. This, perhaps, should not be held accountable by the manager, the man who decided to rebuild devastatingly in the summer, should have taken up the pot.