After losing Suarez, Barca suffered four consecutive defeats against Real Madrid. This time, with the return of Fati, Pedri, De Jong, Araujo and Depay, as well as the entry of Ferran Torres and Alves, the Red and Blues clearly want to stop the decline. However, considering the current state and characteristics of Real Madrid, if Barca want to win the ball need to consider more crosses and headers, will Xavi be willing to try this?
01. Cross + header = Barca's current best goal
After Suarez, Messi and Griezmann left one after another, it was indeed difficult for Barca to return to the infiltration of the 30-meter core area of the past. Especially in Depay's absence, more transfers bring crosses into the box, following the tactics of The Old Rizidane, which once became Xavi's main means of breaking defense.
It's not that there is no gold in the cross, Xavi's team's goal in the last game is still essentially the result of fluidity and team interspersed.
Starting from jutegra on the right to cut inside the ball, to the outside line on the right to let Alves get the space to start, and then to Jutegra Neche causing the opponent's defender to be driven to leave a space, so that Luke De Jong received Alves' high arc cross to grab the point and break the goal, it can be said that there is a lot of preparation, not just a simple cross.
Luke De Jong does have a great advantage in cross tactics, because although the confrontation is very poor, he moves without the ball and predicts well, and has a strong grasp of high arc balls. Barca's high-pitched cross, hitting the opponent's back point, allowed Luke De Jong to maximize his advantage.
Interestingly, Real Madrid's biggest flaw on the defensive end is precisely air defense. This has to do with the fact that their goalkeeper Thibay courtois does not like to attack, and Arabba is not known for his headers.
Real Madrid's goal conceded in the last round of La Liga came precisely from Varen's cross to attack the back point of the box, creating Mendy to win a penalty after a foul.
Cross-cutting is not when an opponent's weakness meets Barca's most effective means of scoring at the moment, so why not take advantage of it?!
02. The current Barca are better than in midfield: more people are needed in the box to play the cross
After Pedri's injury this season and the departure of attackers like Messi and Griezmann who can feed the midfield, Barca are inferior to Real Madrid in terms of control and creativity in the midfield.
From the statistics, it can be seen that barca is still quite close to Real Madrid in terms of expected goals per game, but barca are far lower than Real Madrid in terms of actual goals. This is a gap in the ability to score from the front, with Real Madrid scoring goals well above expectations (0.43 higher, currently in La Liga top 2 and also in the top 2 in the field). Barca's actual goals scored were lower than expected, indicating the inefficiency of the striker.
If only relying on a Luke De Jong, Barca cannot directly break real Madrid. Because Luke De Jong's confrontation is very poor, the one-on-one efficiency of the single soldier is very low, and he can only find the opportunity to grab the point when the opponent is suppressed as a whole.
Barca want to win against Real Madrid by passing, first, by finding the back point through high balls, and on the other hand, to ensure that more attackers can enter the box.
In previous matches, Xavi had even had Arrangements for Araujo to play as a nominal left-back, essentially more no-ball cuts at the back point on the offensive end, and rushed into the box with Luke De Jong to receive the cross.
In the absence of a major general, the 1-0 away win over Mallorca was also the result of the high throwing cross from the back post, Luke De Jong and Araujo attacked together.
This game is already available because of new signing Ferran Torres, which also gives Barca a better scoring option when receiving crosses. The Spain international is just good at scoring goals at the back post.
03. Defending Vinicius: This is a new issue for Barcelona
Real Madrid's hottest player this season is Vinicius, who scored 14 goals on 34 of 68 shots in this season's matches.
Vinicius's progress has been great, mainly from the polishing of technical details, especially the shooting process. In addition, his reading ability for the game has also improved, and he is often able to seize some fleeting opportunities in front of the goal.
Barca want to defend him and may consider having Araujo play a centre-back on the right, and then Alves playing a half-midfielder half-right while letting Dembele overpower the opposing left-back at the right wing.
Previous games have also proved that in the case of teammates behind the back, Alves' key moments are still very accurate. Vinicius was not a type of person with high technical precision, and his balls were often overpowered.
If a person slows him down head-on, and then Alves waits for the opportunity to step out, the possibility of defense will be very large.
According to Spanish media reports, if Barca can win the championship against Real Madrid on this trip to West Asia, it will eventually receive a huge prize of 12 million euros. This will be a much-needed income for Barca after the Champions League is out, and it will also drive the team to work harder to win the game.
Conclusion:
Although he welcomed back more than half of the main squad, Xavi even lacked the opportunity to grind before facing the vicious battle against Real Madrid. The team has a lot of new people this season, and the players are not familiar with each other. In such a situation, it is really too difficult to beat Real Madrid. Perhaps Harvey's plan is to first ensure that he does not lose for 90 minutes, and then see if he has a chance to find a chance to win in extra time and penalty shootouts.