In the last two games in Barcelona City, Xavi's side have played at a high level in attack, but the defensive end has exposed a lot of problems. In particular, players who make mistakes are not punished, which is also one of the reasons why mistakes happen repeatedly.
When Garcia and De Jong play the center back and the back, such a central axis will suddenly "one horse flat river" at the defensive end, the back line is so big, who really plays the forward, it is "carrying the weight forward".
01. When Garcia joins hands with De Jong on the central axis: there is really no hope of defending
In the Europa League match against Napoli, Barca let Busquets rest in rotation, and De Jong appeared in the single-back position that many expected him to appear, behind him were Garcia and Pique. Facing the strong Osmayne, Garcia really can't cope with it, and needs Pique to make up a lot of places.
If you analyze Barca's goal conceded against Napoli from the details, then the beginning is still in Garcia's single defensive ability deviation, and the ball is received by Elmas.
De Jong, as a back, retreated to the penalty area this time the landing was no problem, and he also limited the possibility of opponents crossing to the back post. The problem was that Garcia was chased back by Elmas and then simply slammed the ball away from the center of gravity, giving up completely the inside space to the opponent.
At this moment, it was exposed that De Jong's position was too far behind, and the protection of the proximal end was insufficient.
What's worse is that Garcia turned too slowly, he tried very hard to defend, but even though Zelinski's first shot was blocked by Pique after following up, Garcia still had no time to get back to his place.
De Jong can see his biggest problem in this shot: "laziness and dullness". If the first one is because Garcia is too weak, there are some flaws in De Jong's originally good selection.
De Jong should have leaned towards Zelinski as quickly as possible after Pique blocked his first shot, but he moved less than 10 centimeters from start to finish. In contrast, Nico, who is also poorly selected, still has a more obvious move.
Looking at the whole defensive process from the GIF again, Garcia's two sideways or turning looks very sluggish, although following Elmas's ability, which is caused by poor personal ability.
De Jong's choice to move in the middle of the road is more caused by insufficient awareness and too little effort. Both of them endured this wave of Napoli's attacking sharpness on the central axis, and the end result was that Barca conceded the ball.
02. Making the same mistake in two consecutive games: will Garcia and De Jong be punished?
Statistically, Barca's goal ratio against Napoli was 21-4, and the resulting shot was 4-4! On the one hand, this is because the Barça striker is too volleyous, and on the other hand, it is also because Barça is too inefficient in defense.
First of all, Barca's conceded goal fell back to the first point of defense, or because Garcia had once again misjudged, which led to his unnecessary release of the siege, allowing Osmayne to escape the result of offside.
In the last round of La Liga with Espanyol, it was also Garcia's offside mistake that allowed the opponent to complete the goal. At that time, the Barça defender line was very flat, and De Matos went into the offside position and fell into the trap. As a result, Garcia's incomprehensible retreat turned the other side around.
What's even more stupid is that after Garcia withdrew, he remembered that his first task was to unblock the ball, not to fall into place.
As a result, the big man who was 1 meter 82 tall and turned around like a 2 meter giant found that he could not make another move after moving the position, so he watched the ball pass over his head, allowing De Matos to shoot and score.
Also against Napoli, De Jong, who had to bear some responsibility for conceding goals, also continued the mistake of the previous game. This game against Napoli, as a back,Jong's defensive stats are 2 one-on-one confrontations have failed, and the defensive end has 0 steals and 0 clearances, only contributing 3 interceptions (away from the focus area of the opponent's attack, intercepting passes at the far end).
Because the contribution on the offensive end is getting smaller and smaller, De Jong's problems on the defensive end are beginning to be taken seriously by more people. In the past 2 years, De Jong has been defensively inactive in a large number of goals conceded, but now that Barca's record has declined, people will be even more angry that they move together when they are parallel to Busquets, and the result is that the veteran is in place, but De Jong is gone.
When the opponent Dudel scored a shot from midfield, De Jong, who was watching the play behind his back, needed to be ashamed of himself. However, it was clear that De Jong did not feel anything himself, so again in the front row of the near end to enjoy the opponent's goal.
03. Garcia's 1 game: 3 chances to "kill" Barca
If Garcia, who played 45 minutes off the bench in the last round of La Liga, contributed greatly to the Espanyol attack, then in the 90 minutes against Napoli, in addition to conceding the goal, Garcia even had two chances to "kill Barca".
Despite his defensive stats of 2 steals, 4 interceptions and 2 clearances, the colander at key moments was too harsh.
This time defending before the front midline, Even if Garcia stuck to Osmayne, he could not prevent the opponent from easily pushing himself and carrying the ball forward. Considering Garcia's physique, such a result is believed not to surprise Barca fans.
Because the opponent did not have a no-ball follow-up, and there was also Mingosa protection at the back point. All Garcia needed to do at the moment was to speed back up behind Pique to protect the space inside.
Pique's move to garcia was successful after moving him sideways, limiting Osmayn to a tight space on the flank. The problem is that Pique is not known for his speed, and Garcia can form a pinch against Osmayn if he can get back to the inside in time.
As a result, Garcia walked all the way back to the defense, and finally watched as Pique exhausted all his strength and barely limited Osmayne's neche attack.
As a young man, letting the veteran wipe his ass and walking calmly, is he lacking the awareness to protect the interior space, or is he lazy?
From the GIF, you can take a closer look at the entire defensive process, and Garcia's being crushed by Osmayne is not the biggest problem, because there is Pique behind him. The real problem is that Garcia lacks the awareness and enthusiasm to protect the inside line of the secondary landing, and as a result, Pique is almost penetrated by his opponents.
Pique is old, but the sense of responsibility is still there. Busquets is old, but still faster than De Jong's defense. What's the problem with Barca's defense? Dream Trinity is not just talented, they also want faces!
Maybe Barca fans don't want Garcia to be too aggressive defensively, because he can do too little. If Garcia wants to defend hard, maybe it needs some funny moves.
This time he saw Osmayne in the penalty area, and actually put the opponent down in the penalty area with a hugging and falling motion. It was really too bold in the era of VAR, fortunately this is Barca's home stadium and the team has not been prosecuted for fouls.
Conclusion:
In the next La Liga game, will De Jong and Garcia be Barca's starting point? Two consecutive games with similar defense caused the team to concede goals, but the two did not seem to feel that there was a problem with them. If the team's rewards and penalties are always unknown, then even if Barca build a better starting lineup, other teammates may not be able to take such a central axis.