In the 26th round of the 2021-22 La Liga season, Barca played Atlético Bilbao at home. Before the race, Barca trailed Atletico by 3 points in the second round of the junior round in 5th place, while Athletic Bilbao was 8th with 37 points. Therefore, in this game, Barca will definitely try their best to win and regain the top 4. In addition, Athletic Bilbao rotated a number of main players due to the need to retain the semi-final of the Copa del Rey in midweek, which also created opportunities for Barca to win.
Xavi still uses the traditional 433 formation, the "Premier League Three" who joined in the winter window continues to form a trident, Garvey, Busquets and Pedri are behind them to support the strategy, on the back line, Alba is suspended, and the recently good Derst cameo, Araujo and Pique who ended the suspension are paired with double center-backs, and the veteran Alves returns to the right-back start.
In this game, Barca continue to play mainly in pass control football, but Xavi has added more changes to the pass control. Although Alba was suspended, Barca's attack was still mainly concentrated on the left side, and the attack on the right side was almost left to Traore alone. In the 37th minute, Barca opened a corner kick on the left side of the field, Pique jumped high on the crossbar, and Aubameyang found the second drop point in front of the goal, volleying through the goal.
Since then, although Barca has firmly controlled the ball and created many shooting opportunities, they have no choice but to seize it. Trailing by one goal, Athletic Bilbao saw hope of taking points and began to invest offensive forces in the second half. Smelling that something was wrong, Harvey began to make adjustments. In the 67th minute, Dembele and De Jong replaced Ferran Torres and Garvey, and Barca suddenly began to pick up speed.
Six minutes later, Dembele's left-footed shot burst into the penalty area and the ball flew into the net against the crossbar; in the 89th minute, Dembele crossed from the right of the front and accurately found substitute Luc De Jong, who easily headed the goal, 3-0, Barca completely killed the game. But Dembele's performance was not over, in the 94th minute, the "King of Fragrant Balls" again crossed from the right, and Depay grabbed the point in front of the goal, 4-0!
"Waking up is another big 4-goal win", after the game, the comments section was full of pride and ridicule from Barca fans. Unconsciously, Barça have gone unbeaten in 7 consecutive games in all competitions, and in the last 3 games, Barça have scored 4 goals. This game against Athletic Bilbao, the game has entered the final stage of stoppage time, Barca still has not given up the attack, there is a taste of not scoring 4 goals and not giving up.
In addition, Barca's ability to control the field has been significantly improved recently, and the playing style has become more mature. You can play the familiar pass-control football and score goals in a way that was rarely used in the past. Dembele's goal is Barca's 20th player to score this season. Obviously, under Xavi's creation, Barca have changed from relying on superstars to harvest games in the past to a full-fledged blossoming situation where everyone is a scoring point.
And the most exciting thing is the improvement of Barca's defense now. Over the past few years, Barca's problems on the defensive end have been much more serious than on the offensive end. In many matches, Barca scored 1 in front and 2 in the back line. Sometimes with a lead of 2 or even 3 goals, Barca's defense will suddenly collapse at some point in the second half, being forced to equalize or even overtake by the opponent. After Harvey returned, he began to start from the defensive system, and found the kind of in-place counterattack that suffocated the opponent in the past.
As you can see from the match against Athletic Bilbao, Barca's 3-line movement is very coordinated and the distance is kept very reasonable. In the offensive and defensive stages, Barca quickly began to organize a defense from the front. One player goes to grab the ball point, while the other players move closer to the receiving player next to them at the same time, cutting off the passing route. When encountering a team with a weak passing ability, it is difficult to pass the half court in the face of such a defense.
In the past few years, Barca have changed managers frequently, coupled with the blindness of the Bartomeu era, the club is in debt. The players in the squad are old and old, small and small. After Koeman left class, the outside world almost all thought that Barca would enter a period of reconstruction for a short period of time. But unexpectedly, the effect of Harvey's return was immediate. In terms of tactical play, Harvey is definitely better at tuning tikitaka than Koeman. And Harvey's pass control is obviously different from his predecessors such as Setien, and Harvey's pass control is more aggressive and efficient.
In building a squad, Barca rely on youth training + appeal. Harvey understands the value of La Masia better than Koeman, and the young people who emerged during koeman's time continued to gain a wide range of space after Harvey took over. What makes Barca quickly form a fighting force is the appeal brought by the strong foundation.
Lack of personnel on the front? Aubameyang terminated his contract with Arsenal and joined with a sharp pay cut. Traore resolutely responded to Barca's call in close proximity to Tottenham. And willing to give up 850,000 salaries, only 350,000 in half a year. In addition, the right-back is unstable, and Alves' minimum salary of 3,000 weeks is back (not the previously reported 1 euro). These players have played a huge role in Barca today, With Aubameyang scoring 5 goals in 6 games, Traore scoring 4 assists in 6 games, and Alves remaining stable, with 1 goal and 3 assists in 6 games.
Seeing that Barca is now thriving, many fans joked: "Play Bayern, play Bayern!" Indeed, Barca have been vulnerable to Bayern in the past two years, having been hit 8-2 at home in the Champions League last season and double-doubled home and away from home in the group stage this season, scoring six goals. In the eyes of fans, Bayern has become a litmus test for Barca to enter the ranks of Europe's top powerhouses. But optimism is optimistic, or hope that Barca continue to develop obscenely, don't wave.