Facing this season's La Liga promotion side Maherona, Barca were able to win a 1-0 victory, and the result was gratifying.
But from the process point of view, the attack of the red and blue regiments encountered many problems. If it weren't for Pedri's appearance, it's really hard to say if he could have won.
01. The home team puts down the iron barrel formation: Barça lacks a man in the middle
a. Barça no one in the middle: Girona's defensive position is very targeted
Pedri did not start this time, and with Fati in the center of the attack, Barca's attacking launch relied heavily on ball carriers on both wings.
Under Girona's 442 formation, their double strikers have a greater depth of defense, and at the same time dare to open the distance between the double backs and the double central defenders, in order to form a triangular position to limit Dembele or Rafinha.
As you can see from the chart below, Girona's two-striker moves quickly and restricts Barca's forward advance.
Because Barca's attack ended up going to the wing, Girona even dared to open the distance in the middle, but Barca had no one to take advantage of.
After Rafinha takes the ball, the opponent poses a triangular position in the ribs, and it is difficult to attack effectively unless you force the bottom line.
The problem is that if Barca chooses to cross from the bottom, only Fati will steal the spot. Walked the ribs, but no one answered. It is obviously unrealistic to expect Conde to take the ball and launch an attack.
b. Barça's first half hour: can only rely on the opponent's mistakes to find opportunities
As you can see from the heat map, Girona is relatively highlighted on the left and right sides. They move quickly and can always limit Barca's attacks in both areas.
Barca's lack of a player in the centre also made Girona's strategy effective and targeted.
As you can see from the camera, Fathi is still very positive. The ball doesn't give him his feet, he creates opportunities by moving and trying.
Unfortunately, he snatched the ball at the feet of the goalkeeper and Dembele's shot was not good.
Looking at this attack again, it was still Fathi who caught the opponent's defender and made a mistake in the return pass, his prediction and spirituality remained, but unfortunately the last shot was still too anxious and failed to play well.
Barca's attack in the first half of the first half of the first half was a little less methodical. In desperation, Dembele will need to attack more with the ball.
As a result, after a strong burst, Dembele strained his muscles and regrettably left the field early.
02. Pedri plays forward: Barca attack has one more key point
a. There are people in the middle: Barca's attacking threat has become greater
Pedri came on as a substitute for Dembele, not to play on the left wing, but more like a forward for the team.
Especially in the second half, Alba was arranged to play together, and Barca's attack was straightened out a lot.
First of all, a very simple football principle, that is, no matter how strong the wing is, it is half the effort to go to the middle. Because even if you break through the wing, the players who fill the position have time to collect.
Conversely, if you grab the opponent's space in the middle, attract the defense and split the ball to both wings, you will often get more space, and then play back to the middle in the third step, and things will be easy.
This time after Pedri picked up the ball in the middle, Fati attracted the defence and De Jong stepped forward as a very good chance.
Unexpectedly, the opposing central defender's defensive quality was high this time, intercepting Pedri's wonderful pass to De Jong. Fortunately, the second row followed up with the Barca players, but the quality of Rafinha's shot was really not high.
Looking at the attack again, Garvey went to the wing and crossed, and Pedri and Rafinha in the middle met at 2 points.
Pedri's cover gave Rafinha an open shot, only to slip unexpectedly and make people laugh and cry.
b. 3 goals in the last 4 games: Pedri celebrates the 100-game milestone
Barca had only three shots on target in this game, precisely from Dembele, who was replaced by Pedri, and himself.
With two shots on goal and one crucial pass on goal, Pedri became Barca's most threatening player in attack.
The only goal of the game, Pedri was the starting point of the attack (ribs defensively taking the ball and scoring the ball after the empty teammate) and the final endpoint (outflanking the point after the penalty area without the ball).
Pedri's presence gives Barca an extra stable point to take the ball and a quick attacking starting point in the opponent's defensive dense area.
The ensuing no-ball move came to life, with Fati sending Alba a downward pass, who crossed and Pedri scored with an easy shot from the back point to score his third goal in the last four games (two of which came at 1-0, the other being Real Madrid).
03. Barca's defense has a logical flaw: Garcia cannot be asked to do better
a. Garcia did his best: this is his masterpiece
This match can be called Garcia's personal masterpiece after coming to Barca, winning all 5 ground 1-on-1 confrontations, handing over a beautiful report card of 5 steals, 2 interceptions and 3 saves.
Garcia is fierce up front, and the opponent's striker has limited individual ability, so his success rate is high.
After Pedri's goal this time, Garcia used a strong tackle to further boost the morale of his team.
Looking at the defense this time, after Balder was cut off with the ball, De Jong was a little busy and could not prevent the opponent from breaking through in the middle, and the last time to solve the siege was Garcia.
After all, the opponent's personal ability is limited, Barça's overall position is relatively close, even if they can create local chaos, they cannot effectively enter the heart of Barça.
b. Sudden change in the last 10 minutes: Stuani almost spoils the situation
As you can see from the statistics of the second half, the two teams are equal in the expected goals, and Girona even has one more shot than Barça in terms of goals.
In particular, Girona had only one shot on goal in the first 35 minutes of the second half. The problem was that after the 80th minute, they actually had 4 shots on goal, and Barca's side was 0.
Especially after Stuani came off the bench, the pressure on the Barça defense increased sharply. Garcia obviously suffered when asking for his position, and once the formation was suppressed, Girona began to lay siege to the Barça penalty area, and there was an instant rumor.
This time, if Stuani hadn't been able to reach it because of his age, Garcia, even if he tried his best, could not stop him from making a shooting move.
The opponent's most threatening attack, a wide cross from Garcia, was completed by Ivan Marin in the middle with no one on target.
At that time, right-back Araujo was defending another attacking player in front, Garcia's air defense area in front of the front point was too small (height limit), and as a right-back, Conde clearly had a lot of inward retraction, but did not have the sense of complementation.
This ball is the opponent's chance is completely out, once it is within the goal frame, ter Stegen may not be able to do anything.
This is not the first time that Barca have lacked the ability to fill in both left-centre-backs and right-back since Araujo were dispatched.
In the 96th minute of the game, it was a similar reasoning, Garcia could do very little in front of the post, and Araujo was not very good at protecting behind him.
Stuyani had another chance in the box, but fortunately he was really old, and the goalkeeper had two consecutive headers to give Barca the lucky 1-0 victory.
Conclusion:
Dembele's injury, after Lewandowski's return, is not necessarily fatal for Barca. After all, after Pedri can play a good forward role, the team's attack is still guaranteed, and the use of Rafinha on the right can also bring better offensive and defensive balance.
The problem is that Barca's central defender's ability to be pressured is too big a gap between La Liga and European and Cup environments. There are many newcomers in the Barça defense line, and the overall effort is relatively hard, and in the first year, they can persist in passing under some difficult scenes. However, the flaws in strength will make them wrong in tough battles, or rely too much on the opponent's shooting skills.