After last season's La Liga game, Barca trailed Real Madrid by 13 points and watched as their arch-rival lifted the league trophy. Nine months later, Barca, who have won 10 in a row, not only stepped on Real Madrid to win the Super Cup, but also established an eight-point lead in La Liga.
Despite being out of the Champions League group stage, Barca are back on the right path. Xavi, who switched to four midfielders, has given the team a higher tolerance rate and a more consistent win rate.
01. 10 consecutive wins! Build an 8-point lead + 1 championship
a. Winning a long-lost title + building an 8-point lead in La Liga
Entering the new year, Barça won a 10-game winning streak in just 32 days from January 5th to February 6th.
With an average of 3.2 days to play a game, the Red and Blue have shown amazing fighting spirit. In particular, the 3-1 victory over Real Madrid in the final of the Spanish Super League and stepping on the throne of the sworn enemy made the fans rejoice.
In the past 32 days, Barça went to Asia to play in the Spanish Super Cup, and because of the Copa del Rey draw Ceuta, they had to go to Africa.
However, it was a month that spanned three continents and allowed Barca to build an eight-point lead in La Liga.
b. Fan attendance reaches a new high: Xavi aims to equalize Pep Guardiola's record
As you can see from the data, Barça have the highest number of players in Europe's top five leagues this season.
Camp Nou averaged 82,825 fans per game, also surpassing the era of Guardiola and Luis Enrique.
Xavi is currently winning 10 straight wins in all competitions with Barca and could equalline Pep Guardiola's 11-game winning streak with the Red and Blue if they can beat Villarreal in the next round of La Liga.
Barca's longest winning streak in history was Rijkaard's dream two, winning 17 games in one go, and Xavi needs more effort to catch up.
02. Penalty 1 to 8! Barça rely on strength to rush to the championship
a. Penalties 1-8! Xavi used tactics to reverse the disadvantage
I don't know if it's because of different tactical play or different player characteristics, but Real Madrid got 8 penalties, Barca only 1, such a data comparison, is still quite conspicuous.
Barca's success lies in the fact that the introduction of Lewandowski has ensured high goalscoring efficiency, making it easier for the team to establish a 1-0 lead.
In order to better cope with the intensive competition, Barca began to change the four-midfielder. A number of midfielders behind Lewandowski took turns cutting forward, while the wide attack was given to Alba/Balder and Rafinha to seize more chances by better overall movement and front-to-back position.
At the same time, Kessie, who played poorly in the first half of the season, was integrated into the new four-midfield system.
Kessie can play part of the role of a temporary center, and can also follow the No. 9 into the box, which is quite in tune with this 442 formation that Lewandowski runs around, which is quite in line with the offensive end.
b. Whether it's Alba or Balde: both with some winger attributes
Another key point in this set of play is that left-back has its own winger attributes, which is probably one of the reasons why Alonso has hardly played in this position since joining the team, and has played more cameo as a central defender.
Alba has more passing ability than Balde, and if age and annual salary are not considered, he would be more suitable to be a starter.
The goal that broke the deadlock in the last round of La Liga came from Kessie in the middle of the box with a center-forward ball protection and ball action, sending a wonderful pass to Alba in front.
The latter's shot scored and allowed Barca, who had been unable to attack for a long time, to successfully break the deadlock.
03. The 442 formation is also flawed: it will be difficult to continue using next season
a. First year new signing bonus: The team's ability to break the ice depends on running
There is a problem, that is, Barca's 442 style of play is not particularly good to resist pressure and break the density, first of all, the advantage of this style of play is based on the large number of sprinting forward and retreat rate of striker Rafinha and midfielder.
Secondly, the central midfield needs to be highly focused and play more efficient defensive confrontation. Because Rafinha and most of the back line are new signings (which will definitely play harder in the first year), while Araujo, Gavi, Pedri and Balder are all youngsters eager to prove themselves, the whole style of play can continue to be high-intensity.
However, once it falls to 0-1 and the team's morale drops, whether the running style of play can quickly equalize the score, or concede the second goal, will determine the success or failure of the game.
Goals like this are the advantages that come with sprint running. Rafinha's speed, Garvey's positivity and Lewandowski's wide back-and-forth pulling of central defenders allowed Barca to score goals.
b. Lack of Assaulters: If you can't run, it's hard to kick
A typical current player for Barca is Rafinha, who is actually spectacular, with a high turnover rate in the game, but the goals and assists on key goals are quite conspicuous.
Leafy players are willing to run more sprints, but they are bound to have certain flaws, and as the accolades increase, they will also lose motivation (unless they keep playing like Liverpool did before, and they will not be able to play this season).
Xavi will also have his frustration when choosing between Dembele and Rafinha. Dembele has much more ability to the ball and better tactical ceilings, but is not as good as Rafinha in defensive presence.
If Dembele stays healthy, they complement each other in function and can become Barca's successive, but unfortunately the Frenchman will miss a month, hoping that Barca will not encounter too much adversity in the future.
Conclusion:
Barça's style of 433 is because it can ensure more strikers and better shooting efficiency, and the current set of 442 even if it is to choose a winger, it must consider the defensive position.
Perhaps in the long run, this will not be in line with Barca's beautiful football culture, and even if it wins this season, there are areas for adjustment next season.