My thoughts after Barca beat Atletico Madrid ⭐️
First 20 minutes were out of this world. We shocked Atletico with our 3-2-2-3 setup. They did not know what hit them. As we committed more numbers forward, we were able apply pressure in an effective way.
Atletico were not able to play out of this pressure. We also found Gavi & Pedri in the half space between their midfield and defense. In the end, this is what lead to the goal. After our goal. The game changed. That’s something I want to talk about.
Did we change our style of playing, or did Atletico? Truth is, Atletico started playing better. They pressed higher & with much more intensity. As a consequence, we couldn’t keep possession and dominate the game like we did before the goal.
Xavi did not instruct his players to change. It comes down to quality. We lacked the quality to play how we wanted against their pressure. Do not underestimate the difficulty of playing against Atletico at Metropolitano. Even Manchester City struggled.
Atletico forced us deep and we couldn’t play out from the back. They gained momentum as they constantly attacked. Did we get lucky? Yes, looking at their xG (1.7), you can clearly see they created enough quality chances to score.
Why couldn’t we cope with this? We suffered from the lack of a striker with great holdup play. At times, it was like playing with 10 men as we couldn’t use Fati. It’s not his fault, he is simply not that profile. Things would have been very different with Lewandowski up top.
Xavi reacted and made early substitutions. Kessie for Frenkie was a brilliant move. On the ball, Frenkie is amazing. However, what did the game require? A ball winner to kill Atletico’s momentum. Frenkie wasn’t good enough defensively.
He failed to block passing lanes & anticipate passes. 0 interceptions & 1 tackle was not good. Kessie played 33 minutes. During those minutes, he made the most interceptions + tackles out of all our players (6). Amazing impact.
Many found it weird when I praised Kessie. Truth is, people never thought about what the game needed. He would always be a downgrade on the ball, but he managed to disrupt Atletico’s ball progression in a much better way than Frenkie.
Great game management by Xavi 👏
Great game management by Xavi 👏
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