After the tie in the opening match of the League, Barça will look for the first victory in one of the most difficult fields of the championship. These are my five tactical keys for this match.
There are several unknowns for tonight's eleven but the main one is who will play six, pivot, without the suspended Busquets. For all the reflections made by Xavi during the preseason and, on paper, it has to be Miralem Pjanic who occupies this position. His behavior will be key to the proper functioning of the team.
By level and by type of player, the Bosnian will be positionally well positioned and will be clairvoyant in passing, but it will be decisive that he is well off the ball. Especially in the first pressure maneuvers. That is intuitive for the rejections, to guess the opponent's passes and that it is very active to jump forward in each post turnover.
The excellent performance of the Dutchman added to the type of match that is going to take place gives him a good chance that De Jong will be the interior that accompanies Pedri in the midfield. And it is that the verticality and dynamism of the Royal Society will lead to moments where the distances between lines are enlarged. And there the Dutchman is very good at gaining meters in driving and seeing the game head-on.
In addition, the loss of Busquets will also force us to provide a little more positional support, which will require a footballer with the ability to box to box. Whatever Xavi's choice, the role of inside second will demand different things tonight.
Imanol Alguacil does not change his idea of the game. A daring, direct and very active idea up front, something that reports that the San Sebastian block is used to being tall and with spaces behind the defensive line. And that can and has to be taken advantage of by Barça to explore depth, especially with the attackers. Because these are the fastest players for it and because, starting from the outside, they have more space for tickets.
Attention also to Lewandowski. Not only because of the spaces that he will be able to count on in defense-attack transitions, but because he is a specialist in this type of unchecking. He can take out more than one heads-up.
Barça's main problem against Rayo was the high acceleration with which they played. The azulgrana team recorded 68% possession but only reached 540 passes, a very low record and highly indicative of the speed at which he played at all times. It is urgent that the team knows how to apply moments of calm to positional attacks to chain passes and thus disorder the rival little by little so that the entrance space appears. Because in soccer there are periods for long possessions and there are moments to transit. The important thing is to alternate them and decide well.
The Japanese, formerly of Barça and Madrid, has arrived at Real this summer with the desire to take advantage of the last opportunity to get hooked on the first level and his start to the season has been very good. Sheriff is placing him behind Alexander Isak and he is taking advantage of it to look for play between the lines and to step on the area. He scored the only goal for the team from San Sebastian in the league debut. If he maintains the level it will be dangerous.
In midfield, we find one of the most promising midfielders on the national scene. It is Martín Zubimendi, a super complete player with a lot of personality. With the ball he plays easy but chooses well and, without the ball, he is supportive, hard-working and also intuitive for recoveries. Lots of attention to him. There is a player for years.
