It was an absolutely humiliating night for the title defenders at Butarqe as they were beaten, outplayed and crushed by Los Pepineros (spanish for Cucumber farmers). FC Barcelona were second best in almost all departments. Here is an attempt to break the game down.
FORMATIONS
Leganes lined up with five at the back, a four man midfield and En Nesyri upfront. Rodriguez was a constant threat on the left hand side. Most of Leganes’s attacks came from the left and Roberto having a disastrous game resonated well with this for the hosts.
FC Barcelona played a classic 4-3-3 with Vermaelan filling in for a rested Alba at LB. Munir replaced Suarez just when the Uruguayan looked like he was finding form. Messi played centrally with Munir drifting wide at times. Dembele was looking uncomfortable on the left as usual.
The blueprint to stopping FC Barcelona
Presented by Girona, perfected by Leganes this strategy to stop the Catalan side seems really handy. The current Barcelona side is more of a collection of talented individuals than a team. Girona managed to contain Barcelona by crowding the centre of the pitch and forcing the play to the wings. Barcelona are not great at scoring through wing play and this strategy was built on that. Leganes perfected what Girona started. The side from Madrid had to deal with Vermaelen instead of Alba at LB and this gave them an extra edge. Leganes showed excellent defensive discipline by maintaining a line of 5 higher up the pitch than most teams do when they face FC Barcelona. Coutinho played interior and was free to roam in the centre. Dembele lost the ball frequently, failing to create anything throughout the game and hence the Leganes defence had no problems dealing with the left flank. With Messi playing central and pushing Munir to the wing while in posession, Barcelona played right into the hands of Leganes and gave them exactly what they wanted. This further narrowed down the pitch while attacking, for FC Barcelona.
Clearly, FC Barcelona were not allowed to even smell the final third by the Leganes defence and most of the shots (and goals) came from outside the box. A not-too-deep line of five shrinking the field can do wonders, eh?
The blueprint to scoring against FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona really struggled to handle the Leganes attack. Most of the attacks were in the form of counter on the wings. The Madrid side did well to stretch the field in attack and this was the primary cause which led to their first goal. Oscar Rodriguez was a constant torture for Sergi Roberto and in hindsight it would not have been the worst idea in the world to play Semedo in such a game. Vermaelan at LB was probably the worst idea since Luis Enrique’s idea to play Andre Gomes at RB. The Belgian was caught napping as Nabil opened the scoring for Leganes. Complacency has really messed up Umtiti and the past few performances should serve as a wake up call for the Frenchman. After disastrous performances from Pique in about seven out of ten games, we witnessed the peak of such blatant individual errors against Leganes. Pique literally assisted Rodriguez’s winner. Pressing the defense line against Barcelona now has assured results and this has been the case for some time now.
Possession without purpose
The Catalans enjoyed a lion’s share of possession with 78%. But managed to muster just 9 shots out of it while Leganes shot 10 times with whatever little possession they had. Crowding the middle also meant that Messi, Coutinho, Dembele had to inspire the team with individual brilliance as all passing lanes were cut out by the Leganes players. Some of the greatest passers of the ball Messi, Busquets were misplacing passes and getting caught in possession so casually, which is completely unacceptable for an average player let alone the top tier ones. With all link-ups being broken and stumbling upon a barrier at the box, Barcelona were left with no choice but try their luck from distance.
Goalkeeping heroics
The double save from Cueller who first stopped Coutinho’s curler and then denied Rakitic on the rebound from close range needs to be talked about. That heroic piece of goalkeeping fetched Leganes two points right there.
Puyol-like figure
FC Barcelona need one. The team was stinking of complacency and there is this one man who would never tolerate it. Most of the games won last season were due to individual brilliance. The goals conceded have come from terrible individual errors. It has been a while since FC Barcelona have played as a team. The players showed no intent and need to be reminded that they are playing for the crest on their chest and need to sacrifice more sweat.
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éstoessooraj 