Getafe - Barcelona, 1-2 - a worthwhile experiment -

Two days after the away win at the Getafe – Barcelona march, “The Barca Tactician offers us An in-depth tactical analysis of the match. In order to see the original thread on twitter you can click here.

Getafe – Barcelona – Barca Lineup

Valverde lined up a simple 433 in theory, with Busquets not playing the only real surprise. While Getafe lined up a flat 442, with heavy focus on wing play. Like previous matches, Barca ewere expected to heavily rely on attacking through the left half space.

Valverde clearly knew that Getafe were not going to overload central areas, and preferred to be in an open shape. This is why in possesion, Barça switched to a 343, where Rakitic dropped back to play as a ‘sweeper’.

This allowed Arthur to be the direct link between the defense and the attack. He was able to control the tempo, as well as allowing Barça to rely on counter attacks in certain spaces, taking advantage of the wing backs being Alba and Sergi.

With the individual quality of Suarez and Messi, Barça were able to quickly grab 2 goals in the first half. However, after the second goal, Dembele’s
changed his role drastically, which is why we saw his improvement in the second half.

Once Barça lead the match comfortably, Dembele drifted more centrally, in hopes of attracting Getafe’s Right Midfielder more centrally. This left the channel totally open for Alba to 1v1 vs Damian Suarez. By doing this, Getafe were basically useless through their right wing.

Second half

In the second half, Bordalas saw the good defensive work of Dembele, and subbed in Molina, a striker instead of his right midfielder. Getafe switched to a more direct 433 with a focus on high pressure, marking Arthur off the game. Valverde responded to this by subbing Busquets on, as Rakitic would push forward and distract Getafe. It became like a cards game, your turn, my turn.

After this, Barça pretty much wanted to see off the game. They dropped back and controlled the ball. In the end, Rakitic did his part as a sweeper, playing surprisingly well. It’s the second time Valverde experiments with a 3 ATB formation this season, and it worked.

In the end, it was an interesting game, with interesting approaches from both teams. Getafe is always a struggle, so its good to get the 3 points.