After the troubling news of Dembele’s injury, Messi’s clash on Instagram, it’s time to focus back to football. Setien seems to have stayed calm despite the chaos around him judging by the press conference. He refused to answer any non-football questions before the Copa match.
More than that, we can’t forget we have a trophy to conquer, a revenge to take: We lost at San Mamés 1-0 in the first matchday of the league, Setien has never won there; We’ll have to see how we lineup: Araujo, Puig & Collado have been called up too from the B. I’m curious about the plan, while Vidal is fit once again.
Current form of both teams
We can’t afford to take it lightly. Don’t forget that they are very good in their stadium-Fans with passion can make it very tough for us-as we lost 1-0 in the firs MD.
We’ll have to seek for revenge out there, as there is still only one leg-and we want to go for the treble despite the big mess around.
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Last 5 Bilbao matches: DDDDL
A.Bilbao-C.Vigo: 1-1(H)•League
Elche-A.Bilbao: 1-1(A)•CdR
Espanyol-A.Bilbao: 1-1(A)•League
Tenerife-A.Bilbao: 3-3(A)•CdR
A.Bilbao-Getafe: 0-2(H)•League
Position in the league: 9th
Pts : 31. GD: +5
Not a good run lately for them. They haven’t won in the last 5 games, and are still in the CdR quarterfinals despite drawing against Tenerife & Elche, Two teams that aren’t even in the first Spanish league. They don’t tend to score a lot of goals, while they usually rely on their compact defense-which hasn’t been able to keep a single cleansheet since January.
They’ve recently lost to Getafe, which are now the third. We can’t underestimate Bilbao tho.
Last 5 Barça matches: WWLWW
Barça-Granada: 1-0(H)•League
Ibiza UD-Barça: 1-2(A)•CdR
Valencia-Barça: 2-0(A)•League
Barça-Leganés: 5-0(H)•CdR
Barça-Levante: 2-1(H)•League
Position in the league: 2nd
Pts: 46. GD: +26
The first month under Setien’s guidance. Considering he has earned from a big mess, it’s fair to say he has done pretty well. But will be tested with only 3 fit first teamers for the attack. We’ve done pretty well, but failed the first big challenge, as we lost 2-0 at the Mestalla against Valencia. Now’s the second big test. Can we make it? Will we play well? Will San Mamés’ roar affect us? We have to do well.
Last 5 meetings: WWDDL
A.Bilbao-Barça: 0-2(A) 28.11.17
Barça-A.Bilbao: 2-0(H) 18.03.18
Barça-A.Bilbao: 1-1(H) 29.09.18
A.Bilbao-Barça: 0-0(A) 10.02.19
A.Bilbao-Barça: 1-0(A) 23.09.19
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Problematic. It’s been three games we haven’t won against them, and almost two years. It’s time to correct that. And it’s been 2 years and a half we haven’t won against them in San Mames, showing how tough they can be. We need the Revenge.
T A C T I C S
A.Bilbao are a quite defensive team. And that’s their actual problem right now: drought of goals. If they only concede 0.8 goals/match on average-which makes them third in the category-they also score in average in only 0.8 goals/match. As a consequence they have often dropped points, especially conceided draws, which doesn’t allow them to progress. Moreover, the lack of depth, due to their policy, is another reason for their stagnation.
However, it’s not like it’s all safe there. They have collected twice as many points at the San Mames, their holy home with 50.00 supporters, than away games. As you know, we’ll be playing there, unfortunately. Width and depth will have to be used in order to create holes in the empty half spaces, which are rarely found out there. We’ll especially have to do something with our possession-They only average 48% possession.
Player to watch: Muniain
He’s key to them as he’s the LW of the team. He has created many chances for their team-26 chances along 25 key passes-while he scored 4 goals himself-3 of them with his right foot, as he has a strong magical right foot. He has featured in 16 games, proving his importance. His key passes are due to his accuracy of 86% accurate passes, making him dangerous as hell.
We’ll for sure will have to limit his impact-As our two leftbacks are offensive.
Positional play expressed through all phases of play, a football fan that fell in love with the Beautiful Game over 10 years ago. Occasionally writes about FC Barcelona for Barca_Buzz, on tactics and attempts to explain the game to the casual eye.
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