Setién’s Barcelona vs Valencia
Quique Setién has just taken over from Valverde as manager of Spanish giants, Barcelona. His first match at the helm saw a 1–0 win over Granada but his second saw his side lose 2–0 to Valenica as Maxi Gomez (23) scored a brace.
Setién was let go by Real Betis last season, a side I enjoyed watching who had some very good players and played some exciting football at times, always dominating possession. I’d argue that Setién is an acquired taste for some and not everyone enjoys his football, and he’s sure to divide the Barcelona fan base. Especially if results don’t go their way.
Obviously this was only Setién’s second game in charge and he hasn’t had much time with the team or to bring in any players, but I want to have a look at their loss against Valencia, particularly in possession and just talk about a few aspects of the game.
His philosophy sees his teams dominate possession in a 3–1–4–2 and buildup up from the back. They are patient and will continue to try and play out under a high press which ends up being very risky at times. Against Valenica they has 73% of possession with 5 players having over 100 touches. Busquets had the most with 136. Some people will enoy this high possession based game, but other don’t. It can be very slow paced with not much going on at times, with a lot of passing among the back three.
Moving up the pitch they focus on one touch play with quick sequences and positional rotations among their attackers. They look to exploit wide space with switches of play with wing backs who often hug the sideline and sit very high up the pitch. Once they progress up the pitch and penetrate the midfield line the pace of the attack suddenly picks up and try quick combinations.
Out of possession though they are in a 4–4–2 or a 5–3–2 at times. The front two will press high and try to force long balls with the rest sitting in a mid/high block. The wing backs/wide players may also press up if needed and are very quick to fire forwards once the ball is won. Apart from the wing backs, the attacking unit can often be quite compact and in a close vicinity. If they lose the ball high, they can press quickly to win it back, like the scenario below.
I saw this tweet about the game before I watched it and have to agree.
The Barcelona players had quite a lot of freedom to roam and rotate. De Jong would float to the right wing, with Fati pushing higher up or moving into the half space or centrally in the defensive line and between lines. Messi dropped into midfield a lot to join the one touch play and combinations, leaving Griezmann a bit isolated at times and meant Barcelona had a lot of players in central areas with passing options with each other and able to keep the ball comfortably. But were, as a unit, quite far from the opposition’s defensive line.
They took 14 shots on the night, creating 1.39 expected goals. Messi took 11 of the 14, 4 of which were free kicks. Griezmann didn’t have any shots. Messi had a total of 0.96 expected goals (71% of total) and the team only created one chance that had more than a 40% chance of being scored, from Jordi Alba.
Although they took 14 shots, they weren’t great chances. This article from Chris Summersell is a good article on how running in behind the defence is important, using Guardiola’s Barcelona as an example. Barcelona lacked penetration against Valencia and didn’t create enough big chances that getting in behind lead to. Conservative passing contributes to this with tonnes of first time passes back to the player they’ve received the ball from. And although they created space, sucking in defenders it often then felt they needed an extra player to then be the outlet which see’s them progress the ball and be able to spring into an attack.
This relates to why I’m often not that big on back threes. They are effective out of possession and can be useful in buildup at times and allows Setién’s wing backs to push so high. But, I often think that in possession, having that extra man back is a bit pointless and means you have less players in the attacking third. Like the example below, there’s a lot of space between lines and I’d want to see a runner there or a 10 occupying that space and able to receive in a dangerous area. Meanwhile, the two strikers aren’t looking to receive and the centre midfielders are on the same horizontal line.
Going forward there needs to be that penetration and running behind and the passes will come. Someone like Lautaro Martinez (22) would bring this and would be a very strong signing for them.
Also, the midfield of Arthur — Busquets — De Jong feels like a bit of a weird mix of players. De Jong prefers to be deeper and excelled at that at Ajax but is more between the lines here. Arthur didn’t suit the lower tempo phases that well and didn’t impact the game that much before coming off, looking frustrated a couple of times and even uninterested. Vidal could add more energy to the midfield and directness and I can imagine Messi being used as a centre midfielder also, especially if they bring in a new striker who can partner Griezmann.
This is a good video by @ThatGooner from this tweet as well looking at a passage of play.
