La Liga 2019/20: Eibar vs Barcelona

Barcelona travelled to Ipurua last Saturday and managed to snatch away all three points after beating Eibar 3-0. Even though the Basque hosts fought bravely, the Catalans were clinical and made use of the hosts disorganised pressing tactics and the abundance of space they were given when entering the final third.

This tactical analysis will use analysis do dissect both teams’ tactics and determine just how Barcelona managed to beat Eibar so convincingly.

Lineups

The home team were deployed in a fairly standard 4-4-2 system that they’ve used for the majority of the ongoing season. There were a couple of changes to their setup from the last game they played in La Liga.

Jose Angel Cote started at the left-back position while Orellana and Diop were joined by Álvarez and León in the middle of the pitch. Up front, Sergi Enrich and Charles led the way.

On the other side of the pitch, Barcelona were deployed in their usual 4-3-3 formation but saw some changes in the lineup. Jordi Alba and Samuel Umtiti both made their big returns after injury and Sergi Roberto returned to his right-back position.

The rest of the squad didn’t see any changes as the Sergio Busquets, Frenkie de Jong and Arthur Melo midfield was followed by Griezmann/ Suárez/ Messi forward trio.

Eibar’s pressing tactics

Generally speaking, Eibar have one of the best pressing systems in the league. And from the get-go, we knew what their gameplan would be: charge at Barcelona with pace and numbers, creating overloads and squeezing the Catalans into mistakes.

They would press in a 4-3-3 scheme with the ball-near full-back advancing forward if the ball was progressed down that flank and into their territory. Sometimes, Eibar even made sure to mark Barcelona’s players man by man, effectively mirroring them and making sure they had no escape routes.