Barcelona finally returned to Camp Nou with plenty of new players added to the squad in the winter transfer window. Some of the reinforcements started the game and played really well in the 4-2 victory, including Dani Alves and Adama Traoré who played on the right side. Contrarily, despite beating Ronald Koeman’s Barça back in October, Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid could not give the same standard of performance away from home the conceding of goals in critical moments was catastrophic.
This tactical analysis explains how Xavi integrated his new players into the positional structure and tactics these were the keys to solving the block of Atlético Madrid and we shall investigate.
Lineups
Barcelona played with a back four system but shifted flexibly between different attacking approaches. New arrivals in the winter such as Alves, Traoré, and Ferrán Torres started while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang started on the bench.
Atlético started in a 4-1-4-1 with Yannick Carrasco and João Félix on the flanks, but they later switched the formation to handle the attacks of the opponents. Šime Vrsaljko and Mario Hermoso were the full-backs and they suffered a lot in this game.
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