Which positional rotations dragged Barcelona from behind to beat Rayo?

In what felt like an appetizer to the French main course coming up this Wednesday, Barcelona hosted relegation-bound Rayo Vallecano at the Camp Nou in La Liga. The Catalans needed some time to wake up but managed to get the big three points to maintain their distance in front of Atletico Madrid, who still sit in second place.

Even though Ernesto Valverde probably wished the game could have been done and dusted earlier, an almost full strength Barcelona side had a lot of trouble breaching a well-organised and compact Rayo Vallecano defence. This tactical analysis will use statistics to determine just how the league leaders managed to come back from yet another deficit to snatch all the spoils at their home ground.

Lineups

Barcelona (4-3-3)

Starting XI: Ter Stegen  Semedo, Pique, Umtiti, Alba  Arthur, Busquets, Vidal  Messi, Suarez, Coutinho

Bench: Cillessen, Murillo, Aleñá, Rakitić, Sergi, Malcom, Dembélé

Coach: Ernesto Valverde

Rayo Vallecano

Starting XI: Dimitrievski  Advincula, Emiliano, Galvez, Amat, Moreno  Comesaña, Imbula  Bebe, Alvaro  de Tomás

Bench: Alberto Garcia, Tito, Mario, Embarba, Pozo, Trejo, Di Santo

Coach: Michel

Barcelona setup

There were two ways Ernesto Valverde could have looked at this game: as an opportunity to rest players before a crucial Champions League clash against Lyon, or as a potential banana skin.

The pragmatic and cautious coach that he is, Valverde decided to field a semi-rotated Barcelona lineup that had most of its big guns on the pitch but also rested a couple of key pieces of the puzzle.

With that in mind, Ivan Rakitić, Ousm