After political unrest in Catalonia led the postponement of El Clásico, the day has finally arrived. The biggest game of the first half of the season is finally here.
Neutrals will enjoy the timing even more now that the teams are level on points at the top of the La Liga table. Tied at 35 points nearly halfway through the league slate can only enhance the intensity and passion in the game.
Camp Nou hosts the first Clásico of the season with Barcelona starting to find their form in La Liga. They’ve won five of their last nine games by three goals or more and cruised through their Champions League group.
While Real Madrid hasn’t been quite as prolific in front of goal, they’ve strung together a number of dominant performances in the league, creating a healthy number of opportunities and conceding few. Prior to their game against Valencia, they recorded a high xG than their opponent in every game since their match against Atlético on September 28th, a run of eight games.
This tactical analysis preview will look at each teams’ style of play and the tactics they will likely take into El Clásico. Analysis of each team’s strengths and weaknesses will show how each team will approach the game and address the biggest tactical concerns for each team.
Ernesto Valverde vs Zinedine Zidane
In seven games, Zidane has five wins and a draw against Valverde. Of those seven games, four are Clásicos, in which Zidane has the 2-1-1 edge over Valverde with the two more recent games ending in a Barcelona win and draw.
After Barcelona’s runaway title during the 2018/19 season, the table is much tighter this year. Real Madrid has closed the gap, tying Barcelona on points, trailing only on goal differential. Sevilla sits four-points back and the gap to 8th place is just eight points. In this highly competitive La Liga season, a deeper analysis of the stats is necessary to gauge this matchup.
Analysing xG, xGA and xPTS, Real Madrid have superior statistics in all three categories. They’re actually underperforming in xG while overperforming in the other two. Zidane’s side could use more clinical finishing as Karim Benzema is the lone standout, scoring 12 goals with a 9.1 xG. After him, there’s a massive drop to 2nd place Sergio Ramos, who has three goals on a 3.1 xG. The defence will certainly be the priority for Zidane in this game, but the key attacking players need to produce at a more efficient rate. Zidanes tactics are producing more than enough opportunities for this team to contest for the title and make a run in the UEFA Champions League
Meanwhile, Valverde’s side is wildly overachieving in goals scored and are six points ahead of their xPTS. That’s a credit to the clinical finishing of Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez. Messi has four set-piece goals and two converted penalty kicks. That leaves him with six goals in the flow of play for a total of 12 (all with his left foot) in 11 La Liga games. For the Barcelona purists, the lack of opportunities is troubling, but Messi and Suárezs brilliance continues to mask cracks in the system.
Valverde
