Barcelona 2018/19 season went from glory to failure within a couple of games. At one point towards the end of the campaign, only three games stood between them and a third treble in the club’s rich history. All they had to do was hold onto a 3-0 lead against Liverpool at Anfield and beat Valencia in the Copa del Rey final.
In the end, they did neither of those things as both teams humiliated the Catalans, putting a large stain on the team and the coach himself. But Ernesto Valverde prevailed despite the masses calling for his sacking and the underwhelming results in Europe.
With that in mind, this tactical analysis will aim to give you the tactics Barcelona might use in the 2019/20 season and what changes are expected to happen if Valverde wants to finally turn his fortune around and with it, the fans as well.
2018/19 overview in numbers
It’s difficult to say what exactly went wrong in Barcelona’s latest campaign but saying everything did come pretty close to the right answer. Things proceeded smoothly, as they usually do, up until the breaking point in the latter stages of all competitions. La Liga was secured with fixtures to spare and Valverde finally had no excuse when it came to the Champions League.
But the Roma debacle got its sequel at Anfield as the Reds tore through a scared Blaugrana in a match that very much felt like a Sunday league clash. Or rather, it was professional adults toying with children. So mentality will very much play a huge role if this European curse is to be lifted from the Catalans but defensive fragility is also pretty much up there on top of the list.
Barcelona’s right-back problem has been a topic of hot debate ever since Dani Alves left the club and Jordi Alba on the left, despite an outstanding season in all regards, experienced a big dip in form at the worst possible time in the campaign. On average, they let 10.64 shots per game and conceded 0.98 goals. This was a dip from the 10.12 and 0.72 from the season before.
Likewise, they allowed their opposition 1.3 xG on average, while in 2017/18 that figure was as low as one. Even though the differences don’t seem to be big, it showed in the final statistics at the end of the season – 36 goals allowed in La Liga compared to 29 in the prior campaign and also two wins less and two defeats more.
Note, as well, that higher defensive numbers don’t necessarily mean the team was better in that department. It could also suggest they simply had more to do and there was a greater need for, say, clearances, fouls and duels, in general.
But the problems were not only in the defensive spectre of things.
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