Even though Barcelona still have a number of different issues to resolve within their squad, Quique Setién has improved many aspects of their game, such as their build-up tactics, which you can find in our previous analysis on the site.
But if there’s still one thing they struggle with immensely then it’s breaching the deep block of the opposition. Since they are usually the team on the front foot who dominate possession, they often find themselves facing teams who sit behind the ball and simply ‘park the bus’.
And, so far, it has proved to be one of the more successful tactics against the La Liga giants. For that reason, this tactical analysis scout report will explain their struggle with deep blocks.
The root of the problem
Generally speaking, no teams love to face a low or a deep block. It’s annoying and quite difficult to breach and one mistake can often lead to your opposition scoring on the counter and then riding the pressure for the remainder of the game.
And while it takes a long time to drill breaching a low block into your team, something Setién hasn’t had the luxury of so far, and it requires the right personnel, there are some structural issues Barcelona are currently experiencing that may be in the way of progress.
Firstly, the positioning of their midfield is often suboptimal as their staggering line doesn’t provide the team with necessary depth, nor does it always occupy the right zones when attacking.
The second issue they have is lack of forward connections they often create in the final third, which is also a direct result of the positioning of their midfield. Moreover, this is also connected with their inability to exploit the wide areas and stretch the opposition horizontally, as opposed to doing it exclusively vertically.
Finally, a big issue is also the profile of the players Barcelona have in their ranks – their current forwards are similar in their movement and neither of the midfielders, bar one, offer enough to compensate for that deficiency.
Now, we’ll move to the tactical analysis and dissect these issues in more detail. Another disclaimer before we do, however – these issues haven’t been present in all of the games but have been apparent in the clashes in which Barcelona were largely struggling, indicating it might actually be an underlying structural problem of the team as of right now.
Inefficient positioning of the midfield line
Setién has largely managed to improve Barcelona’s first phase of attack, helping them deal with intense pressing much better than Ernesto Valverde before him. But this has also resulted in teams often defaulting into a mid or deep block immediately rather than even trying to play expansive football against them.
And games against Napoli and Valencia, both of which were away from home, were prime examples of the aforementioned issues. Gennaro Gattuso’s men opted against pressing Barcelona and were behind the ball almost throughout the 90 minutes.
But the away team found it extremely difficult to dismantle the deep block largely because of their midfield line not offering enough depth between the lines. They would often position themselves in front of Napoli’s second line of defence, putting five or six players around the middle of the pitch.
Needless to say, this hugely affected their ability to find their players in dangerous zones on the pitch. As you can see from the graphic below, that kind of a setup does stretch the opposition vertically but does nothing to stretch them horizontally.
As a result, the defending team can stay narrow and cut off all and any passing lanes towards Barcelona’s forwards. Let’s take a look at some in-game examples. Against Napoli, in the image below, notice the positioning of Barcelona’s three midfielders and the chunk of space it creates in between the lines.
Even though they’re aiming to stager their line, it’s not efficient because all three of them are essentially in front of Napoli’s second bank of four. This means Barcelona have no way of progressing the ball between the lines and the direct result of that is a long possession spell without a concrete result.
