In the last ten minutes of Barcelona’s hard-fought 1-1 draw with in-form Sevilla before the international break, a Barca attack broke down when Lionel Messi’s cross was cleared and the ball broke kindly for the visiting team to immediately launch a counter-attack.
The situation initially looked very dangerous: it was four versus three in Sevilla’s favour, with Munir El-Haddadi carrying the ball towards the Barca half and only Sergino Dest, Frenkie de Jong and Miralem Pjanic back goalside for the hosts.
What happened next, though, was very interesting – and quite revealing about the change in mentality initiated by Ronald Koeman during the early weeks of his Camp Nou reign: within a few seconds, nine Barca outfield players had sprinted back into defensive positions (Messi was the only exception), presenting Sevilla with a well-organised and compact defensive front which forced them to slow down the attack and eventually fail to trouble the penalty area.
It’s only necessary to think back to the abysmal 8-2 Champions League capitulation to Bayern Munich to remember that this kind of commitment to defending in numbers was not exactly a trademark of Barca’s game over the last couple of years.
And although, with just three games played, it’s far too early to firmly conclude that Koeman has transformed his new team into defensive warriors, all the signs are pointing in the right direction.
Sevilla’s goal in that 1-1 draw at Camp Nou was the only time so far this season that Barca have conceded – and note, too, that Luuk de Jong’s strike came via a set-piece, meaning that Barca’s deputy goalkeeper Neto – who will stay between the posts for another few weeks while Marc-Andre ter Stegen recovers from injury – has not yet allowed a single goal from open play.
And that’s not due to poor finishing or heroic goalkeeping, but the fact that Barca have succeeded in barring the route towards their goal: in three games so far, their opponents have only mustered a measly combined total of five shots on target – a lower figure, both in total and per-game, than any other team in La Liga.
The example of Sevilla’s well-defended late counter-attack suggests that Barca’s new-found (and time will tell whether it proves to be long-lasting) defensive strength is at least partly based on a genuine determination to getting plenty of players behind the ball.
This is evidenced in another stat: possession. So far this season, Barca rank 6th in La Liga in possession, averaging 55.7% over their opening three games. That is still a fairly high figure, of course, but it’s a massive drop from the league-best 66.9% they recorded last season. Koeman’s team, it appears, are willing to sacrifice some of their command of the ball in order to achieve better organisation.
It is not, however, simply the case that Barca are turning into a deep-lying defensive team who sit back and defend their penalty area. In fact, in one sense the opposite is true because they are now playing higher up the field. In the game against Sevilla, the average position of their back line was 49.2 metres from their own goal, and it was even higher in the previous games against Celta Vigo (55.3m) and Villarreal (52.5m).
That compares with an average line of just 43.5 and 44.7 metres, against Bayern and Napoli respectively, in the last two games under Quique Setien, suggesting that Barca are now looking to base their play higher up the pitch – but are then also committed to rapidly retreating into a disciplined shape when they are forced onto the defensive.
This idea can be described in one word: compact. Both the decision to play higher up the field and the determination to get back in numbers when necessary have the same effect of denying space for the opposition to play. And the consequence of this, the numbers are telling us, is that Barca are yielding fewer goalscoring chances, and conceding fewer goals.
None of this is rocket science. Closing down the amount of space available for the opposition is the most basic principle of defending. But it is something Barca have regularly desperately failed to do over the last couple of years, and Koeman deserves credit for setting his team on a new and improved path so quickly.
At the other end of the field, the start to the season has also been encouraging. Although seven goals in the first two games were followed by just the one against Sevilla – and a fairly fortunate one, at that – there was still enough goal threat for Barca to win the game, especially two good opportunities for Antoine Griezmann and a late chance for substitute Francisco Trincao.
As the season progresses, the lack of a penalty box presence following the departure of Luis Suarez will definitely become a bigger issue, and it would be a massive boost if Griezmann could start to play with a bit more confidence when he gets into central areas.
The options of Ansu Fati playing more through the middle and Martin Braithwaite’s hard-running dynamism being employed to unsettle opposition defences could also be useful, and the ability of Ousmane Dembele to wreak havoc on the counter-attack is a tantalising one if only he can stay fit and earn Koeman’s trust.
So there are options, and there is reason for optimism. Cautious optimism, for sure, but finally the light at the end of Barca’s tunnel may not be just the front of an oncoming train. So far, good enough.
