A Marc Bernal Three starts had been enough for him to reassure Barça about their central midfield. More than any other solution or patch, he was the option chosen by Hansi Flick to fill a gap that was never fully filled last season. Punctual in the contest, generous in covering, precise in passing and agile in reading the game. Smart in the contest, smart in coverage, smart in passing and smart in reading the game. His step forward against Rayo Vallecano helped Barça to turn around a bad initial dynamic, a result of the difficulties spoons to put pressure on a rival that did not build up short plays, and to turn the lines of a local team that could steal while looking forward.
Vallecas is a particular field, in which spaces are sold more expensively than usual. In this case, two shortcuts are valid: excelling at short distances or being able to increase them. The first was not possible for the Blaugrana team during the first half hour of play, except when the ball was in the care of Lamine. Raphinha, Ferran and Lewandowski, on the inside, did not have the precision necessary to make the attacks rest in the opponent’s half, and the expected pause from Pedri was too far from the edge of the box. Throughout this stretch, however, Barça did find in the Canary Islander a way to reach Lamine, attracting with the midfielder on the left side of the midfield, making the ball add seconds at his feet so that the Rayo defence could swing and create spaces in the right wing area.
If the ball was certainly in Pedri’s boots, it was also surely in the boots of a superior Lamine in his particular duel against Espino, but who lacked support from the edge of the area to be able to diversify the attacks. Raphinha, the closest inside player, was looking for the area too early, so after beating his counterpart, the winger cull He could only centre or look for the individual play, but not unload towards the front to extend the play. As noted at the beginning of the article, this changed after the hydration break. Marc Bernal assumed more responsibility in managing the base of the play, becoming the main offensive reference ahead of the centre-backs, which in turn allowed Pedri to move his game forward several metres and be the support near the area that Lamine had not found until then.
As for the second shortcut, stretching the field, Barça’s first half lacked a flank, Well, Ferran moved mainly inside. and Gerard Martín did not have the presence on the wing that Balde usually has. With Álvaro García and Jorge de Frutos waiting to punish his back, the Barça full-backs assumed a more cautious offensive positioning, a fact that, although on the right was compensated by the presence of Lamine, on the left it reduced the team’s possibilities of widening the field.
As had happened in the first two days, the break improved Flick’s men, this time through the entry onto the field by debutante Dani Olmo replacing Ferran Torres. The German coach had identified the two shortcomings of his team during the first half, and with just one change he acted on both. As for the game in small spaces, He chose to place Dani Olmo on the right inside, close to Lamineso that the former Leipzig player could work the edge of the rival area that had offered so little support to Yamal during the first half. Said and done. Olmo’s play was a torrent of play from the first moment. Controlling, turning, dragging and verticalizing inside, generating spaces on the wings from his attraction, and allowing the winger a solution so as not to rush the attack or have to finish the play with an individual action.
Olmo, Pedri and Bernal formed an inner triangle that was too precise and had too many resources to keep the ball for Rayo’s defensive system, which became agitated every time one of the midfielders spoons He received the ball between the lines or cut inside with a driving style. Marc served the ball to Dani and Pedri, who used it to attack the home midfielders and centre-backs and thus free up their attacking teammates. Lamine on the right, Lewandowski in the centre and Raphinha relocated to the left wing to join Balde and give Barça the width on the left flank that they had not had before. Attacking outwards and upwards every time the appearances of Olmo and Pedri made the Rayo defence come out and join together in the centre. Flick has interiors, but has been left without a midfielder.
