THIS IS MY TAKE ON BARCELONA VS ATH. MADRID 2-1.

now yesterday ath.  madrid played  barceloan at latter home .now first i want to talk about both clubs transfer policy . for whichever player barca goes they feel an honour to be linked with such a club and barca do get the player . but i want to talk about ath. mad transfer policy and i feel that out of the top clubs they do their business very quick and really know the player that they want and are very good about scouting talent . the signing of Ferreira-Carrasco and now agusto fernandez shows that . simeone does know what he wants and generally gets the player . the signing of griezman, Ferreira-Carrasco and agusto shows that .
now about the game . barcelona started the game with their 4-3-3 formation . with messi,suarez and neymar upfront . they had iniesta,busquestus and rakitic in the middle . while alves,pique,mascherano and alba in the back four with bravo in the goal . while ath. started with the 4-6-0 formation . now people may say that they were 4-4-2 but griezman and Ferreira-Carrasco were playing just in front of the middle four but never on the shoulders of the barca back four . they never played as a forward even though they were playing up front .  while saul,agusto,gabi and koke were in the middle four. juanfran,gimenez,godin and luis were in the back four . why i am saying that it was 4-6-0 because both giezman and Ferreira-Carrasco would take the position in front of the middle and would not leave their position and try to press pique or mascherano or any of the back four .they would let the ball come into the midfield and then start pressing untill then they would be disiciplined and wait for the ball to move upfield .
the game started at a very good pace with ath mad sitting back and hitting barca on the counter . initially barca were playing deep trying to stretch the play . they were trying to play out from the back and open ath mad . barca had three in the middle compared to ath madrid so ath.mad asked griezman and Ferreira-Carrasco to stay very close to the midfield so as not to offer any space in the middle of the park . secondly they now trying to overtly press they were letting the back four especially pique and mascherano time and space on the ball and waiting it for to come into the midfield and then press . while messi, suarez and neymar were very tightly marked and both fullbacks committed several fouls on both messi and neymar . while godin even came out of the defense to mark suarez and he too was guilty of committing some fouls . but all and all ath mad were able to stop barca from playing their own game . now when ath mad had the ball they were good . they passed the ball around . they didnt had any player upfront to release since both griezman and Ferreira-Carrasco came inside and they didnt had anybody on the shoulder of pique or maschrano to release . so they had to play the ball around . they passed the ball around very nicely and showed quality on the ball . the main reason being the use of agusto in the middle of the park .  initially till the first goal barca were not pressing heavily . they were letting ath. mad play and then hit them on the counter . the first goal came as a good luck and barca's back four were in sleep letting koke stand in the box and have a comfortable shot .

now the game changed with the first goal . barca started to press very fiercly with the first goal and another thing was that they would launch the counter -counter on ath goal . they were very swift to get the ball to messi or neymar and were going to cause ath. problems . they started to play a very high line and congest the game for ath . iniesta and rakitic moved very close to busquestus to press ath mad .  now last time when ath. met barca barca exploited the space between the lines and hammered ath . this time around ath. shape was very congested . there was not much space between the lines and they never allowed anybody time on the ball . but while they were congesting the middle of the park they were reluctant to go and mark the barca fullbacks  and get themselves stretch . the thing was both koke and saul were very close to their fullbacks and their primary job was to help their fullbacks deal with messi and neymar who were the influential players in the barca side and who are responsible to create the chances in the side . barca started turning he screw and started to attack at a very fast pace they started to press very hard and hit them very fast as soon as they had the ball . the first goal came because the fullback was given the time on the ball to pick out a player in the box and who else it could be than messi . now the new barca is very different from the old one who test your  defensive concentration by outpassing you . but the barca under luis enrique is very direct they are comfortable playing on the counter and this game showed that they can turn the style when required and press the opposition and hammer them at an incredible pace .

BARCA ON ATTACK 

now the second goal came because of gimenez's stupidity . it should be taught that the defending player needs to be  between the goal and the attacking player not on the shoulder .it was alves who made the pass and  suarez held gimenez very nicely and never let him take the proper position and finished beautifully . the game was half over when luis was red carded the foul would not had been red carded had he not made fouls earlier then i think the case would had been different but then luis was bad selection for me who was struggling against messi and should had been subbed earlier only . ath showed a way that barca can be played against and most importantly their game plan wasnt bad but some personal mistakes cost them the game .