barcelona played valencia at the nou camp . barcelona had three main signings in terms of offensive players after neymar left . they had dembele,coutiniho and griezman to fill that void that neymar had left . now last year kiki setien was incharge but greizman wasnt playing regularly even when barcelona had payed a staggering sum to sign him . while another of the big signing coutiniho was send out on loan to bayern and dembele has injury issues . under setien the main criticism of the team was that it was messi centric . the reason being that as soon as the ball crosses in opponents half it would be all messi . he would be the one who would be the instigator,creator and finisher . other players in the team didnt see much of the ball . it was as if every other player in the team was just in the supporting the role with messi in the lead role . come this season both griezman and coutiniho have got a fresh start . i think this was game where on koeman gave them the chance to shine and gave them the ball to prove their worth as to why they should be start or even that they should be at the club. to be honest after watching this game i dont that they are bad on offense . if he makes some adjustments and most importantly he needs to change and chop his squad . i dont think that both coutiniho and griezman can warrant their place in the starting line up they are just not that good to start in the team .
barcelona started the game with 4-2-3-1 formation while valencia started the game with 4-4-2 formation .the game started with very familiar note with valencia sitting back and barcelona in the ascendancy . valencia had a definitive plan in mind with them sitting back and hitting barca on counter . while defending they were also very compact and they were just defending the 18 yard and they had given the wide spaces to barca . in the first half barca were not bad but they had one main flaw . they didnt had a definite no.9 around who they would play . secondly only two players were involved in the play at the time and there wasnt a lot of movement from the players .
in the first half i think griezman and mainly coutiniho was given the chance to show their class on the ball . the main criticism from last two seasons had been that messi is the one that is dictatating everything . other players were really not comfortable with that .they thought that they didnt get the chance to show their ability on the ball and influence the play . here i think koeman might had instructed messi to let coutiniho start things and play according to him. in the first chance coutiniho had a lot of ball touches but he couldnt make it worth most importantly he was poor on the ball and didnt looked like the played who would cost 100 million plus . similar can be said about griezman who too looks poor on the ball . even for the first goal when the won the penalty he was lucky cause elsewhere he would had been carded for simulation . barca were poor in their movement . they were afforded time and space by valencia who were contend to defend their box when they lost the ball . the perfect example of barca's poor movement can be seen on alaba's crosses . barcelona were getting spaces on the flanks and their fullbacks were able to move forward especially alaba who was delivering crosses in the box . none of the crosses could find the desired target . the reason being that there was no movement from coutiniho and griezman who were the players leading the charge and were supposed to be at the end of the cross . on the other hand just look at valencia on gaya's cross . you have to be the first on the ball or that you have to find space where on the ball can reach you . barcelona just didnt that . their players seem arguing about the quality of crosses . while alaba was telling them to make some movement and be available for the ball . bacelona were just poor in the first half .
in the second half koeman changed the things . he had realized that he didnt had a proper no.9 who can operate upfront . so he changed thngs and got braithwaite to play as no.9 . messi is the default no.9 but he keeps on dropping deeper so at that time i think its griezman's opportunity to get in that position and show his true worth . messi has lost his speed although the ability is still there . he keeps on dropping deeper and in this formation the players are not that good that they are able to play around him . instead i would want him to stay upfield and let the play roll around him . the big problem for barcelona is defense who are sixes and sevens whenever the ball comes upfield they seem to be sleeping and wait for the ball to come to them instead of them being proactive and try to get to the ball first . for the first goal barcelona were in 3-2 situation and araujo or mingueza should had told dest to get to cheryshev quickly . he should had closed him down early making it hard for him to cross . barcelona defense just keeps on forgetting their positions . they are not good at tracking and koeman has to organise them better or else had valencia finished better they would had been out of sight in the first half .
