Barcelona vs PSG 1–4 Tactical Analysis
#BARCAPSG: FIRST LEG HEARTBREAK FOR CULES
In this tactical analysis we will be taking a look at the Champions League — Round of 16 match between Barcelona vs Paris Saint-Germain. What was an absolute masterclass from Kylian Mbappé, Mauricio Pochettino and the PSG team, was an absolute disaster from Barcelona who have once again shown us that life for the club when Lionel Messi leaves looks grim or perhaps a sign that he needs to leave for the club to enter a new cycle.
PSG come into this match as Champions League finalists, but never winners. The last time these two teams met was in 2017 when Barcelona overturned a 4–0 deficit by winning 6–1 in one of the most historic Champions League nights in history. To say that tensions were high going into this match would be an understatement. Mauricio Pochettino set-up PSG up in a way that almost guaranteed success before the game even began. Tottenham Hotspur fans can only look in awe at what their former manager is creating with another team, while they play turgid Europa League football under José Mourinho.
Barcelona came into this match as a club going through turmoil, made worse by such an embarrassing scoreline. Club captain and legend Lionel Messi wants to leave, the signings in recent years have been underwhelming, and the youngsters coming through are not good enough to win Barcelona another Champions League title yet. The tactics displayed by Ronald Koeman’s team were poorly executed. As we will discuss in our analysis, Barcelona are clearly a shadow of their former selves.
LINE UPS
Barcelona lined-up in 4–3–3. Out of possession it took the shape of a 4–4–2, while in possession it remained a 4–3–3 shape with forwards Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembélé providing width as they were often seen close to the touchline, while Lionel Messi dropped deeper into midfield to help maintain possession. Notable absences were Sergi Roberto, Philippe Coutinho and Ansu Fati, all missing through injury.
PSG lined-up in a 4–3–3 however in possession it was very fluid, changing shape often. Forwards Kylian Mbappé, Mauro Icardi and Moise Kean switched between a few systems that we will be analyzing in-depth. Notable absences were Ángel Di María, Neymar and Bernat, all missing through injury. These three had featured in PSG’s Champions League Final match against eventual winners, Bayern Munich.
PSGs Press and defence
PSG, especially in the Champions League, are known for applying a very high press. They did that against Barcelona too, here is how:
Goal-kicks were one of their favourite situations to press high, and they did so with a 3–1. Icardi applied pressure on the ball, while the two wide men stayed behind him, preparing to move out to their respective full-back or close down a centre-back if the opportunity presented itself.
Verratti pushed up from midfield to stay tight to the Barcelona holding midfielders, with Paredes and Gueye screening the defence behind him in order to protect it if the press was breached.
Further back, PSG defended in a 4–5–1, as the wingers dropped into the midfield line.
Now, let’s take a look at Barcelona’s main attacking plan.
Messi’s Deep Role
Over a decade ago, Pep Guardiola introduced the false nine to the world, with Messi becoming the first man to fill that role. After that, the Argentine forward has usually been used as a right winger, but under Ronald Koeman he has been restored to a central position. He had a similar role against PSG too.
Barcelona effectively had a 3–2–5 in possession when Messi dropped deep, as he came all the way into holding midfield with Busquets. Of course, he drove forward from here, but his deep starting position allowed many teammates to make runs in front of him.
Alba pushed all the way up from left-back (unlike Dest), both Pedri and de Jong made runs from midfield, Griezmann came central (to accommodate Alba’s advance) and Dembélé held the width on the right.
It was from such a position that Messi delivered a long ball over the top of the PSG defence that led to de Jong being tripped for the opening goal.
He often drifted out to the right too, overloading the defensively weak Mbappé along with Dest, who only pushed forward in such situations. This is why Barcelona attacked from the right as many times as they did from the centre.
Given the congested centre in this match with a 3v3 in midfield and Messi dropping into it often, Barcelona had to go out wide in the final third in many cases. This is where their lack of a striker hurt them — they had very few bodies attacking the crosses.
None of their front-five of Dembélé, de Jong, Griezmann, Pedri and Alba are renowned for their heading ability, so the hosts really struggled in that department.
Therefore, it was quite easy for PSG to defend Barcelona’s 11 crosses, of which only two found a Barça head.
Koeman attempted to solve this by bringing on Martin Braithwaite, but he waited for 85 minutes before doing this, and then it was a matter of too little too late.
PSG in possession
Although they only had 47.5% of the ball, PSG undoubtedly used it a lot better.
PSG built up from their defensive third with a 3–1–4, with Navas playing a key role. The two centre-backs moved to either side of him, while Paredes dropped deep from midfield to act as a link between the defence and the rest of the team. The two full-backs pushed forward, while Verratti was typically positioned slightly further than Gueye.
PSG’s wide men tucked inside to accommodate their advancing full-backs, who pushed all the way up to the front line in possession. Therefore, in the attacking phase, they had a sort of a 2–3–5, with lots of space on the wings as Barcelona’s defence was squeezed by the narrow front-three.
Now, let’s take a look at how Barcelona tried to stop this.
Barcelona’s defence
Defending has not been one of Barcelona’s strengths this season, as is highlighted by the fact that they have the worst defensive record in La Liga’s top five. Here is how they attempted to keep things clean at the back against PSG:
Out of possession, Barcelona sat in a 4–5–1, with the two wingers joining the midfield line — just like PSG did.
Barcelona initially attempted to defend with a high line, but it took less than a minute for PSG to exploit that through Mbappé’s pace.
After that, they decided to drop off a bit, as you can see below.
The Barcelona wingers dropped back in order to track the advancing PSG full-backs. Griezmann did this job a lot better, sometimes even going as far back as the defensive line in order to keep Florenzi in check.
On the other flank, Dembélé did not track Kurzawa so well, as you can see in the image above. Therefore, the left-back was one of PSG’s main attacking outlets, which is why 45% of their advances came from this side.
PSG Full Backs Exploit Barcas Flanks
PSG looked to attack the wide areas. Full-backs Sergiño Dest and Jordi Alba were thoroughly exposed in this match, especially the former. In the example below, Leandro Paredes is on the ball. Kylian Mbappé, Marco Veratti and Layvin Kurzawa attack the left flank and create a three versus three scenario. Mbappé is the focus of this attack and targets Dest. Centrally, Mauro Icardi drops into space. On the right flank, Moise Kean and Alessando Florenzi can be seen in a two versus two scenario. By isolating these positions, they become similar to training ground exercises, all that is needed for Paredes to get the ball to either flank.
Most of PSG’s attacks came from the left as a result of Dembélé’s poor tracking of Kurzawa. That is precisely where Barcelona were punished for the equaliser.
You can see the vast expanses of space that Kurzawa had quite well from this aerial shot. On the opposite flank, Griezmann is pretty close to Florenzi, but on the left, Dembélé is nowhere near where he should be. Such a situation is simply too presentable to waste for a quality-packed attacking side like PSG.
PSG profited on the opposite flank too, though. During 2nd half, Dembele recognised the problem from left side and almost started playing as a Wing back on left side. This neutralized PSGs way through left and as a result they attacked through their right side. Griezzman was tracking back to help defend, but lost man marked players due to poor coordination. In this case (pictured above), Barcelona are effectively defending with a back-six, as both wingers have tracked their opposing full-backs all the way back. However, with so many numbers in defence, they lost coordination in terms of maintaining a straight line, allowing Florenzi to ghost in behind Griezmann while keeping himself onside with an angled run.
In this way, Barcelona were hit on either flank for one goal each.
Barcelonas Failure to adapt
PSG changed their attacking tactics often in order to keep Barcelona guessing what their next move might be. We know how they had already overloaded Wings with us of their FBs and Wingers and a midfielders. We will see how they overloaded Midfielders.
Below we see full-backs Kurzawa and Florenzi positioned high up the pitch. Doing this draws the attention of Dest and Alba, stretching the Barcelona defense. This was how PSG created width. Centrally we see Kean, Mbappé and Icardi. The Barcelona full-backs are occupied, leaving Lenglet and Piqué to defend against three attackers in the middle of the pitch. Later in the match Dembélé was tasked with man-marking Kurzawa, but Pochettino made his efforts null.
We discussed how PSG exploited both of Barcelona’s flanks and overloaded the central areas. Now, we can take a look at an example of both of these ideas being executed at the same time.. When Barca entered into their low-block, the PSG defenders were encouraged to push forward. On the ball below is Marquinhos with several high-quality forward passing options. To his right, Florenzi attacks Alba, a one versus once scenario. Centrally, three PSG players attack three Barcelona defenders. To his left, Kurzawa eyes the space left by Dest who had to tuck inside to defend against the central overload. PSG’s greatest strength in this match was their ability to use several different attacking tactics.
For most of this match, we saw Barcelona recycle the same ideas in possession over and over. Pass between the central defenders and Busquets and wait for one of the forward players to drop deep to create an overload in the middle third. The reason this failed is because Barcelona had no focal point to base their play around. On the ball below is Messi. He drops into midfield from his center-forward position to help build possession. Griezmann and Dembélé are out wide, however, there are no players between the PSG defensive and midfield lines. Barcelona cannot take advantage of Messi dropping deep. A solution to this would be to have de Jong or Pedri position themselves higher up the pitch, ideally in the red space below. Barcelona rarely showed any sort of creativity in possession. Strange, considering how they used to be known for having a team bursting with creativity in every position.
Conclusion
As is often the case in big games of late, Barcelona were completely and utterly outplayed. There was a spell in the first half when they were in command after they took the lead, but they could not make it count on the scoreline in spite of creating a couple of decent chances, and they were made to pay for that.
As for Paris Saint-Germain, they were set up perfectly by Mauricio Pochettino, for whom this victory must be that little bit sweeter because of his Espanyol days. The Parisian full-backs ran riot against a seemingly helpless Barcelona defence, while Mbappé was supremely clinical in front of goal. They showed us why they were Champions League finalists last season. While under new management, this is still largely the same squad from last season. Considering PSG were also missing Ángel Di María and Neymar, the potential of this squad is still yet to be completely understood. With an eager, however still unproven, Mauricio Pochettino incharge, PSG should be considered one of the favorites to win the UEFA Champions League.
