This was the classic FC Barcelona away game in many ways: an elaborate ‘attack/defence’ exercise played on a field deliberately left in a disrepair state, also the kind of match from last season that Barcelona will drop points, so it was nice to see them calm, persistent and with a high-tempo passing.
Villareal is a good team and showed it, their defense line was intelligent and threatened with the first goal on a few occasions. Not all matches can be 5-0 military march against an opponent.
There was some Barça errors on defense, but this things happen on a match and it’s only the second official game for this players.
Luis Enrique put on the field the same system that he used against Elche last weekend, a fluild 4-3-1-2, much like the old 4-3-3 but still with some key differences with the central midfielders and wide forwards.
The midfielders act as playmakers, but combining with the full-backs more often, in this game, Rakitic to Alves and Alves to Rakitic were the most common passing combinations with Rafinha mostly between Busquets and Alba.
The two wide attackers have been instructed to start in the central positions, in order to create a systema for Luis Suarez to thrive.
Home team defense made a very good job preventing Lionel messi receiving int the central area with space to turn, so the majority of attacking from Barça went through Dani Alves and Jordi Alba.
The substitutions made by Luis Enrique were pretty much spot on: Neymar substituted Munir and was more composed, Sandro for Pedro.
Something to worry about was Barça’s marking and defensive coordination, with Villareal’s best chances of scoring came from defensive errors from Barcelona in 23rd minute.
Also the inability of Barcelona to quick passing moves that made the first wave of pressing, showcased on two occasions in the second half with Mathieu and Pina.
But against all negative things, Barcelona won this game and passed an important test keeping a clean sheet in the process. With six points out of six possibles and a lot of international players leaving to play with their national teams, Barcelona’s Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Piqué will be staying in Barcelona to rest and tactical work. Things are looking good.
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