Koeman Creating Ideal Contexts & Win-Win Situations : 6-1 victory vs Real Sociedad
A prestigious 6-1 win at Anoeta coupled with an impressive performance !!!
DE JONG IN DEFENSE
I'm personally still not convinced by De Jong in central defense. It works when the team dominates ball possession and/or plays vs low blocks. And I'm waiting to see it when he'll have to defend in the box, where he'll have less time & space to offset errors and defensive fundamentals (body orientation, reading the striker's movements) are needed.
In any case, he's a talented player who learns at a fast rate (as proved by his successful conversion to a box-to-box role in the middle of the season), so there's reasons to be optimistic.
DE JONG -> BUSQUETS
If Messi's role was called "false 9", then Frenkie's role could be called "false defender". It's a hybrid role that evolves in possession phase, similar to the one Koeman himself played under Cruyff (see GIF).
Here's Fdj showing a great complementarity with Busquets to help the team progress forward down the central lane (see Gif).
The back 3 & De Jong's support mean Busquets can play a couple meters higher, which decreases the space he'd have to cover. And the packed midfield offers him more passing options, which is key to his game. Busquets' performance VS Real Sociedad was a true masterclass!
BUSQUETS -> MESSI
"Busquets doesn't waste even a single chance to pass the ball to Messi." - Valdano
Few players can verticalize the play with 1-touch passes like Busquets. And this higher positioning gets him closer to Messi, which in turn enables the latter to stay closer to the box, where he's more decisive.
A win-win situation!
And it's been evidenced in the play that led to Dest's goal :
BETTER PRESSING
Under the previous 4-3-3 system, the team struggled to press on intervals & close spaces (3 forwards vs the opponent's back 4, which means synchronization & continuous adjustments had to be made).
The new system simplified everything by committing 1 more man forward, enabling man-to-man pressing (Messi & Dembélé vs the center backs, Dest & Alba vs the full-backs). Which also means Busquets has less compensatory forward runs to make.
PEDRI
Koeman tried several structures this season and Pedri, similarly to De Jong, had to adapt to several positions/roles.
Now with De Jong dropping to defense and Griezmann's presence as attacking midfielder, Pedri is lately performing a slightly different role : closer to Busquets and the base of the game, rather than between the lines. But still doing so with ease because as Aldo said, he's "a footballer not defined by position".
https://twitter.com/aldosainati/status/1369761457987063809?s=19
TWEAKS
The following images give a better idea of the structure Barça is using lately :
The area targeted by Koeman : Messi or Griezmann waiting to receive the ball between the lines, on either sides of the opponent's defensive midfielder(s). We also saw it in the return UCL game VS PSG.
BACK 3 MAN-MARKING
All of this doesn't mean this new system is perfect. It's rather a risky one. The back 3 often man-marks the opponent's forwards, following them to dubious areas & emptying their zones. And as said in the previous paragraphs, the high press is quite aggressive : if bypassed, this could lead to dangerous 3v3 situations.
CONCLUSION
Koeman did a good job solving the collective dysfunctions by taking more risks in order to provide each player with ideal contexts. And the adaptability of key pieces like De Jong & Pedri is what enabled him to do so.
But risks still remain (De Jong defending in the box, the man-marking...). Will it work against teams with enough technical skills to bypass that high press and/or keep ball possession longer? We will probably soon have an answer because there's a Clásico in ~20 days.
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