Barcelona have been prepared to play with fine margins under Hansi Flick this season, but the gap at the top of La Liga — just goal difference before the visit of in-form Atletico Madrid this weekend — is starting to feel uncomfortably slim.
They took 33 points from a possible 36 to start the campaign but have since won just one of their last six games in the Spanish top flight. Their offside trap had been faultlessly precise until the end of November when they lost 2-1 at home to Las Palmas, and then against Leganes on Sunday they conceded their first goal from a set piece all season.
But looking beyond the results suggests that there is little reason for concern. Barcelona generated more high-quality scoring chances in both of those defeats than they did in a 4-0 win away at Real Madrid in October, and things might have looked different last weekend against Leganes had Robert Lewandowski converted from point-blank range barely five minutes after they had gone behind.
Teams aren’t suddenly stopping Barcelona from creating chances, but the finer details are starting to swing. Their attack has been much less clinical in recent weeks — they scored eight goals more than the quality of their chances suggested that they should have in their opening 11 games, but have under-performed that same expected goals (xG) metric by four goals since — while a wafer-thin offside decision to deny Lewandowski against Real Sociedad illustrated the millimetres on which momentum can hinge.
Luck is not on their side at the moment, but teams are also working increasingly hard to ensure that Barcelona don’t have things all their own way.
A key feature of Barcelona’s attacking play in the early weeks of Flick’s reign was their use of width in their attacking shape — pushing Alejandro Balde onwards from left-back to create a back-three in possession, and leaving Lamine Yamal high and wide on the opposite side — to stretch the opposition’s defensive block across the pitch.
This worked particularly well against teams who pressed in a 4-4-2 shape, including Real Valladolid, who they beat 7-0 in their fourth game of the season. As we can see from the grab below, Valladolid try to cover the width, but that opened up gaps for Barcelona to build through the centre of the pitch, as Inigo Martinez fires the ball straight through to Raphinha below.
Overloading the centre of the pitch with technically gifted midfield players while keeping the pitch wide has helped Barcelona to slice through the centre of teams with slick passing moves.
Their preference to attack through the middle is clear, with the below visualisation showing that they are the only team in the division to take more than 30 per cent of their touches in the opposition half in the central third of the pitch.
Leganes were well aware of that on Sunday and tweaked their defensive shape to block out Barcelona’s favourite route to goal.
With five players across the back line, including energetic central midfielder Renato Tapia in a floating role, they defended in a narrow 5-4-1 shape, quick to apply pressure to Barcelona’s central build-up and happy to shuffle from side to side when the home team looked to switch the play.
The still image below illustrates that compact shape, with Barcelona’s most dangerous attackers encircled by opposition defenders, and the passes through to them largely blocked at source.
Even when Barcelona could find those dangerous passes between the lines, Leganes stepped up and were aggressive, trusting Tapia to jump from the defensive line to apply pressure on the receiving player.
The passage of play below was typical of the game. In frame one, Pedri is looking for a way through to Dani Olmo and Raphinha, but Seydouba Cisse is blocking the passing lanes.
That forces Barcelona wide in frame two, but with the left-winger (Raphinha) already tucked inside and without an overlapping run for support, Balde is one-on-one with his opposite full-back and doesn’t feel comfortable taking him on. He turns back, and the move resets.
The ball is moved back into the middle, and this time Pedri does find a pass through, but Tapia is quick to spot that and jumps forward, blocking Olmo’s pass and clearing the ball away.
Leganes could not completely nullify the attacking threat of the league leaders, and the quality of Barcelona’s players in tight spaces means they will often find a way through.
Instead, the away side’s extra bodies in the middle dragged Barcelona’s players into physical battles, reducing their control over passing sequences and forcing them into quicker decisions.
A scrappier midfield battle brings other factors into play — fatigue, experience, physicality, luck — and teams towards the bottom of La Liga will be happier to take their chances with those.
With more unpredictability in their patterns on the ball, it leaves Barcelona’s risky defensive approach susceptible to breach.
The numbers are still astonishingly good — Flick’s side have caught opponents offside 105 times this season already, 48 times more than any other team in Europe’s big five leagues — but there are signs that teams have found ways to use their high line against them, particularly when possession is turned over quickly in those frenetic, clogged-up midfields.
The most high-profile example came in the Champions League as Borussia Dortmund’s Yan Couto poked the ball through after winning a battle for possession out wide. Barcelona’s three defenders stepped forward, allowing Pascal Gross to race through and square the ball for Serhou Guirassy to score.
Despite their success, Barcelona can be too keen to step forward when the team lacks structure, as we can see against Mallorca below.
After Olmo gives the ball away with a misplaced pass, four Barcelona players are caught upfield, including full-back Balde. The defence all jump up, but two Mallorca players — Samu Costa and Pablo Maffeo — spot the space in behind and start to make runs from deep.
Both players are still onside by the time Sergi Darder plays the eventual ball over the top, leading to another two-on-one situation with the goalkeeper.
With the team in disarray further ahead, this might have been an occasion to drop deeper and defend the space.
Attacking teams are showing more invention against the high line, too.
Disguised passes can catch the back four out, as we saw when Real Betis midfielder Giovani Lo Celso provided a sharp turn to play an early ball through to Vitor Roque. The defence stepped up when the Argentinian was forced away from goal, not expecting him to dig out a pass over the top.
Real Sociedad attempted a routine straight from kick-off in November, working the ball out wide to Takefusa Kubo who whipped a first-time ball over the defence for the deep run of Sheraldo Becker. This curved run from Javi Munoz allowed him to spin around Pau Cubarsi and reach the through ball before hooking it back into the middle for team-mates to attack.
That said, Barcelona are still defending well enough, and do not need to rip up the entire plan. Despite a few scary moments, their expected goal difference (xGD) per game is still the strongest in La Liga, pointing to a team that continue to create chances at a healthier rate than they concede them.
But as teams wise up to some of the ploys that brought them such success in the early stages of the season, and with the games coming thick and fast for a young, inexperienced squad, it could be time for increased caution in the system to protect the individuals within it.
