Barcelona finds relief in Leganés

[Jultxxxyes]

Setién corrects the scheme, recovers verticality and blesses a win that qualifies his team for quarterfinals in the Cup

 

Who knows what the season will hold for Barcelona and to what extent will the first team affect the poor leadership, badly used in recent times to an endless sainete. The last, the inability to find a substitute for Luis Suarez in the week in which the club, beyond propaganda, confirmed the reality of La Masia: form and sell. Quique Setién, who has had to discover all this at the dawn of his dream, could at least breathe with relief at the obvious improvement of his group. He corrected the scheme, confirmed that verticality can coexist with his ideology, and thrashed Leganés in the knockout match of the Copa del Rey single round. Touch forward without looking back. Or around. [5-0: Narration and statistics]

There are aspects to improve, such as the defensive fragility (up to seven times the Leganés of Javier Aguirre shot in the first act), or that mistrust that at times sits on the stamp of Frenkie de Jong. The insistence of the Dutchman to offer balls to Messi moves him away from the hierarchy, no matter how much he ended up obtaining his prize with the assistance to the Argentine in 3-0, after rebounding in Tarin. De Jong, who finished right and with his arms in a jar, can grow when he accepts his reason for being, becoming the brain of the team.

In any case, few things disturbed Barcelona before a Camp Nou of cement (43,216 spectators, the worst entry of the season) and, therefore, even quieter. And that Quique Setién, in his fourth game as Barca coach, showed the corrections that should straighten the team from now on. The most important, without a doubt, that of the scheme. The 3-5-2 that worked so well in his head but responded so badly in the field went to a better life. Setien looked to the past to survive the present. The 4-3-3 satisfies some soccer players of an immobilistic nature, and so they made it look like the Cantabrian.

He touched a painting full of headlines - it was not convenient to play with fire - to make sense of the drawing, with Lenglet finally returning the bank to Umtiti, with Semedo exercising as a right-back, with Arturo Vidal in his role as a strange agitator in the wide area, and an offensive front that will hold until Dembélé returns. Griezmann, as center forward, is the club's response to Suárez's long-term injury. Messi departed from the right, and Ansu Fati, incisive while his forces endured, as a left-handed extreme. On the bench, a single relay after the sale of Carles Pérez: Álex Collado.

MESSI DOUBLE
Nothing prevented, however, that the afternoon opened with a cross shot of Braithwaite that stroked Ter Stegen's stick. The game minute had not even been reached. But Barcelona did not stand idly by this time. Messi noticed the advance along Semedo's lane. The Portuguese, so often defeated by precipitation, chose the right option. Griezmann had taken Awaziem off, and it was enough with a sweet cross shot to take the first goal. The ball, no matter how slippery, could only die in the net.

Barca's activity against the double defensive line of Javier Aguirre was remarkable. Griezmann himself was annulled a second long after the VAR confirmed that Alba had received offside.

Before Barcelona settled the tie, Javier Aguirre, embedded in his eighties tracksuit, may well regret not having taken advantage of the options presented in the front after the Barça losses in risk areas. Roque Mesa, Ruibal and Braithwaite did not focus well. He was the prologue to Lengta's stub after a corner kicked by Messi to the first post. It was the third time that the Argentine looked for the head of the central, portentous in the heights.

Once the duel was resolved, Barcelona could defend itself with the ball, something that had stopped being habitual, wait for Messi's goals (the second after an assist from Rakitic) and even applaud Arthur's much redeemer after the attempts of Rosario and Ansu Fati Barça moves away from the storm. It's not little.