Barcelona 3-0 Man United: Tactical Analysis and Talking Points
Man United became the first English team to crash out of the UEFA Champions League this season, as the Red Devils suffered a 3-0 (4-0 aggregate) humbling at the hands of Barcelona at Camp Nou on Tuesday night.
Having gone down 1-0 at Old Trafford last week, it was always going to be a daunting task for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to inspire his team to replicate the 1999 Champions League comeback feat, though the team’s recent heroics against PSG in the Round of 16 would probably have given the fans some hope.
Away from home and 1-0 down on aggregate, Solskjaer fielded a much more attacking formation to cope with Barcelona’s organised and disciplined approach, preferring a 4-3-3 system as opposed to the back-five system he used at home to contain the Spanish giants.
The onus was always going to be on United to force the issue and overturn the deficit and it would be fair to say that they played it into Barcelona’s hands to some extent by adopting an attacking philosophy.
Battle of the midfield trios
With both the teams playing a 4-3-3 system, the battle between the midfield trios was the one to watch out for. Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic and Arthur proved themselves to be a class above the likes of Paul Pogba, Fred and Scott McTominay.
United showed
That worked to perfection for the first 5-10 minutes and United had a golden chance to open the scoring in the very first minute, only for Marcus Rashford to hit the post after Pogba showed a tremendous bit of vision to pick him out with an inch-perfect pass.
However, once Barcelona weathered the early storm and settled down, they retained possession really well and negated United’s pressing with some slick passing in the midfield.
As a result, United were starved of the ball and didn’t offer much going forward. Sergio Busquets, playing in a No.6 role, ensured that United’s midfield trio kept running around without getting a touch of the ball.
United lost control of the proceedings in the midfield and the involvement of Pogba and McTominay was minimal, allowing Arthur and Rakitic to keep the ball moving in the middle of the park and dictate the tempo. Barcelona managed to cut United’s supply lines and the front trio of Rashford, Lingard and Martial had very little to feed upon.
Question marks should also be raised on Lingard’s selection as he was pushed off the ball way too easily by the likes of Lenglet and Pique, pouring cold water on Solskjaer’s plans of exploiting Barcelona’s lack of pace at the back.
Someone like Romelu Lukaku would have been a better physical presence up front to deal with the opposition’s centre-backs. Maybe, the introduction of Alexis Sanchez at halftime could have made some difference.
Failure of United’s full-backs
With Lionel Messi playing down the right, Ashley Young was always going to be up against and it was a moment of sloppiness in possession from the veteran that led to Barcelona’s opener.
Messi took advantage of some poor passing from Young and dribbled past Fred to find the back of de Gea’s net with pinpoint accuracy, leaving United with a mountain to climb.
Victor Lindelof, who was fielded as a makeshift right-back, had a tough time dealing with Barcelona’s left-axis of Jordi Alba, Coutinho and Arthur. He had McTominay for support to negate the impact of Coutinho and Alba but the Barca duo managed to stamp their authority with their pace and guile.
Coutinho’s goal looked absolutely unstoppable, though it has to be said that Lindelof didn’t do enough to close down the Brazilian for Barcelona’s third.
Both Young and Lindelof needed to move forward and support the likes of Martial and Rashford respectively but neither of them managed to make an impact in the attacking third, thanks to Barcelona’s dominance.
The midfielders hardly made any attacking runs into the box and the full-backs failed to spark any sort of creativity by delivering crosses into dangerous areas. In fact, they were totally pinned back inside their own half by Sergi Roberto and Jordi Alba, which denied United the chance to use the width of the pitch and bring the pace of Martial and Rashford into play.
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Messi’s Brilliance
On a night where both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were in action in the Champions League, it was the latter who prevailed and proved to be a deciding factor in his team’s progress to the semi-finals.
As deadly and ruthless as he has always been, the Argentinian scored the opener and soon doubled Barcelona’s advantage with considerable help from de Gea. De Gea though, made a tremendous save in the second half to deny Messi a hat-trick which would have capped off a perfect night for the 31-year-old.
In all honesty, Messi absolutely humiliated United’s defence, taking Phil Jones for a ride and nutmegging him before picking out a perfect pass that almost led to a goal.
His movement off the ball, eye for passes, remarkable ability to dribble at pace and accelerate, as well as his ability to work the pockets of space in the final third proved a bit too much for United to deal with. It was a night where Messi’s brilliance once again reigned supreme and United were clearly the second best.
