Tactical Analysis: UEFA Champions League Final, Juventus v Barcelona

por STEVIE GRIEVE el 10 junio, 2015 • 21:24

In what proved to be a fantastic game of football both technically and tactically, the team with the most flair in attack proved to be the winners, but it was a game of defensive organisation in both teams, particularly in defensive transitions where both teams were incredibly quick to get back into position form an attacking phase, then become organised. Some clever tactical implementations where used, such as Ivan Rakitic and Dani Alves rotating positions defensively when the right back zone needed covered, and Gerard Pique playing as a single ‘defensive target’ when Barcelona defended.

We also saw Massimiliano Allegri block the influence of Lionel Messi in a penetrative way, not stopping his influence completely as he was able to open up the play with his range of passing and be a danger even 40m from goal, instead of the position we have become accustomed to seeing him in recent years as a false 9 and being the main central outlet in attacking phases.

Line Ups

Both teams played the expected starting 11 with the exception of Andrea Barzaghli in place of the injured Giorgio Chiellini at left centre back. Pogba was orientated close to the zone of Messi while Arturo Vidal was to play between LCM/AM and CF/ during various defensive phases.

Ivan Rakitic and Dani Alves were free to rotate between RW, RCM and RB depending on the position of Messi and if they could create space for Messi to dribble inside.

Juventus Defensive Analysis

Defensive shape in a Low Block 4-4-2

To help the full backs against the inside and outside runs of Messi/Neymar & Rakitic/Alves & Alba with Marchisio/Pogba &Liechtsteiner/Evra able to defend with equality on the sides.

Normally Juventus have 3 ‘pressing’ systems designed to close down the space of the deepest midfielder who can play direct forward passes, while the midfield diamond can change to a flat 3 with the narrow positioning of Marchisio and Pogba around Pirlo, allowing Vidal to move forward and press high.

Here, the Juventus defensive block retreat to inside their own half into an organised 4-4-2, with Pogba on the same zone as Messi as he drops deep; this is part of Pogba’s individual responsibility to stop Messi dribbling past him and attacking the defence from righ-centre.

Vidal pressing out of line to close down space of Busquets to form a situational front 3

Here, Vidal can stay deep bit this would give Busquets enough space to choose a pass through the Juventus press and force them deeper, so Vidal is tasked with playing high and close to Busquets to disrupt his impact in the game from his deep midfield zone.

Again, Vidal is high and close to Busquets moving ahead of his position, leaving 3 of the Barcelona back 4 on their own with no pressing against them, leaving 10 v 7 in the Juventus half.

Tevez and Morata are to cover the channel and block any forward passes through the midfield line and prevent Barcelona from gaining control of the most strategically important area of the field and instead force the play wide into areas where Juventus can control.

Mid-Block 4-4-2 diamond when blocking central access and forcing wide passes

In the 2^nd half, Barcelona started to play in more transitional phases as Juventus opened up and started attacking, but often we would see Juventus withdraw into a diamond midfield to block central access and force Barcelona wider where Marchisio and Pogba could drift over to protect the full back, delaying the speed and organisation of the Barcelona attack and allowing Juventus time to form a defensive shape.

High press when Ter Stegen in possession

When Barcelona are allowed to pass the ball from GK an open defensive shape, they can quickly start to dominate possession from the back and move the attacking block closer to the opponent goal and pin them in, making counter attacks difficult to come by and often into areas which Barcelona press them into.

To prevent the organised possession phase from the GK, Juventus played very aggressively when the ball was in transit back to Marc-André ter Stegen or at goal kicks, often playing 1v1 across the line with the midfield pushed up against Busquets, Rakitic and Iniesta.

Here, we can see that Busquets has passed back to Ter Stegen but Juve are already pressed against every short outball which Barcelona prefer. Despite the accuracy and range of passing Ter Stegen has, Juventus have very aggressive players when attacking high balls or loose passes, so even a diagonal pass from Ter Stegen was at the risk of a turnover in a position where Juventus could flood the box from a wide attack.

In this clip, both Morata and Tevez press Ter Stegen with Pogba and Vidal able to cover the passing lanes of Mascherano, Alves and Busquets and then press Pique which forces a Barcelona throw in which leads to the equalizing goal.

Evra pressing out of the defensive line to close down Messi, Rakitic or Alves at RW, often 2v1

As Messi plays the deepest of the Barcelona front 3, Patrice Evra was tasked to push out of the defensive line and play close to Messi, usually with Paul Pogba but often with Vidal close to Messi (Pogba moved to RM on 30 minutes for 6 minutes then back to LM).

When Evra pressed ahead of the defensive line, it often would leave a large space for Suarez, Alves or Rakitic to move into, which would draw the Juve defensive line over and leave them ‘over compact’ and vulnerable to a switch of play, particularly from Messi to Neymar or Jordi Alba.

Messi has been closed down but not enough to impact where he will dribble into and release the ball as the exit diagonally hasn’t been sufficiently closed enough as the compactness of the block is not tight enough. We can see clearly Barcelona’s 2-4-1-3 (Pique and Mascherano on half way line) and are able to retain possession with stability deep on midfield from here.

Here, Dani Alves and Rakitic are wide with Messi inside, in a 4v3 situation, Messi tracked by Pirlo who moves forward but the gap between Evra and Barzaghli is still open for Suarez or Rakitic to move into. Alves is forced into turning towards the touchline and Juventus can recover the ball with the throw in.

This time we can see Juventus almost in a situational 3-4-3 situation with Evra on the same line as Marchisio, Pirlo and Pogba, with Vidal moving closer to Busquets as Tevez plays close to Messi.

Rakitic has drifted into the channel that Evra has left to move forward onto the midfield line, which has drawn Barzaghli over and away from Bonucci, meaning Neymar can drag Liechtsteiner inside and open up the far side space for Jordi Alba who can play 2v1 with Neymar if the switch of play is made.

Closing the space around Messi to prevent penetrating dribbles from right-centre

When Messi was in possession, normally Paul Pogba was tasked with using his power and athletic ability to try and help Evra stop Messi, with Pirlo inside all in close proximity to Messi, often leaving a gap behind Evra which usually Rakitic or Suarez would drift into, pulling over Barzaghli, Bonucci and Liechtsteiner as the defensive chain across the line. Occasionally, we would see Vidal drop into the low 4-4-2 block and play left centre midfield and be close to Messi in place of Pogba.

Often, this would result in ‘over compactness’ on the ball side, leaving Barcelona able to attack the far side via a right-centre to left side switch to Neymar or Jordi Alba who would start from deep in a shape almost resembling a 3-4-1-2 if Alves stayed deep.

Here we can see both Vidal and Evra close to Messi, with Morata and Pirlo helping block Messi’s space to move inside. Juventus here are weak against a switch of play as the far side full back, Liechtsteiner has had to tuck into the centre back position as the defensive chain is dragged over by the movement of Suarez behind Evra who presses out of his defensive line to play closer to Messi.

This time we see Evra in a very wide position with Pogba in line with Messi as Juventus block all diagonal entries into the final 3^rd from the right side channel with Alves in Rakitic’s RCM position and Rakitic close to Suarez to play in the space between Marchisio and Pirlo to help open up the space on the right side and offer a straight pass through the midfield to attack the penalty box.

Tevez and/or Morata dropping into left midfield to form a 4-1-4-1

When Alves and Rakitic were able to gain some momentum down the right hand side, Carlos Tevez or Alvaro Morata would occasionally drop deep to form a block of 4 across the field and as a result, force Barcelona into periods of passive circulation to try and draw Juventus forward to create space.

Here we can see a clear 4-1-4-1 from Juventus, blocking the middle and forcing play backwards with Tevez v Alves, protecting Pogba who is dealing with Messi and can’t be caught out 2v1 by Alves.

Overcompactness – Vulnerable to the switch of play especially Messi-Neymar or Alba on the left

Barcelona exploit this via switching play to Neymar / Jordi Alba

The biggest problem with Juventus playing closer to the left side (Messi’s side) and compacting the space is that the defensive and midfield chains get dragged across to cover for each player moving across, resulting in a lack of protection on the far side.

Often Neymar would drag Liechtsteiner inside, while Jordi Alba made late runs from deep and exploit the space 2v1. The 1^st goal comes from this, resulting in Bonucci being drawn across to deal with Neymar while Vidal failed to track Iniesta who passes to Rakitic for the opening goal.

Here, we can see the ‘front 3 (Rakitic in place of Messi) with Suarez and Neymar inside. Jordi Alba arrives late and causes Liechsteiner a problem as he goes to deal with Alba, drawing Bonucci over to track Neymar.

We can see this time that the space around Messi is closed for any diagonal 1-2 passes but the switch of play is open – he can look for the pass behind the defence into the run of Neymar (which has been seen and resulted in goals all season) while Alba stretches the play from a deeper position on the left side.

As Neymar stays wide, Liechsteiner is now no longer making chain movements with Bonucci as the overcompactness has been exploited too many times, so his position is adapted to close down the switch of play 1v1 much earlier. Here, Messi can use Iniesta then Alba can run late (out of image) to play 2v1 with Neymar as Marchisio will be dealing with Iniesta in a central position.

On the left, Neymar’s willingness to run into tight spaces draws the attention of several players which overcompacts the side of the ball and leaves Busquets free to find Messi in his most dangerous zone which Juventus did well to block for the 1^st half.

Struggle to deal with Alba deep runs

With the ability of Messi to find passes through the midfield line or behind the defence or to switch play to the left side to Neymar, means that the far side full back and wide midfielder are tucked in to stop the short passes, which means that when Neymar drifts inside, Jordi Alba can run free.

A natural consequence of playing a narrow 4-4-2 diamond is that the full backs have nobody directly against them. In Barcelona’s attacking system of 2-5-3 or 2-4-1-3, the full backs were key to numerical superiority and accessing the wide areas to stretch the Juventus defence.

Here we can see Neymar inside looking for the diagonal pass from Messi with Jordi Alba running late onto the outside as Iniesta receives to stretch the play wide while Neymar can offer a pass through the channel for the combination into the front.

As Neymar drifts inside and receives in the channel, Alba is wide and unable to be engaged in a 1v1 if Neymar passes wide. As Juventus have no set ‘midfielder’ there is a common 2v1 on the left side.

This time, Barcelona are on the counter-counter attack and Jordi Alba is the player attacking the space left by Liechtsteiner as the Juventus Full Backs adapted to attack more in the 2^nd half.

Changes to the defensive process in the 2^nd half; Neymar tracked deeper and pressed higher

In the 2^nd half, as Juventus were more adventurous in their attacking play, Leichtsteiner often came out of the defensive line to close down Neymar as he dropped deeper to take the ball and run inside with it (as he did against Bayern Munich away for the 1^st and 2^nd goals). Liechtsteiner tracked him deep and played 2v1 against him with Marchisio who would adapt his position to play higher and close off the space of Jordi Alba in the channel in a pre-transition space.

A part of the Juventus attacking process was to press high then force Barcelona into taking throw ins, which would be switch across the field, providing Juve a chance to press high up on the far side and win the 50-50 ball. On 3 occasions, Dani Alves switched play from right to left from a throw in return pass, the 3r resulting in a turnover form an aggressive press and a direct attack at goal.

2^nd half; Attacking Full Backs

Dani Alves takes a return pass but is forced to clear the ball – instead clearing it towards Neymar in a switch of play which is pressed by Liechsteiner in a deeper position then he reached in the 1^st half, leading to a turnover then a goal from a cutback by Liechtsteiner in his first venture into the box.

Jordi Alba rushes out to press and the backheel beats him, allowing Liechsteiner some space to attack the box.

Tevez drops short as the ball is cutback, spins and has a shot saved, which is turned home by Morata at the back post (Alves leaves him to press Tevez with his back to goal).

Juventus Attacking Process

Isolate the centre backs 1v1 in wide areas

When playing with 2 centre forwards in a defensive based system, the natural idea is to isolate the centre backs 1v1 in transition, and to try and take them on and go direct to goal. For Juventus, both strikers are quick and good in 1v1 play, so isolating the centre backs in wide areas would be a natural way to play with 2v2 at the back.

Mascherano is dragged wide by Morata who takes 1 touch and knocks it past Mascherano and enters the final 3^rd with Tevez and Vidal in support, which results in Vidal blazing a cutback over.

Morata this time in a wide area against Pique on the left, with Tevez and Vidal again the 2 supporting players, this time a cutback is made towards Tevez but Mascherano blocks it.

This time, Barcelona block forward passes but Pogba is capable of running with the ball past players. As this happens in the centre, Vidal and Tevez break wide with Morata deeper with again, 3 players in the attacking phase.

Attacking from the left side

When Juventus won possession, they tried to attack quickly and direct to the goal, looking to isolate the centre backs 1v1 but if not, attacking behind Alves down the left side, often with the dribbling ability of Tevez and Pogba, but more often in the 2nd half through Patrice Evra on the overlap.

Tevez dribbles at Dani Alves then enters the box from the left side, drawing over Pique from the front zone and looking to cross to Morata v Mascherano with Marchisio arriving late on the edge.

Evra could occasionally get forward once Pogba drifted inside with the ball and Rakitic (who would often rotate positions with Alves) and find himself in a crossing position with Morata and Tevez 1v1.

Again, Evra is the player attacking on the left with Vidal and Pogba towards the back post, Tevez and Marchisio towards the front zone.

In the 2^nd half, we saw more of Evra attacking from deeper positions in possession as Juventus opened up to attack Barcelona while 1-0 down. This was to help force back Alba and Alves who has been the spare players in Barcelona’s attack in the 1^st half, so spending more time attacking the Barcelona half could potentially limit the influence the full backs could have in attack.

Note Liechtsteiner in the centre next to Iniesta, both full backs in the midfield line but Liechtsteiner staying close to Iniesta to cover him in transition.

Barcelona Defensive Process

Set Pieces; Pique the spare man in mixed marking system

Barcelona have only conceded one goal from set pieces all season while Juventus are a dangerous team from them, so this may have been a game where Barcelona may have been legitimately worried about conceding from a set play. With Barcelona’s lack of height in comparison to Juventus, Gerard Pique’s role in defending set pieces would be key – the only player other than Sergio Busquets and GK Marc-André ter Stegen above 6ft2 and capable of competing in the air.

As the ball is delivered, we see Pique is the spare man with nobody close to him and makes an easy header away to launch a counter attack from a defensive set play.

When Barcelona set up at corners, they defended the front zone with Luis Suarez, Pique spare on the edge of the 6yard box and the rest of the team man-man, making their best efforts to disrupt the movement of the Juventus players and protecting Pique to allow him access to the ball to win the header as the spare man, front zone, centre or back – Pique was to judge the flight and win it.

Juventus won a couple of headers at the back post in the 2^nd half, Pogba in particular had a good chance but overall, Barcelona defended set pieces relatively well, Suarez launching a counter from one corner at the front post resulting in a shot from 15m from Suarez in the opposition box.

Defensive positional rotation; Rakitic covers Alves

Often, Alves would push forward into right wing or into central midfield as he and Rakitic often rotate positions in attack, but as a result, Rakitic will often have to cover for Alves in defence if he is too far away to cover. Sometimes, Alves would follow his direct opponent; Pogba – into the centre when he drifted inside, and Rakitic would rotate outside to right back and cover Alves.

Alves has drifted into centre midfield then moves to help in possession, and is drawn over to the left side, here, Rakitic is the right back position as Suarez reacts late to cover the right hand side in almost a 4-2-3-1 defensive shape, Suarez is too high as he is not natural player in this position.

As Alves drifts inside with Pogba, Rakitic drops back into the right back position to cover Evra. If Alves lets Pogba cut inside, he can be free to shoot, or find an attacking pass. Rakitic dropping into right back while Alves man-marks works well as Alves becomes a defensive midfielder and both positions are covered, albeit by rotating positions defensively.

Iniesta, Busquets and Rakitic move out of line to close down the space of the central midfielders

With 4v3 in central midfield; often 2 of Messi, Suarez or Neymar would drop onto the lateral central midfielders, as Rakitic, Busquets or Iniesta would press high to close off the space and passing angles available to each player. This forced play back and allowed Barcelona to organise.

Rakitic pushes forward v Pogba as Suarez drops onto Pirlo from the kick off, Messi blocks the passing lane to Evra as Neymar pushes forward to close down the far side space.

This time, Busquets presses onto Pogba as Alves is in central midfield (covered by Rakitic) with a clear 4-4-1-1 shape being formed with Busquets pressing out of zone.

As the game wore on, the pressure Barcelona put onto the midfield of Juventus in deep positions forced mistakes and turnovers inside the Juventus half, the pressure giving less time on the ball and as a result, misplaced passes into players who were ready to press quickly onto any possible receiver based on the body shape of the player with the ball, being able to read the next pass before it was played.

This pressure from Iniesta was constant throughout the game and eventually led to a goal from Neymar, which was given as a handball (correctly) in the 71^st minute. Jordi Alba intercepted the wide pass then drove quickly towards goal on the attacking transition, before crossing into Neymar.

Juventus sometimes could by-pass the pressure when the body shape was open and the midfield were connected, but after Barcelona went 2-1 up, the midfield started to get closer to the forwards for more direct passes and this made it more difficult for the deep midfielders to find team mates in safe positions away from pressure, resulting in interceptions such as this one.

Wide forwards cover lateral central midfielders to overload midfield 5v4

When Barcelona couldn’t exert quick pressure from someone in midfield pushing high, often we would see the wide forwards drop onto the lateral central midfielders of Juventus. This was to create a 5v4 advantage in central midfield with rough man-marking duties to discourage passes to the midfield 4 of Juventus and marking by Busquets v Vidal, Messi v Pogba, Neymar v Marchisio and Suarez v Pirlo. This left Iniesta and Rakitic free to cover spaces, press higher and shift to the man left by a ‘marker’ to press the wide pass.

We can see the front 3 of Messi, Neymar and Suarez all dropped to mark the midfielders as Rakitic and Iniesta are free in the centre to block direct passes through the middle, and to shift from zonal to man-marking when the marker ie Messi presses Evra on the touchline, Rakitic marks Pogba.

We can see here that When Pirlo is safe in possession, that Iniesta have covered the pass to Marchisio while Messi blocks the pass to Evra as Pogba drifts high into the Alves zone (out of image), we have the 2 spare central midfielders covering the centre spare and able to change role with each pass and change of marking responsibility between zonal or man-man depending on the ball position, team mate position, opponent position and where the space is.

Barcelona Attacking Processes

In the Juventus analysis, I looked at how they would try to stop Messi, which forced Barcelona to adjust and look for alternative routes to goal – they would often switch play and attack from Neymar and Jordi Alba.

If Alves was high, Alba stayed deep and vice versa, or if both were high, Busquets stayed deep to form a 3v2 situation at the back and cover the defence in the pre-transition phase.

They looked to play less of a positional game behind the opposition midfield than in La Liga and instead with more stability behind the ball, often making it look like a 3-4-1-2 with Messi the 1 in a wide position in the 1^st half and more central in the 2^nd half. This aided the circulation of the ball but game them limited chances to play through the Juventus midfield and look for 1-2s as is the normal solution they look for when there is a compact midfield and defensive unit.

Get Messi 1v1 and able to run through the defence

When the best 1v1 (and probably 1v2 and 1v3) dribbler in the world is in your team, you try to find ways to get the ball to him in a position to run with the ball and eliminate opponents.

In this match, his influence in running with the ball was limited to 2 or 3 parts in the 2^nd half, where he created the winning goal for Suarez by making a run and shot which Buffon parried into Suarez to score, and on the counter attack, but the reasons for this were mainly due to Juventus closing down his space to work in, meaning Messi had to use his incredible range of passing to open up opportunities for Neymar and Jordi Alba (as discussed in Juventus overcompactness).

Rakitic fills in at Right back for Dani Alves who makes a forward run into the gap behind Evra which was open when he pressed out of line. Pogba tracks the run of Alves creating the space for Messi to dribble inside and attack Pirlo 1v1.

This was a rare occurrence as the conditions needed to create the space were often overloaded by Juventus who kept a spare man in the zone of Messi to play 2v1, usually Pogba and Pirlo/Morata.

On the counter attack, Messi runs at pace with no real options ahead of him, so he keeps going into the box before making a good shot which Buffon saves, only for Suarez to score from it for 2-1.

Stability in possession around and behind the ball

Against a team with 2 strikers who want to play 2v2 in attacking transition, Barcelona had to make sure that the area behind Messi who would be pressed in groups all game, was secure to recover loose balls, offer back passes to continue circulation, and ensure they could stop counter attacks early, preventing Juventus from breaking away in 2v2’s would be a test of positional discipline for Busquets, Alba and Alves who would always have to asses who was where and work out who would complete the 3v2 situation defensively.

Here we see Messi dribbling inside unopposed, with Alves rotating outside and Rakitic moving towards Pirlo to occupy him and stop the press. Busquets stays deeper as both full backs push higher.

This time, Messi is wide with a 2v1 ahead of him. The positioning of the midfield although spread, is still fairly compact, with Rakitic deep in the position of Alves and Alba in the far side channel, narrow enough to recover quickly while still able to get forward on the outside. Busquets and Iniesta stay central to circulate the ball but also cover the centre and block access, forcing the play wide.

In the 2^nd half, as Messi went looking for the ball in the centre to create something himself, or to draw opponents away from the middle, we can see that the back 2 and Busquets secure the middle with all of Juventus except Tevez deep, the 2v1 at the back allows Barcelona to play a 2-1-6-1 shape, with Neymar ready to drift inside as Alba stays high and on the outside of the narrow diamond shape in midfield, with Suarez and Neymar occupying the defensive line.

The positioning of Rakitic and Iniesta just outside the line of the diamond is to stretch the midfield and support the full backs Alba and Alves who have freedom to push forward with nobody wide enough to track them and Busquets, Iniesta and Rakitic able to cover the full back zone in transition.

Messi in the centre to be more of an influence in the game

In the 2^nd half, Messi was more often moved (maybe he decided?) into the centre to try and make a breakthrough by playing in a position to by-pass the midfield of Juventus by drawing players narrower to him and go down the outside, or go through Messi if the space was available.

Busquets is in a fantastic position to receive between the lines and find Messi in an attacking position with Iniesta ready to drift left and Rakitic to drift right with Alba and Alves deep, and Neymar and Suarez occupying the back 4.

Speed in attacking transition, especially from corner kicks

When Barcelona were under Pep Guardiola, a criticism of the team was the lack of counter attacking threat (or desire to counter attack?). Maybe this was due to Guardiola himself telling Marti Perarnau in his book, ‘Pep Confidential’ that he likes 15 passes to start the play to organise the players to be best protected against counter attacks as the players are in position to counter-press or react to cover the spaces the opponent will attack in transition.

With Luis Enrique, Barcelona have become a more direct team, more willing to play on the counter attack as they can be forced deeper out of possession which can often suit the profiles of Neyma, Suarez and Messi as all 3 are quick, direct with the ball and look to run beyond the defence.

An example in the 2^nd half of when Juventus opened up to attack and created a corner kick; Suarez headed the ball out and chased forward to help the counter attack 5v3, which resulted in a shot saved by Buffon from Suarez.

This is the 3^rd goal, where Barcelona score from a 3v2 counter attack involving Pedro, Neymar and Messi. Pique (the spare man at set plays) wins the header and releases Pedro to find Messi and start the attack in the last 10 seconds of the match which leads to a goal by Neymar.

* Stevie Grieve is a football analyst, Head of Coaching at BBFS.

Seguir a @StevieGrieve

– Foto: EFE