The One Question Weekend Preview: El Clasico
How will Barcelona play without their second elite creator?
See that dark blue short pass in the middle there? That's Barcelona soccer. Chelsea have played a ton of these short, middle, attacking passes this year, 213 of them to be exact. That's 40 more than Man City, who have played the 3rd most, a large lead. Barcelona have played 282!
Eden Hazard has played the 3rd most of these types of passes with 43. The top 2?
Miles beyond the rest (though shoutout Remo Freuler, a long-time favorite of mine). Coutinho and Messi play these type of passes 9 times a game.
One way of continuing to play as Barcelona is Suarez dropping a bit deeper and passing a bit more: he completed 18 attacking third passes against Inter this week after averaging 11 the previous 3 games.
Another way, not necessarily a a separate answer than previous, is Rakitic and Arthur moving a bit forward.
Against Inter they played ~30% of their passes into the attacking third after 12% vs Sevilla and 15% vs Tottenham. Those two have generally played more sideways passes throughout the season.
[gallery ids="508,509" type="rectangular"]
The big question is whether to bring in Ousmane Dembele.
He has been pretty wasteful with possession as is normal for him but when he is on the end of passes, stuff happens.
The only player who turns those "Type 28" passes into shots more often than Dembele this year has been Ronaldo.
Dembele plays a preposterously high % of his passes into the box and isn't at all the possession recycler that Rafinha is.
If you want to control the game and kind of stifle Real Madrid, he's not your man to start but if you want to try and be decisive with the passes you do play, Dembele becomes an intriguing option.
If it was up to me, I'd stick in Dembele: 2 in-box shots and 3 KPs per 90 with his ability to create shots when he touches the ball is worth the risk. Rafinha scored (on a beautiful Suarez pass from outside the box) but 2 in-box shots and a KP vs Inter doesn't convince me he's truly a shot generator. Rakitic, Arthur and Suarez all taking on a bit of that Barcelona midfield short passing responsibility and let Dembele get in there and try to create something.