Barcelona’s Poor High Press: Thread🧵 Barcelona find themselves in the exact same situation as City. This current City team has a lack of athleticism in the middle to jump vertically to go man-to-man, therefore they do it horizontally by jumping the winger onto a CB, and then City jump their FB to the oppositions FB. Barcelona do the exact same thing. They play both Pedri + Rodri, who both can’t consistently jump vertically, especially in such a high intensity game. So they jump horizontally, but on such a big pitch, especially with the opposition wingers high and FBs low, the jump distance for Barcelona’s FB is too large. This allows Valverde more than enough time to take a touch and then make a decision which, in turn, undid the whole press. Cont.

New Article out on Substack - Analysis of El Clasico - Barcelona's High Press - Issues with it + Impacts of it - Solutions to Improve their High Press - Rodri's Struggles against Bellingham - Rodri's Struggles to Cover the Half Spaces - Similarities to 2011 Copa Del Rey Final - Both Defensively and Offensively - Overall Thoughts Link Below: 👇👇👇

A section from my Substack: Now onto the main reason I watched the 2011 Copa Del Rey Final. Cristiano Ronaldo. Mourinho stated that he made the decision to play Ronaldo as a striker as it allows him to do less defensive work, and so he doesn’t gave to follow Dani Alves up and down. Ronaldo is regarded as both one of the best wingers of all time as well as one of the best strikers of all time, it makes it difficult to categorise him into one position. This resembles Mbappe quite well. He was generally regarded as a winger, predominantly on the left, whereas since moving to Real Madrid he has played as a striker, with little success for both club and country. I feel he shares similarity with Ronaldo in this regard. It now feels we are at a stage where we still think of Mbappe as this winger who will beat players 1v1 rather than the dynamic striker he is now. What better manager to properly introduce Mbappe as a #9 than the one who did the same with Ronaldo? Ronaldo in the Copa Del Rey Final was used not as a pressing, hard working, defensive machine. But rather, as a channel forward, ready to pounce on counter-attacks forcing Barcelona to worry about how many men they commit forward. Always hanging around the last line, ready to receive in transition. The first picture of Mbappe attacking is extremely important. It highlights the potential for combination play on the left. Bellingham and Mbappe close to each other provide so many options; the ball can go into Bellingham to flick on to Mbappe as they did for the goal, but also Bellingham can make the movement in behind and Mbappe can receive directly. Diomande could also go directly in behind to Mbappe as Bellingham drops off to receive. The possibilities are endless. The second highlights a much more common possibility, especially against a ball dominant team like Barcelona. Diomande receives centrally and beats his man, with Mbappe running in behind, between both CBs ready to receive. In this case Diomande finds him and it leads to a penalty. This will be where Real Madrid will have the most joy, and where they will look to exploit Barcelona in transition.