5 ways to beat Barcelona
Dani Alves of Barcelona. Photo: Denis Doyle, Getty Images
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Three La Liga sides have won the better of Barcelona this season. Pete Jenson studies the matches to see what Chelsea can learn.
On the opening day of the season, a penniless, newly promoted side named Numancia faced the mighty Barcelona in their draughty 9,500 capacity stadium... and somehow, they beat them. The trick was not repeated until the following February when Barça's Plain Jane Catalan neighbours Españyol silenced the Nou Camp with a 2-1 victory and on the first day of March Atletico Madrid beat them in a seven goal thriller. So it can be done, and you don't even have to be that good to do it. Numancia are currently rock bottom of La Liga, Españyol only pulled themselves out of the bottom three at the weekend and Atletico Madrid will make Europa League at best and probably sack their manager at the end of the season.
1. Target Valdes, the error-prone goalkeeper
Considering goalkeeper Victor Valdes plays for the team with the best defensive record in Spain – just 26 goals conceded all season – it is perhaps a mystery that he is nowhere near the Spain squad. First choice Iker Casillas would be replaced by Liverpool's Pepe Reina if he were injured and Seville's Andres Palop and Villarreal's Diego Lopez would be next in line. Valdes, on a good day could maybe consider himself fifth choice, and not for nothing is he so low down the pecking order. He maybe athletic, a proud product of Barcelona's youth system and excellent at one-on-ones but he is also erratic on crosses, susceptible to shots from distance and generally error-prone.
In the 4-3 defeat against Atletico Madrid Barcelona were actually leading 2-0 but Diego Forlan caught Valdes napping off his line and with a shot from 30 yards put Atletico right back into the game. Valdes made a howler for Espanyol's first goal in their 2-1 victory in the Nou Camp and he also let a Juninho free-kick squirm inside his near post against Lyons in the Champions League first knockout stage. Even most Barcelona fans admit the club put sentiment before sense in keeping the local boy between the posts and with the likes of Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack trying their luck from distance and John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic going up for corners Chelsea could prosper.
2. Exploit the attacking instincts of Alves
Dani Alves might be the best attacking full-back in the world but those hurricane-speed forays into opposition territory are costly. Despite his ability to get up and down the right – the former Argentine World Cup winner Jorge Valdano said recently that he moves so fast he often passes himself running up the wing as he's running back – there are still times when he is missing in action and Barcelona concede because of it.
When Alves was at Seville opponents would regularly station someone on the left wing and spend 90 minutes hitting the space that had more often than not been vacated by Alves. That first goal of the season that beat Barcelona at Numancia came from a cross down their right-hand side and more recently Bayern Munich's Franck Ribéry ran Alves ragged forcing the Brazilian to pick up a yellow card which he might easily have turned red had Bayern's service to Ribéry not dried up in the second half of their Champions League encounter. Valencia looked for the ball over the top of Alves throughout their 2-2 draw with Barcelona at the weekend and Chelsea would do well to do likewise at the Nou Camp tonight.
3. Keep the central defenders occupied
Barcelona's central defensive partnership is probably the only part of Pep Guardiola's team selection that he has had to think about. The former Manchester United defender Gerard Pique is the form player but for experience the Mexico captain Rafa Marquez stands out and in terms of being phsyically quick and strong enough to deal with Didier Drogba, Carles Puyol is the pick of the three. But whoever plays, Barcelona's central defenders will not enjoy the luxury of playing teams who only commit one man forward. So many sides have picked just one striker against them in the hope of swamping Andres Iniesta and Xavi and breaking up their possesion.
The plan has come unstuck because with only one forward to mark, Barcelona's elegant central defenders have been free to stroll out from the back and set up move after move. Both Españyol and Atletico Madrid reaped the rewards of a bolder approach leaving two up, occupying both centre-halves. Many Barça moves start, not at the feet of Xavi and Iniesta, but from the boots of Marquez and Pique. With Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Florent Malouda for constant company much of Barça's play could be stifled at source.
4. Take advantage of aerial weaknesses
When you are as good as Barcelona are you don't get much practice at defending corners... and it shows. At the weekend against Valencia, goalkeeper Valdes was left screaming at the linesman after Valencia scored their first goal from a corner only for replays to show Valdes had actually been fouled by his own player Puyol. "Whether it was Valdes who ran into Puyol or the other way round it doesn't matter," said former Barça player and coach Johan Cruyff, "what matters is that we gave away the corner in the first place."
Barcelona prefer to practise keeping the ball and not conceding set-plays rather than put too much time into dealing with them when they come along. Beyond Puyol, Pique and holding midfielder Yaya Touré no one in the Barcelona team is outstanding in the air so they will be relying on Valdes to come out and claim – something that he is not always able to do.
5. Don't concentrate too much on Messi
Ignoring the threat of Lionel Messi would be madness but so would obsessing over Barça's brilliant No 10 to the extent where others are given free rein. The idea first muted when Ashley Cole picked up his booking that perhaps Michael Essein might play at left-back so as to spend 90 minutes on Messi-watch forgets the fact that Barcelona have two world-class midfield players who would both benefit enormously from not having Essien snapping at their heels. Xavi has been in superb form all season and even more impressive has been Iniesta. In fact Barcelona's worst run of form, when they lost to both Espanyol and Atletico Madrid, came when Iniesta was injured. Messi really is Maradona Mark II but unlike many of the sides Maradona played in, this Barça XI doesn't only dance to one tune. Shackle Messi and Iniesta, Xavi, Henry, Eto'o and Alves are queuing-up behind to take centre-stage.
