They rule the areas and something else, by Fernando Polo

Barça fell again in a Classic and there are already four lost in a row, the last three with Koeman. The performance of the azulgrana team was not a disaster and in the first half they also locked Madrid in their area thanks to good pressure. However, again the lack of shot and imbalance in static, space, air play and strategy weighed too much. Madrid, without doing anything of the other world, took advantage of a culé defensive imbalance -another more-, this time with Memphis of a walker, to advance with a great goal from Alaba and from there he dedicated himself to defending the inoperative culé attack in his area and looking for a counter that would kill the match, with Vinicius as the main protagonist. In the end he put it Lucas Vazquez and the goal of When He only made up defeat when there was hardly time left.

The first impression is that in the party they decided the areas, the effectiveness in them, as verbalized Busquets after the game. On your own, Ter Stegen failed to get a good shot out of Alaba that was complicated but not unstoppable. And in Madrid, neither Ansu, ni Memphis, ni Dest (very clear his failed occasion), nor Frenkie de Jong, ni Luke de Jong, ni Coutinho… Single Omen he knew how to hole it up in the last minute, just to make up the defeat and leave it in a tight 0-2.

It is true that Ansu He cannot be required to save the team in every game when he comes out of a knee injury and ten months of inactivity. But Memphis has stopped, Dest missed a clear goal, Frenkie de Jong He is on his way to becoming inconsequential when he was called to lead the current decade, Luuk de Jong is not believed by anyone as ‘nine’, Pique Nor does it make any difference in attack in big games … But the worst thing is that other football is not dominated either, so important in times of lean cows. Because Barça did not take advantage of the strategy in corners and fouls, the long shot, the cons, the robberies near the rival area … And that’s very difficult.

But having commented on all this, everything closely related to the areas, again individual errors and neglect were decisive. In the goal of Alaba, the 0-1, Memphis he stopped following him when the white center-back went on the attack. He chased him for a stretch, but when he reached the medullary he ignored him. That is a frivolity that cost dearly. As in the Atlético de Madrid field, an exit from behind Lemar neither was she cut or chased by the young man Nico, who was portrayed in the press room by Koeman, perhaps for the sake of your training as a professional. But Memphis He is already made as a top-level player and yet he resigned in a decisive play. All this against a Madrid that did little more than defend itself with order and look for the spaces left by the Barça defensive network.

The whites go to five points in LaLiga but there is much left. On the Barça side, troops like him return When and Dembele, which is falling. But more is needed. For example, a forward scorer to act as a starter in the second leg of the season. Although he is a veteran, but it takes a ‘killer’ who does not come out of injury like him When. And if a medium can arrive with arrival to bite into De Jong, too. And work the other football, the board, the strategy. Everything adds up and Barça is not there to despise anything.