Ousmane Dembele will add final flourish to Barcelona's successful and wide changes

Andy West 00:20 28/11/2017
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  • Barcelona shone in all areas of the pitch against Valencia.

    A few hours after Lionel Messi made headlines by claiming the departure of Neymar has made Barcelona a more balanced team, the Argentine’s teammates did a good job of proving him right.

    Although it has got lost in the debate over Messi’s non-awarded ‘ghost goal’, Barca were absolutely excellent in the opening period of Sunday night’s game at Valencia.

    The hosts were coming into the game full of confidence and in superb form after stringing together a run of eight consecutive wins, and their atmospheric and noisy Mestalla stadium is renowned as one of the most uncomfortable environments for visiting teams when Valencia fans are in the right mood.

    In that context, then, the fact that Barca utterly dominated their high-flying hosts more or less without interruption from the opening whistle until the half-time interval was even more impressive.

    All over the pitch, the Blaugrana were infinitely superior to Valencia during that opening 45 minutes. Samuel Umtiti marshalled the defence imperiously; Sergio Busquets made the task of running the midfield look easy; Andres Iniesta shone with magical flicks and tricks; Paulinho blended brawn with brain, and Messi masterminded virtually every attacking move.

    Paulinho looked the part in the midfield with a strong display.

    Paulinho looked the part in the midfield with a strong display.

    But it wasn’t really about individuals: this was a true team performance, with the eleven moving parts appearing to move as one, almost as though they were connected by an invisible string which prevented them from ever becoming drawn too far apart.

    The home team just couldn’t get their foot on the ball – and on the few occasions they did manage to gain possession, they were quickly harried into losing it almost immediately by Barca’s fierce pressing.

    The second half was a much more even contest, as Valencia upped their intensity and the game started to open up. But even then the visitors remained largely on top, and finished the game making 753 passes to Valencia’s 328, while also restricting the hosts to just one attempt on target.

    The nature of Barca’s most important touch was also telling, with Jordi Alba running onto an outrageous lofted through ball from Messi to volley home and secure a point which was the very least the visiting team deserved.

    Last season, Alba would not have scored that goal – the space that he ran into would instead been occupied by Neymar, who along with Messi and Luis Suarez executed the overwhelming majority of the team’s attacking movements.

    Now, though, Neymar has gone and Barca have been forced to rethink their approach. Rather than relying on MSN they have been forced to find other solutions, and along with the arrival of a pragmatic new coach in the form of Ernesto Valverde, that has resulted in a more controlled and structured style of play.

    Notably, there was only one change in personnel from the front six that started most games last season, with Neymar’s place being taken by another Brazilian – albeit one with an extremely different skill set: Paulinho.

    The move from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 with a showboating winger replaced by a muscular midfielder neatly encapsulates the change undertaken by the team in the last few months, and there have been definite improvements in the overall shape.

    Last season Barca at times resembled two teams within a team, with MSN responsible for nearly all the attacking and everyone else playing a supporting role in the background. This season, however, has seen the introduction of a far more collective approach: Paulinho has as many league goals as Suarez; Alba has as many assists as Messi.

    Alba made the perfect run to Messi's lofted ball.

    Alba made the perfect run to Messi’s lofted ball.

    The fruits of this greater balance, as Messi described it, has been a much more solid team defensively, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen only conceding five goals in 13 league games and spending large periods of time mainly focussed on his excellent distribution skills in the ‘sweeper-keeper’ role.

    That improvement was plain to see during Barca’s outstanding first half in Valencia – but so too was the other side of the coin.

    As Messi admitted, the departure of Neymar has also taken away a great deal of the team’s firepower, and despite all their dominance over Valencia it was notable that Barca struggled to create clear chances – even the first half ‘goal’ they scored only came through a gross goalkeeping error.

    As time ticked on and the ageing Iniesta was forced to retire, Barca’s lack of creativity was increasingly obvious. With Suarez delivering another poor performance, only Messi looked capable of fashioning a breakthrough – as he eventually did – with the rest of the team showing calm control but a lack of imagination.

    This is where Ousmane Dembele should enter the picture. The €150 million summer signing was obviously recruited as Neymar’s replacement, and his long absence with a thigh injury has deprived the team of one of their most dangerous attacking forces.

    In particular, Dembele possesses one specific quality which the team otherwise badly lacks: pace with the ball. Even Messi, for all his greatness, is never going to break down a defence by speeding past them, and neither are any of his teammates with the possible exception of Alba.

    So a lot will rest on Dembele to provide the penetrative spark which the team has been badly missing so far this season.

    The good news is that he the young Frenchman is only a couple of weeks away from returning to training, and could be fit in time for the Clasico trip to Real Madrid in four weeks’ time.

    The bad news is that he is still very much unproven and lacking familiarity with his new teammates after spending so little time on the playing or practise field with them, so he could need at least a few weeks before he starts to become effective.

    But if he does click, using his pace and direct running into the penalty area to provide an ingredient which is currently missing, Barca might well find themselves with the perfect balance.

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