Barcelona managed a comfortable victory over Elche on Saturday. They walked it home at the end, but their opening goal was a long time in coming. Im surprised you find it strange that we had a tough time scoring, was Luis Enriques response when asked about it. The reason is that there have been several games over the course of the season in which Barcelona have not started firing on all cylinders until the second half. We can find proof of this in the stats for goals scored in the first and second halves, which show that they have scored 18 more goals after the break (47 to 29). In percentage terms, this works out as 62% to 38%. Barça have a clear strategy. They start every game by wearing down their opponents. The idea is to pass the ball around quickly and for the opposing players to chase after it and gradually run out of steam. We mainly see this in the first half hour, when Barcelona only manage to score 10% of their goals. In the final 15 minutes they can then take advantage of their opponents fatigue. Leo Messi is one of the best at reading games. He barely figures in that first half hour. Sometimes he barely has a touch, but then starts causing panic amongst defenders with Neymar as his main accomplice.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:58:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015