Ronald Koeman addresses new Barcelona formation against Valladolid.
Ronald Koeman switched his normal game up as his Barcelona side beat Real Valladolid 3-0 in their last La Liga fixture, away from home. The Dutchman usually plays a 4-2-3-1 in which two of the three midfielders play a more of a double pivot which leads the particular side to look more defensively composed than that of an open attacking side. Hence, in the game against Valladolid, he switched the whole setup by playing three centre-backs, in a 3-4-2-1.
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Ronald Araujo, Clement Lenglet, and Oscar Mingueza played the three main center backs. This tactic led the two fullbacks Jordi Alba and Sergino Dest to be more attacking as they were partially relieved of defensive duties. This led to a wonderful attacking game where the Blaugrana absolutely dominated the opponents and all the players who were struggling also seemed to make a good impact.
Koeman was pleased with this formation saying,
"“The key was to play with three centrals. We have changed the drawing to have more security behind in defense and take advantage of the quality of our sides, and to be able to build without problems with a three against his two forwards and to be able to build between the lines with people like Pedri, Pjanic or Messi . And we have seen a game with great concentration ”Source Mundo Deportivo"
Lionel Messi ended up with his first assist of the game, providing Lenglet with a perfect ball to header into the net, whereas Martin Braithwaite scored one to get some numbers in the La Liga competition. Alba and Dest played a much more impactful role as they got to attack comfortably. 18-year-old Pedri had a fantastic game and received a ton of praise from his boss. The Dutchman even had nice things to say about Bosnian midfielder Miralem Pjanic, who has been struggling since his arrival at the Nou Camp, but managed to have a fantastic game.
The defensive trio were extremely key to this victory as they stood solid and formed a good defensive line which led to a comfortable clean sheet. The Barcelona boss had an extremely positive output with this sudden change of tactics and is now considering making these tactics more regular in order to bring some attractive attacking football back to the Nou Camp again, like the old days. This positive result has led to the team looking more composed and collected.
Should Koeman always use the 3-4-2-1 over his usual 4-2-3-1 lineup?