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Barcelona can develop plan B without suspended Lewandowski – www.espn.com – SOCCER
Robert Lewandowski has been excellent since arriving at Barcelona, however it’s additionally fair to say he alters the best way they play. Seeing what they do whereas he is suspended can be fascinating. Eric Alonso/Getty Pictures
Provided that he has scored 18 times in 19 matches all through his debut season, it might be nonsensical to argue that Barcelona can be higher off without Robert Lewandowski whereas he is suspended for his or her subsequent three LaLiga matches. The Catalans, regardless of opening the marketing campaign with a scoreless draw at dwelling to Rayo Vallecano and getting a little bit of a thumping from Real Madrid in the Clasico, whereas commonly exhibiting the identical flaws that noticed them knocked out of the Champions League, in some way sit top of the table as home football returns in Spain this week.
That “in some way” can be outlined in three ways: Madrid’s profligacy in dropping seven factors towards Girona, Osasuna and Rayo, plus Barca’s exceptional ‘objectives-towards’ tally of simply 5… and having Lewandowski in the crew.
The legendary Polish striker has repeatedly “sealed” all three factors — he was the one scorer in 1-0 wins towards Mallorca and Valencia — repeatedly has been the man who breaks the 0-0 impasse in other games and infrequently additionally put wins past doubt with the strike by giving Barcelona a two- or three-objective margin. Stellar returns from a brand new signing, little question, however there is a distinct argument that Barcelona play higher, more full, more convincing and more fluent football without him.
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When Xavi & Co. face Espanyol (dwelling), Atletico in the capital after which Getafe again at Camp Nou over the approaching weeks, there can be an opportunity not just for the crew to show it can cope without Lewandowski however for the Catalan coach to check opponents in a completely totally different manner than Barca did in lots of their earlier fourteen LaLiga matches.
To this point, the proof means that after they’re without a comparatively static, conventional centre-ahead, Barcelona play with more dynamism and risk and look much more just like the template anticipated when the 42-12 months-previous Catalan took over from Ronald Koeman in November 2021. Nonetheless, the pattern dimension is quick and traditionalists will already be spluttering into their festive mulled wine: “… objectives are the whole lot… to hell with the standard of play. Lewandowski is grasp of all he surveys!”
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It is also true that membership president Joan Laporta intentionally turned the main target again on outcomes over high quality of efficiency when, simply earlier than Christmas, he introduced that “we have made it crystal clear to everybody in the dressing room that our all-essential goal is to win the league.” Win in any respect prices, as fashion factors rely for nothing was the message.
Though not out of step along with his employer, Xavi put it very in another way. “We can not lose our ‘house fashion’ — that is the factor which has made the membership nice. It is the taking part in thought through which the nationwide crew gained a World Cup and two European Championships, how Barca gained 5 Champions Leagues: in truth, it is time we redoubled our efforts to realize the essence of the Barcelona taking part in philosophy. Sure, we’ll want a Plan B and a Plan C, however the whole lot needs to be primarily based on our central thought of tips on how to play football.”
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Concerning Lewandowski, the argument goes like this. With him in the XI, this is a Barcelona period when a big diploma of the positional and passing fashion that is central to the Rinus Michels/Johan Cruyff/Pep Guardiola thought of tips on how to play is sacrificed or diminished. On the other hand, the Polish star brings absolute mastery of tips on how to produce usually exceptional objectives — significantly in tight conditions.
What will get sacrificed are the fluency of motion, the intricacy of construct-up play, the fast interchanging of positions and the way creatively possession is used in the ultimate third. Lewandowski’s associative and “construct-up” play is not improbable. And though he would not hover across the penalty spot selfishly ready to be served, he is, without query, an quaint “No. 9” whose finest work is executed both when he is provided with distinctive crosses into the field or when an opponent’s defensive position (usually 5 or 6 males) is ragged.
It is wholly pure that, at 34, his athletic pace is declining. He will not usually win a dash if the ball’s performed lengthy into house behind a high defensive position and, one-on-one, he is much less more likely to go previous a younger, robust, intelligent marker. Some proof nudging us additional in direction of these conclusions comes from his failure to attain, or make a severe impression, in 4 of Barcelona’s 5 matches towards Bayern Munich, Inter and Real Madrid. Those that watched how Inter (in Milan), Madrid and Bayern — particularly at Camp Nou — nullified Lewandowski and prevented him from getting the standard of possession he now needs could have been ready for the pallid, sluggish performances he gave for Poland in the course of the World Cup.
He stays good, however he is 34, human and not the rampaging colossus of his absolute peak.
In Lewandowski’s absence, Xavi should use the time to get Barcelona again to their fluid, transition possession ways. David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Pictures
To be clear, this is not a criticism of Lewandowski, whose professionalism, willingness to help Xavi on the coaching pitch, advice to teammates and tolerance of taking part in in a stumbling Bambi-like period of Barcelona’s growth are all fairly exceptional. So too are his objective stats, which, though barely down in contrast along with his final two seasons with Bayern, look nonetheless more praiseworthy while you have in mind what number of new, younger or ‘coming to the top’ players there are round him.
A clean-working juggernaut, this crew is not.
So, again to the Lewandowski argument. Without him in the XI, there is a clear risk that Xavi’s crew loses chew. If Barcelona look wanting a leading edge and scorn a great deal of objective probabilities in the three matches in which he is absent, then few will care too much in the event that they’ve performed properly … however misplaced or drawn. Nonetheless, without him in the XI, towards Viktoria Plzen, and for the final hour at Osasuna, Barcelona did not merely win however performed outstandingly in another way from at any other time this season.
Lewandowski’s objectives have a tendency to come back with Barcelona camped in the ultimate third, prodding and probing over and once more to try to open up an opponent that has deployed vital numbers to stifle and block. These are conditions when, if the ball is misplaced, Barcelona are very inclined to fast, properly-executed counter-assaults. There’ll usually be solely two on the again, which suggests Xavi’s crew can be uncovered positionally and for tempo.
When Lewandowski’s not taking part in, this is a crew that can play via the strains far more quickly, that can counter assault more rapidly and can profit from a continuing rotation of Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres, Raphinha, Gavi and Ousmane Dembele at any given second, and even Pedri arriving from deeper positions..
Away in the Czech Republic earlier this season, Barcelona dragged Viktoria Plzen about ruthlessly and gained a Champions League game when, provided that Xavi used a younger, inexperienced aspect, there was a risk of dropping. It was vivacious and fluid, and Barca have been arduous to pin down.
For the final hour towards Osasuna, after Lewandowski’s sending off, in a match in which the hosts hadn’t merely led on the break however bullied Barcelona, pressed them and made it look as if this was a particular defeat in the making, LaLiga’s leaders performed higher with 10 males, have been once more noticeably more fluid and fast and, considerably, turned a 1-0 deficit right into a 2-1 win.
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Barcelona president Joan Laporta expresses his hopes that membership legend and freshly topped world champion Lionel Messi will play in Blaugrana colors once more.
There’s one other level that Xavi can flip to his benefit as an alternative of lamenting the Polish participant’s three-game suspension.
For the previous 12 years, Lewandowski has benefitted from the Bundesliga’s “Winterpause” — a break from December to January or February meaning no league matches for wherever between three to 5 weeks. The German league additionally performs a 34-match league season, the Spanish one 38. His absence, a 3-match suspension that Barcelona appealed via each doable authority solely to be advised to cease making a fuss about nothing, means he has, and can continue to have, a mini Winterpause for the reason that World Cup ended. In idea, he ought to be fitter and sharper for the Copa del Rey, the Supercup semifinal towards Betis in Saudi Arabia after which for Manchester United in the Europa League.
Laporta is an unashamed fan. “Lewandowski is one of many causes we have been capable of make our followers completely happy once more. In fact he brings professionalism, expertise and duty, however he is a hell of a man and he is introduced the membership an air of glamour.” True, however there is a counterpoint: this is a striker who considerably circumstances how Xavi’s crew performs, and across the nook, there is coming a time when Lewandowski — a brief-time period repair for an absence of energy, class and expertise whereas this squad was being rebuilt — will not be there.
Whereas removed from definitive, the following three LaLiga matches offer Xavi and his squad a glimpse of what the not-too-distant future will appear to be. Maybe a pretty glimpse at that.
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