After a hard-fought victory against Cadiz – the first one obtained at Montjuic – Barcelona continues their La Liga campaign away from home. This time, the Catalans travel to the Estadio La Ceramica to face a Villarreal side led by their ex-coach Quique Setien.
Barca News Network brings you 3 talking points ahead of the Villarreal-Barcelona clash on the 3rd matchday of the season.
1. A different kind of opponent
Getafe and Cadiz posed a difficult task to Xavi Hernandez’s apprentices to overcome, with their notoriously defensive setup denying the Catalans from finding the back of the net for long. Their low block with 5 or often 6 men in the defensive, as well as the midfielders and forwards blocking the inside channels, caused major difficulties for FC Barcelona.
This can change tonight as Villarreal is a team that likes to have the ball and play proactive football with it, meaning that the Catalans will have more space to operate between the opposition players.
Also, the fact that Setien’s men want to dominate the ball – as they did last time when the two teams met, having more of the ball (54%) than their Catalan counterparts – will allow the Blaugranes to play from second intent, trying to win the ball back as high as possible and conduct quick attacks to beat the Yellow Submarine’s defense.
Nevertheless, Villarreal is a team with much higher quality, and their ability to build attacks on their own can cause more trouble for Barcelona’s defense than they experienced against Getafe or Cadiz – though, they did have some hot moments against Cadiz on the counter.
2. Injuries continue to haunt
As we all know, Ronald Araujo missed the last game against Cadiz as he got injured during a training session last week. Moreover, despite participating in the training session, Inigo Martínez has still not fully recovered from the injury that he suffered before signing for the Blaugranes in July.
To cap it all, news broke this week that Pedri has suffered an injury which could see him sidelined for several weeks. The club stated in an official communication on their social platforms that the 20-year-old had suffered a right quadriceps injury.
Later this week it was reported that the club could lose another important player in Alejandro Balde due to an injury. Thankfully, it proved to be just a scare, and as Xavi confirmed, will be available for selection for the game against Villarreal.
3. The opportunity of the shark?
Robert Lewandowski has been on a poor run of form since the end of last season, and barring two goals in the pre-season, he hasn’t scored since the middle of May. Against Getafe and Cadiz, he struggled to contribute to buildups while his impact at the finishing end was also nonexistent.
Contrarily, Ferran Torres, whose performance of the last season was one to forget, has stepped up his game in the summer, and with his 4 goals in 5 games since the start of the pre-season, it seems that the Spaniard is well and truly on the way of redemption this season.
Taking the opposite trajectories of the two players into account, it seems to be the logical call to finally give Lewandowski a rest and give Torres a chance as a starter, a switch that can benefit both players individually and the team’s overall play as well.
