Barcelona’s Mr. 6,000 is ridiculous: Five things learned as La Liga champions beat Alaves

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In a fast-moving night of football, Barcelona beat Alaves 3-0.

The win puts Barça top of La Liga and gets them off to an ideal start as they look to retain their title. What did we learn?

1. Messi is ridiculous

It’s hard to explain just how good Leo Messi is, but his display against Alavés is a pretty good way to sum it up. For an entire hour Messi didn’t score or assist in the match, yet his fingerprints were all over everything good Barcelona did. It is this ability to so impact a game that sets Messi apart from the game’s other greats.

Messi is a forward, yet he played countless penetrative passes against Alavés. His ability to split the atom so readily and repeatedly shames literally every other playmaker on the planet. He can dribble better than anyone, pass better than anyone, and shoot basically better than anyone except perhaps one other dude. He’s ridiculous.

Oh, and of course after an hour of being a playmaking wizard, the game was still 0-0. Messi’s team-mates hadn’t taken the chances he had provided, so Messi went and did it himself. Winning a free-kick on the edge of the box he sized Fernando Pacheco up and, having gone high and hit the bar in the first-half, this time he went low, driving the ball under the wall and into the back of the net.

The goal was Barcelona’s 6,000th in La Liga. Messi also bagged the 5,000th in even more dramatic fashion nine years ago in Santander. In fact, Messi has scored 384 of Barcelona’s 6,000 goals in the Spanish top-flight. That’s 6.4%. Six. Point. Four. Percent.

Ridiculous.

2. Dembélé still developing

Ousmane Dembélé is a remarkable young talent who just last week gave a taste of his match-winning potential when he smashed home a 25-yard effort to win Barcelona the Supercopa de España. It was a supreme strike after a quality display, and it gave culés huge hope.

His performance against Alavés was him being brought back down to earth. Not that he was bad against Alavés; in fact, his movement was even better than the Supercopa. He drifted into spaces, was always available as an outlet and made so many smart runs off the ball.

But the devastating end product from Tangier wasn’t present. Dembélé had three shots on goal and a couple of chances to play killer passes and wasted them all. Alright in a couple of instances you have to credit Alavés, but by and large, Dembélé showed that whilst he is surely going to be a key player for Barça this season – he is still developing. There will be more frustrating games like this.

3. Barcelona’s multiple solutions

What’s remarkable about Barcelona’s squad is that their forwards are more or less set, as are three of their back four and Sergio Busquets as a midfield anchor, but those remaining three spots could go to anyone really. And each configuration changes the way Barcelona play.

Nelson Semedo is the best defensive full-back Barça have, so he will likely get the call in big games – but he’s not quite as adept at bursting between defences as Roberto is; so in games against parked buses, you can see why the Spaniard may get the ball. That was evident today as Roberto began in midfield, didn’t play too well, then replaced Semedo at right-back and instantly came to life. Meanwhile, Semedo had done nothing wrong but wasn’t offering enough in attack for a game like this.

Then in midfield Coutinho obviously adds phenomenal attacking thrust, but if you’re defending a lead maybe you want him in the forward line backed up by a trio of midfielders? That’s what Valverde went with late on against Alavés and Coutinho had two great chances to score, one of which he took in superb fashion.

Roberto and Rakitic run hard but maybe don’t have quite the penetrative creativity that the former Liverpool man does. Arthur looks to be a fine balance between them all; able to handle himself defensively whilst also able to play passes between the lines.

Then there’s Arturo Vidal who is something completely different: a pressing powerhouse whose physical play could be a real wildcard for the Blaugrana this season. Bringing him on gives Barça genuine intensity and goal threat whilst loosening their control of the ball.

4. Suárez… why?

In the 91st minute, Luis Suárez pulled deep, controlled a pass, turned away from his marker and lifted a stunning pass over the defence in for Messi. The Argentine controlled the ball brilliantly and scored Barcelona’s third goal, immediately pointing to his dear friend. It was a sublime assist showing just what kind of creative brilliance Suárez is capable of.

It was also the first good thing Suárez did all match. Or maybe the second good thing if you want to count a flicked pass to Messi in the first half. The thing is, as an offensive threat he was basically non-existent. His runs behind didn’t cause any damage, his shooting was laughable and it was clear the Alavés defenders didn’t fear him.

Barcelona will surely target a striker next summer, but they need to perhaps look at either bringing one in during the closing days of the transfer window or giving Munir El Haddadi a serious run up-front because right now Luis Suárez is looking like a Luxury Emile Heskey.

5. Valverdeball 2.0: fun!

Last season under Ernesto Valverde, Barcelona were relentless. They lost just five competitive games all season, and two of those were the first two games of the campaign before Valverde had fully exerted his influence, and a third was the first leg in a two-legged Copa del Rey game with the second leg at home still to come.

Basically: they were hard to beat. Very hard to beat. But they weren’t much fun. The departure of Neymar, the injury to Ousmane Dembélé and Coutinho not arriving until late January (and not being truly fit and sharp until late March) meant that Barcelona were suffering from a huge talent deficiency. Valverde’s solution was hard-work and defensive solidity, relying on Messi to magic victories out of nothing.

This worked domestically (their only Liga loss came in the only game where Messi played no part) but it saw them fall short in the Champions League. Moreover, bar a handful of games, it just wasn’t fun to watch and many feared that this malaise would continue into 2018/19, but if those people were watching against Alavés they will be feeling much better.

What is clear about Barcelona this season is that their talent deficiency is gone and they once again have a side stacked with pace, penetration and invention. There’s dribbling, goals and creativity to burn. Messi is still the catalyst, but whatever Barça managed to do this season there’s no doubt that even with Ernesto Valverde at the helm, they will be fun to watch.

The post Barcelona’s Mr. 6,000 is ridiculous: Five things learned as La Liga champions beat Alaves appeared first on Squawka News.



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