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Barcelona have gone robust within the UEFA Champions League thus far barring their opening day defeat to Monaco. Having crushed the mighty Bayern Munich by a dominant scoreline, in spite of everything, they established themselves as one of many favourites.
Tomorrow evening, they return to motion within the competitors, this time towards Borussia Dortmund away from dwelling in what can be a difficult fixture.
The Catalans haven’t been wherever near their greatest in latest video games and even collapsed to a tame 2-2 draw of their most up-to-date outing towards Actual Betis.
The main focus tomorrow, thus, needs to be to get again to profitable methods and discover their manner again up for an additional comparable month may have large repercussions on their title hopes.
Barça Common brings you three speaking factors forward of Borussia Dortmund vs Barcelona.
A worrying European battle
Had the sport towards Borussia Dortmund come two months in the past, there could be an actual sense of confidence within the staff {that a} win wouldn’t be tough to drag off.
Over the previous month, nevertheless, Barcelona have proven time and time once more that they’re susceptible each in assault and defence.
Proper from the sport towards Crvena Zvezda within the UEFA Champions League, groups have begun to simply decode the Catalans’ defensive frailties and have exploited them to most impact.
That, coupled with Barcelona’s instantly dampened assault has led to issues throughout the park and a worrying run of outcomes.
Whereas the Blaugrana have been in good type within the UEFA Champions League, their latest run in La Liga has been something however reassuring. With simply 5 factors of their final 5 video games, Hansi Flick’s males are on their worst run but.
To go into an enormous European conflict at this level, thus, feels nearly terrifying. For a staff that has been unable to get the higher of 14th-placed Las Palmas to go up towards Dortmund who’re fourth on the UCL standings, in spite of everything, will be regarding.
Shaky defence to capitalise on
Harm issues aplenty for Nuri Sahin. (Photograph by Christof Koepsel/Getty Photos)
Dortmund, final 12 months’s crushed finalists within the competitors, have gone robust thus far however enter the sport towards Barcelona with an acute harm disaster.
Whereas the Catalans themselves have been victims of a extreme harm disaster because the starting of the season, the opposition’s state of affairs will come as an enormous enhance for the membership that they may look to pounce on.
For the sport in Germany, Nuri Sahin has only one centre-back possibility out there as a starter in Nico Schlotterbeck. Niklas Sule and Waldemar Anton are each out injured, leaving the staff’s defence shaky and making it an actual goal for Barcelona to take advantage of.
Because it stands, all indicators level to the supervisor deploying Emre Can because the centre-back alongside Schlotterbeck tomorrow however it’s clear that there can be a weak-link for the Blaugrana to pressurise.
Other than the harm disaster on the again, Maximilian Beier, Julian Brandt and Karim Adeyemi have all had shaky harm data this season. Whereas the previous won’t be out there tomorrow, the latter duo are match however will possible be fielded with warning.
If Barcelona are to take three factors tomorrow, it’s thus very important that they strategically look to capitalise on the small voids within the German setup and it is going to be as much as Hansi Flick to derive such a plan.
Want for freshness
It’s astonishing {that a} staff that was scoring objectives for enjoyable not too way back has now dropped ten of the final fifteen factors in La Liga however the reason being fairly clear and the supervisor has seen the identical.
The foundation trigger for the staff’s stoop in type, as recognized by Flick, is the shortage of bodily freshness and the supervisor sees it to be important that each one gamers are at their 100% and rejuvenated to maximise productiveness.
It’s no secret that Barcelona’s present system is very demanding of gamers each on and off the ball. The high-press, excessive defensive position and pace-driven system requires gamers in high situation.
Nevertheless, the schedule has slowly worn the celebrities out and the stoop in type is thus on account of a collective deficiency somewhat than particular person errors.
To unravel this downside, Flick saved gamers off the coaching area yesterday to provide them the remainder they require and solely centered on bodily coaching within the health club. With extra emphasis on the bodily depth and time to get better, it stays to be seen how the staff turns up.
