After just three games in the new season, a serious problem has been placed in front of Barcelona coach Frick. The team's defense is far less stable than last season. The root of the problem is directly at the transfer of Saudi veteran Inigo Martinez this summer. His departure made Barcelona's defense lose its backbone.
To find the best central defender combination, Frick is conducting a bold tactical experiment. This experiment also put the team's defense in an unprecedentedly fierce four-choice two-point game.
Failure of the ace combination
Flick's answer was very clear at the beginning of the season. He bets on Araujo and Kubasi, a pair of aces that combine strength and talent. However, the results of the first two games disappointed him.
This pair exposed the serious problem of insufficient tacit understanding on the defensive end, giving the opponent too many opportunities, causing the team's defense to be in a panic. Frick's patience reached its limit after the game against Levante.
Plan B
So in the last game against Vallecano, Frick made a radical change. He took Araujo and Kubasi both, and replaced the combination of Eric Garcia and Christensen.
Although the game was finally drawn 1-1, this new combination is significantly better than the previous two games in terms of defense stability and backward-forward ball output ability. This also posed a huge problem for Frick: Should we continue to trust Plan B in the next game?
Everyone's outbreak
What makes this difficult problem worse is the just-concluded international competition day. Barcelona's central defenders actually staged a collective explosion in their respective national teams!
Four central defenders, everyone is in a hot state and everyone has a reason to start. This is the happiest and most troublesome thing for any head coach.
This weekend, Barcelona will face Valencia at the "temporary home court" John Cruyff Stadium. Next week, we will challenge Newcastle to St James Park again. How Frick is deploying troops will become the biggest highlight of the next week.
